Richard
I’ve been involved now for over 18 years in attempting to get some basic changes to the way the military operates their airspace.
You have hit the nail on the head old mate. The military
owns the Williamtown airspace. Anything you see on VTC or TAC charts etc is
owned by the military. They operate how
they see fit, within CASA regulations. Your "plan" (well tought out as it might be) to clear lighties overhead at 3500 is sketchy at best. Even you couldn't count the number of times I have descended from the western airspace to overhead the airfield (which just happens to be around the 3000-5000 mark). Hawks practsing PFL's, PC9s practising PFLs. There is more going on than operational training at Willy.
As far as lobbying the RAAF headshed, you are well and truly barking up the wrong tree. The military in general is struggling to hold onto airspace (see Pearce, Townsville etc), why would they wont to let CASA degrade their operational flexibility (read: their right to deny entry of civilian aircraft). The government controls who
owns the airspace and how it is used. Try focusing your frustrations in that direction and see how you go.
Note. Dick i dont necessarily disagree with what your saying, but 1) think about the audience your trying to reach and 2) the message your preaching. 1) The people who are passionate are the RAAFies. hanging sh*te on them wont achieve anything
. 2) is your problem just with Williamtown, or the greater ATC/CASA community. If so perhaps having only 1 example of a defunct ATC system isnt going to prove your point.
Comparing the US system to the Oz system is a bit misleading. Australia has a tiny fraction of the movements that the US system does, both civilian, RPT and militray. Thus suggesting that the comparitively light traffic experienced in Australia needs the same system as the US is absurd. Apart from your seriuos holding incident (which seems to be on the cautios side of safety) how else is Australias system prejudicing safety??? I am genuinely interested how safety is in jeopardy.
GD1