Labor’s Class C radar policy
One of the points included in Labor’s aviation policy before the last election was that they would remove John Anderson’s directive which required an approach radar control service for all Class C airspace which had been reclassified from Class E over D. This was as per NAS.
Martin Ferguson, who at the time was the Shadow Minister responsible for the aviation policy, told me that this policy was introduced because a number of controllers in the Class D towers did not believe that radar was necessary. They claimed that they could do the Class C airspace above the Class D without radar and without any extra cost.
Of course, people like Scurvy.D.Dog and other Class D tower controllers have made the same claim on this site. That is, that they can provide Class C above Class D, with all the extra services required of that classification (compared to Class E), without any additional costs. The claim has always been, “If we can provide a higher service (i.e. Class C) at the same cost as Class E, it is better for us to provide it!”
Could this be one of the reasons that there is such a staffing problem in these Class D towers? Imagine if you were a manager at Airservices, and your controllers in the towers claimed that they could not only control the Class D airspace, but they were also happy to change the Class E airspace above to Class C and control that as well at no extra cost. Considering that the Class C above Launceston is larger than the controlled airspace at JFK in New York, it must be quite a task.
One of the controllers in Lihue in the USA told me on my last visit that controllers would not be prepared to change the Class E above their tower to Class C, and also control it without radar and without additional staff, because the strain and workload would be too great. I wonder if this is one of the reasons that we have tower controllers in Australia with medical problems. Could it be that the strain and workload is too great – having this extra airspace responsibility when there is no radar provided and no extra staffing?
More importantly, once the bosses can see that there are workers who are anxious to take extra responsibility, provide additional service and accept additional liability without any potential for extra income, they can see that these workers can be exploited.
It is food for thought.