Now from the blue corner...
Alright, enough beating up on Dick! At least he's got balls enough to come on line in his own name and defend his ideas. Don't back him into a corner, let's help him find a solution.
Mr Smith, no matter how you you cut it, the present system just won't fly: get over it!
I am a domestic and international charter jet captain who flies 700 hours a year on average. I am based in Pittsburgh, but learned to fly in Port Macquarie, under Bob Needham, who has since retired. I used to live in Alice Springs, then Mt Isa, Townsville and Sydney. I did a short stint in New Zealand before meeting my American bride and have been living Stateside for fourteen years.
Mr Smith, you are forgetting one thing when you fly around Australia in your Citation...how few tax payers there really are!
It is true that less than nine million people in Australia pay their full burden of income tax. With that, we build roads, educate children, run a skeleton military and among other things, support a NAS. In the US there are more than 200 million workers with tax withdrawals coming from their pay cheques every other Friday. This means they can build roads, educate children, bomb the sh!t out of people and HAVE NATIONWIDE RADAR COVERAGE.
In 1990, when I first married, I read a commercial brochure for the Pittsburgh International Airport. It states, "Pittsburgh is within 90 minutes flying time by commercial jet of 50% of the US population and 50% of the Canadian population". It would certainly make sense than, that the busiest "center"(centre) in the world is now Cleveland. It would also make sense that the load is so high that you must program at least a dozen communication frequencies to complete a one hour flight anywhere.
How does this relate to Australia? IT DOESN'T!
Australia has neither the resources, trained staff, nor the willingness of the industry to participate in such a needless process. It doesn't have the weather to require it either. I have frequently departed in less than 600 feet of forward visibility this last winter, I doubt we do that too much in Port Macquarie or even Melbourne.
VFR flying cannot be considered an excuse to not participate in a reportable, accountable and completely identifiable flying transaction. It used to be...it was called FULL-SAR, FULL Details.
Remember that Dick? It was one of the first things you stopped when you came up with that new idea of changing the safest airspace system in the world. Now VFR guys leave a note with mum.
Admit you screwed up and bring it back!
Next, fix the bloody exams. They are completely corrupted now. Any parrot could recite the answers and now you have pilots with alarmingly low intelligence operating in the airspace system.
Charles Dickens had many themes in his writings. One is that you become what you hate. It seems that at times you have shown disdain for things from foreign countries, yet it is America that you seem to be trying to turn Australia into. Australia will always be Australia, and I will always be Australian. How 'bout you Dick? Are you content with "affordable safety"? Do you want someone with very little experience and/or low academic achievement becoming an "airline captain". Do you really want to live through the dark days of USAir, where they had five fatal crashes in five years before anybody raised their hands to ask a friggin' question? What is your end game? What do you want exactly?
Last edited by Chris Higgins; 22nd Feb 2004 at 00:24.