ACMS, I’ve had decades of seeing this resistance to change from people similar to yourself and the military people in Canberra only to see when changes are made how everyone then grasps the advantages.
For example, many years ago when flying from my home at Terrey Hills to the Dick Smith Electronics premises helipad at North Ryde (which was about 3 miles within the Sydney controlled airspace, but over 10 miles from the airport) I would be held at Hornsby. Sometimes I would be held orbiting for 5 minutes so I could be separated from the Channel 10 VFR helicopter, also approaching or departing North Ryde.
I worked for over 3 years in attempting to have the overseas procedures introduced in Australia. That is, in “controlled” airspace (that’s all we had in those days), VFR aircraft would not be separated from other VFR aircraft using a procedural or radar standard, but would simply be given traffic on each other.
After years of resistance from people such as yourself, it was decided that we should actually attempt this new procedure. When it was introduced, no longer did I (and others) have to hold over a built up area and schools at Hornsby, and the whole thing has worked well ever since.
It is the same with the Victor 1 lane. In the old days, if an aircraft wanted to do a flight along the coast it would require a flight plan and separation from other aircraft. I remember once being at Bondi Beach at 1,000 feet and I wanted to drop down to 500 feet where there was another helicopter. The air traffic controller – increasing his workload – directed me to fly to the Sydney Harbour Bridge so I was 3 miles from the other chopper, so it could climb and then I could return.
I proposed the Victor lane after seeing a similar lane at JFK airport in New York. It was resisted in every way, including a major campaign by ex-military man Alan Green at Qantas. He was convinced that if a Qantas aircraft taking off from 07 had an engine failure, it could drop into the Victor lane. Of course the odds of this happening without the light aircraft turning away and not running into the airliner are infinitesimal.
Eventually, after a year and a half of battling, the Victor lane was introduced, and it has been there ever since. It actually improves safety because approach air traffic controllers are not concentrating on VFR aircraft that are not collision hazards to airline aircraft.
I could give you many other examples of how concrete minded resistance to change – normally from military or ex-military people – has prevented important safety and efficiency improvements.
My post was praising the Williamtown controllers for sensibly allowing me to overfly the airfield rather than having me orbit and waste even more fuel over a rough ocean at a very low 500 foot level. There are times when it is difficult to minimise risk, but when it is easy (i.e. with modern internationally proven procedures that reduce the loading on air traffic controllers) why not use them?