Offsetting - time to make it official just about everywhere
I see that the in the remarks that follow the daily NAT tracks details now say:
"CREWS ARE REMINDED THAT WITHIN NAT REGION, THE STATEGIC LETERAL OFFSET PROCEDURE, SLOP, SHOULD BE USED AS A STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE AND NOT SOLELY FOR TURBULENCE/WEATHER AVOIDANCE". (My boldface.)
Anyone caring to do a search through my posts will see that I've been a lone voice in the wilderness for quite some years now pushing for offsetting for all enroute flying.
So given that the NAT authorities now seem to have seen the light and acknowledged that offsetting does increase safety and should be used at all times in NAT airspace, is it time for us to start calling for it to be used everywhere avove (say) 20,000' - ideally as a built-in feature of our FMCs?
It's not as though we have to wait for an accident that results in major loss of life to occur to prove how incredibly overdue this SIMPLE change in procedures is - it's happened already, and not just once. The recent tragedy in Brazil is just the latest example of a disaster that would have been nothing more than an airprox report - (and maybe, with ignorance being bliss, not even that!) - had both aircraft's FMCs had a built-in 1/2 mile offset whenever they were in LNAV and above 20,000'.