Firstly I would consider the membership of GATCO, why they consider that there is a deteriorating relationship between controllers and GA pilots, and why it is bad enough to warrant such a meeting. I would suggest that most ATCO's working at GA airfields are not GATCO members and probably do not support the idea that things are getting worse.
Are there actually problems between ATC and GA pilots.......well I would table the point that I think the PPL training syllabus does not prepare GA pilots for interaction with ATC, it is taught 'on the wing' by instructors as an aside. Even those who fly mostly from grass fields in the middle of nowhere will eventually come across ATC.
Are things getting worse......no....but they are not getting any better, and I do not forsee that such a meeting will imporve things.
Much has been written in the past as to 'what pilots can do to help ATC' and 'what ATC can do to help pilots' but fundamentally the two groups will always sit on different sides of the fence. Trying to sit on the fencepost leads to
piles of problems.
