Van,
they claim that WLM is essentially a military aerodrome.By this premise the claim is made that the military have no obligation whatsoever to facilitate anything to civil users.
WLM is a military aerodrome. There's obviously an agreement for scheduled flights to use it and PILS etc are accommodated (reading the ersa entry) but all these are secondary to it's military purpose.
However, the fact that the military do facilitate civil operations and that they do make provision for VFR traffic to transit the WMX areas via certain lanes, does not mean that no-one can question their methods of doing this.
No-one is suggesting that you can't question the military. The military operate under the same legislated rules as ASA so are you questioning the right people. Some have said that the airspace needs to be changed and that the military can do this, but that is not correct. Any change to the classification of the airspace would effect all civilian and military users. DS is nowhere near convincing all the airspace users of the need for change. His safety arguments are not comprehensive and as others have suggested, would probably result in the coastal lane being closed if he ran TV adds. The public has little sympathy for private pilots. If you can afford to own a plane.... (that is not my view fyi.)
By his own account, the military have indeed admitted as much and have promised to do something about it……apparently over a long period of time
They did do something. DS has stated that the military was a big supporter of NAS. If NAS had come in, the military would have had new rules and they may have changed the way they process the VFR transits. It didn't, (not the military's fault) so they couldn't change their procedures.
The man is simply asking that the military review the way they facilitate VFR operations and has suggested a safer way that they might consider doing things. Why is this such a seemingly onerous task for the military to accomplish, particularly when they have already said they will do it?
The
military are not the people that change these rules and procedures. The military do not make rules about civil aircraft separation standards.
DS has quoted US class C procedures which allow target resolution and 500ft standards between all aircraft. This would be a solution for DS and the military would have to introduce it if it was legislated, but they can't implement it without legislation, so what is he asking them to do?
GA pilots need to lobby the correct organisations if they want the rules to change. NAS was recently defeated, so there is a lot of opposition to the changes that DS wants to make. DS's frustration should be directed at the right people. He has admitted that the military supports change.
Maybe there is a way for ATC to process VFR aircraft through WLM airspace more efficiently within the current rules. I've seen no good suggestions on this thread though.