How to get more controled airspace
Last week when flying into a regonal airport in very good VMC I was vectored all over the place to avoid a light aircraft , this added about 4 min to the flight. Now that might not seem very much to most of you but the cost to my bosses of an extra 4 min of flying in a 78,000Kg jet won't be lost.
The guy was perfectly within his rights to be flying in the class G airspace without talking to anyone but as he had a transponder with 7000/C showing he would I think have a VHF com and a quick word with the ATC unit could has avoided a lot of extra flying for me and the Easyjet A319 that was following without undue disruption of his flight.
No doubt if the press got hold of this the headlines would read "Holiday jet diverted in near miss terror" and the bean counters would be pushing for yet more controlled airspace and using safety as there excuse to save a bit more money. As it happend at no time did the safety of any aircraft become an issue in this case. But if these inccidents continue the pressure for more airspace to be taken from GA pilots will gain credibility and class G airspace will be lost.
Please remember that places like Coventry, Bristol And Doncaster are no longer sleepy hollow but have a lot of low cost traffic so please talk to the ATC units and help to keep YOUR airspace class G.