A name and shame campaign has been suggested, well what exactly does one think it will achieve?
I recall that for many years class D transits were difficult to obtain. In many cases that has changed since a "name and shame" scheme was introduced.
none of the London area airfields mentioned are in any way obliged to provide services outside CAS
Of course true, however many do. Moreover, there seems to be no correlation between those that do, and their workload. Perhaps some more subtle forces are at work.
You will hardly ever get a service from Solent outside CAS (shame on you with the amount of transit traffic through the solent) and the service on offer from both Stansted and Thames is shocking. In contrast Gatwick does an excellent job. I wonder why the variation? I wonder who is determining the policy?
After my experience there we all go for the grace of God.
Do not believe however good your scan, you will spot conflicting traffic. The evidence is not good that you will.
I find myself pondering whether the great unwashed realise we are flying without some form of radar service for most of the time. God forbid, but I also ponder the fallout from a mid air over one of the nice towns in London surbia. I hope GA will not get the blame if the press get to grips with the reluctance of NATS to provide a NATIONAL service and their insistance on charging for the data they collect, when it could be cheaply distributed to those that are willing and able to provide a service, but cannot afford to do so.
Me thinks I would not want to be the press officer for NATS.
Personally, I would also not wish to be the Stansted controller who refused me a service around their zone when I was in IMC had I been unfortunate enough to run into some one else doing the same thing - but that is just my opinion you understand.