Originally Posted by BEagle
Thank you for your valuable and reasoned contribution to the debate.....
Always a pleasure
So you really were being serious then ?
I didn't think I would need to explain why that proposal (Mode C Verification Number Allocation) is ludicrous, because I thought you were joking, and that it was self-evident. Don't be so offended if I choose to disagree with you, and if my tone may seem slightly aggressive
. I AM angry at the Mode S proposals and I will make my views known, hopefully strongly and frankly.
(First some ground rules)
I am very much on the side of GA. I fly whenever I can. I regard myself as an aviation professional who is lucky enough to indulge a passion for flying. I believe these rights have been whittled away under constant and sustained attack from faceless bureaucrats and accountants for the last 10 years.
I am against over regulation (particularly for regulations sake or because it 'fits' somebodies big plan from on high)
I am a current ATCO and do my best to bend over backwards (not forwards tho) to help out all pilots.
I work Area sectors, 200x200 miles on a 15inch monitor - this encompasses huge areas in Scotland where there is no LARS service provider anyway - .
My prime task (as I am told by my employer) is toward Civil Air Transport. I personally didn't agree with privatising ATC because my feeling was then that everyone was equal but that would change ..... - well it's here now, so we have to live with it. The truth is if EVERYBODY called up for (or demanded?) a service the system would not cope because there really are not enough controllers to cope with that demand, even at Scottish ACC.
Now with respect to GA - maybe the situation is different in Merry Old England? Maybe you have plenty of free LARS units to call upon? I think we have two (Leuchars and Lossie) in the whole of Scotland, and even then only Mon-Fri and not in the busiest areas. ScACC provides it when we can - ie. if the controller can do it AND vector stuff in the airways, ADRs and UARs, but radar (and frequency) cover is not tremendous at low level, especially over the mountains. Below 6-7000 feet you will struggle to get a radar return, and below 4000 R/T will be suspect.
GA generally gets on with it without bothering or demanding much of the current system - and it works quite happily.
From an ATC point of view I (and most of the ATCOs I know who fly - which sadly is an ever-diminishing number) think it is much better if VFR ops are allowed or left to get on with it - sure, call up when you really need something, but if the CAA start to mandate the likes of Mode S, and then some authority insisted on allocating an idea like BEagle's "Mode C Verification Code" , very quickly you WILL swamp the system. The system (being naturally sympathetic to GA
) will then probably justify itself and start trying to look harder at ways of restricting you to prevent the swamping.
Maybe there are different issues in the important old southeast round the London TMA, well I still don't think it's a valid reason for the Deskbound Ones to impose unnecessary and expensive solutions on the rest of the country.