More twaddle.
I don't think I'm being pedantic- quite the opposite. I think I am questioning other pedants who are certain locking a/c on headings makes things safer. I am questioning that (something that doesn't go down very well in this industry). Stuff like
If I have two a/c in proximity to each other and they are on their own nav, they can turn unexpectedly and come into confliction
How? Mysterious intermediate waypoints? Wx avoidance? Or some other random departure from clearance?
Sure, I can think of lots of examples where using headings is useful (do it every day {btw "Working in the London TMA, we have to use headings to achieve what we need to do"- well guess what: In the eleven-and-a-half-thousand movements per-man per-year UAE, we use headings to achieve what we do, too.
}). But this thread was about the practice of using headings to somehow assure route-following (and therefore separation). Something I question. With good reason if you believe
what we are doing is locking a/c onto a resultant track