This week I tried to cal MEL centre with a flight plan ammendment as per company SOPs due Wx and was told to call back later as the ATCO was flat out with IFR aircraft wanting diversions due to multiple CB's etc etc. After landing we couldnt cancel our SARTIME as reception was crappy, on top of that mobile coverage was non existant and the only public phone at the airport had long since been vandalised and was not going to be fixed.....Telstra cost cutting??
By the time I hitched a lift to the nearest servo, and begged to use their phone, our SARTIME had expired by 45 mins and a SAR uncertainty phase had been intitiated. Because we couldnt give the flight plan ammendment they wouldnt have known where to go looking for us.
I wonder how many hrs in the SAR Do328 $500,000 will buy.
So now we have lots of non english native speaking students on area frequency trying to give flight plan ammendments, clogging up the frequency.
I guess now we shouldnt bother with flight plans at all.
Hmmmm, just how much per hour is the SAR Do328?
Pratts!!!