Terry Wesley-Smith
Dick’s opening post seems to indicate that the RAAA have had a longstanding opposition to the fitment of TCAS to passenger aircraft with 10 seats or greater. You seem to indicate that the RAAA have always supported the fitment.
Quote: “Especially since the RAAA's position was and remains one of support for TCAS for all IFR passenger transport with 10 seats or more”.
You then go on to qualify your remarks by indicating that you only support TCAS fitment provided everyone else capable of doing so, fits transponders.
Quote “We support the use of TCAS, but buying TCAS without universal transponder carriage is a bit like being required to buy an expensive belt without a buckle”.
It would seem to me that you do not support Dick’s position at all, which is for the 10 to 30 seat passenger aircraft to fit TCAS now, regardless of what other aircraft owners do.
Are you saying that the increased safety benefits arising from the fitment of TCAS to 10 and greater seat passenger aircraft, especially in E airspace, but also to a lesser extent in other airspace, is not worth the cost, despite the rest of the western world having already mandated this (according to Dick)?
Surely it is up to the RAAA to set the example here for their own sake, not demand that every aircraft capable of fitting transponders do so concurrently as a condition of you giving your passengers this additional safety benefit.
I hope I never see the day when your present position results in an accident.