YCKT you are absolutely correct in your analogy of the container terminal...however in the harbour you would not be allowed to waterski within the container terminal waterways...this is what dick- head wants.
Unfortunately a small group of AOPA members and recreational flyers feel that it is their right to waterski in the terminal area.
All the professionals have ever said was;
1/. NAS has been ill conceived and badly implemented.
2/. Aspects of NAS2b impact safety adversely for no corresponding financial gain.
3/. It is, to put it mildly, a bit silly to have a class of airspace that is uncontrolled for one group while controlled for another...airspace MUST be either one or the other....IMHO.
4/. It is unreasonable to have the national airspace system, a system that evolved for the safe regulation of commerce, to be slanted in this way towards the recreational flyers, who contribute nothing towards its maintenance.
While I don't want to draw a line between 'professionals' and 'amatuers' for simplicities sake I will. I fully accept that many recreational flyers have standards equal to those of us who spend our working hours off the ground or in a control tower/ATC center. When professionals come on pprune and post their opinions, based usually on an adult life spent working within the various systems we have had over the last 20+ yrs, we talk of our concerns for aviation safety and our responsibility to;
1/. The travelling public
2/. Our families, careers and ourselves
3/. Recreational flying...many of us, including myself, still do fly for fun/own aircraft.
Among others.
When our resident millionaire comes on here he talks about ME, Mine, I want...and then slams anyone who dissents.
I, as perhaps are you, am old enough to have experience going back to the 'pre DS era'. Back when aircraft owners paid air nav charges once a year and everyone was required to participate within the system. When participation within that system cost nothing over and above the air nav charges and fuel taxes.
When those charges, according to DS in his Halls of Doom (or was it the AOPA Mag...when I was a member) writings 20 odd years ago, were contributing in the region of double what it cost to run the entire system!!!
Yes WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD USER PAYS!!!!! The surplus just dissappeared into consolidated revenue.
Then we got the last 20+ years of Beancounter gaol post shifting and DS tampering.
These days aircraft owners don't pay air nav charges and, despite what many think, there is virtually no tax, except GST, on Avgas. Aircraft owners and VFR recreational/commercial flyers contribute very little to the airspace system costs....we do get hammered by the privatisation of airports with the attendant raising of landing/parking fees that the new owners impose in an attempt to drive aviation away so they can redevelope the land...and the Govts of whatever persuasion could care less.
Before DS we had Controlled Airspace and Uncontrolled Airspace....effectively C and G. ALL pilots were REQUIRED to put in a flightplan if going more than 50nm...hence clearances were never a problem. If we went to a primarly airport we paid a landing fee commensurate with the aircraft type...how much wear and tear does a Bonanza cause at Sydney? When we refuelled we paid some tax. Once a year we paid a 'rego fee' i.e. ANCs...and that was IT!!!
A lovely simple system that everyone understood that worked well for our levels of traffic....who the **** cares what happens in the US/EU? Class C (CTA) already closely complies with what the rest of the world do so foriegn crews already can happily operate here.
And guess what? Our levels of 'traffic' are now a fraction of what they were in the 70s and early 80s...that system would and could still work as well today as it did then.
Better in fact given modern technology...it would be the simplest and most cost effective system for Australia.
It would of course mean that DS has wasted a large chunk of his energy over the last 20+ years...but that is a given anyway.
Technology has overtaken the old fashioned FS Officer (they were GREAT) in the same way it overtook Flight Engineers and Navigators...everything, save sage advice, is now available via the internet. You can even get the sage advice via one phone call to our excellent ATCOs pre departure...can save a little embarassment if not significant money by needless flying around.
AOPA and SAA need to get with the system...and ditch DS. The members of those organisations need to ensure their elected representatives are representing the majority views of the membership and NOT their personal adjendas.
The system can work for all. When I fly my own aeroplane for fun or travel I fly within the system. When I fly a 767 I don't want to have to be worried about the possibility of a mid air caused by unknown aircraft, on an unknown frequency, wandering in front of me....I almost certainly will not see you in time!!! To say that jets in G therefore is unsafe is an oversimplyfication...they are on the same area frequency that was read from the chart...or bloody well should be!!!
Chuck.
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 25th Sep 2004 at 09:00.