Dick, the thing I don't get is why you don't work
with Airservices to try to influence the solution in the direction you think will benefit the country's aviation industry, but instead resort to complaining about what seems like an honest attempt to bring aviation into the 21st century!?
With your money and influence I am sure you're well placed to nudge people and opinions in the best direction, and as a very successful businessman you will know that antagonism rarely advances any issue..
As per the initiative itself, I can't see why there's such a big fuss. In my view (and maybe I'm being naive here, but I am sure someone can enlighten me in that case), the positives of this drive are overwhelming.
First and foremost from Joe C172 owner's point of view, we get our avionics upgraded
FOR FREE!
Every IFR and later VFR aircraft gets the gift of a
HUGE improvement in situational awareness. Just peek into any given machine at a GA airport near you, and you'll see ancient, unreliable, twitching ADFs, VORs, and even older COMs. Now imagine how much safer and how much more attractive GA will be if every machine out there has a nice new colour moving map GPS like the Garmin 430 or something similar that displays traffic and possibly weather, combined with a crisp COM system..
And when it comes to the consulting process, compared to other countries around the world where I have seen similar things happen, I think AirServices are doing a pretty good job. Having read the submission document and the recently presented summary of responses (which was overwhelmingly positive, not surprisingly..), the biggest criticism I have of the process is that all the petty interest groups in this country are dragging out the day that I can present the $15,000 voucher to my avionics guru and tell him to upgrade my GPS and transponder.
Just briefly one quick response to all the "What If GPS Fails/The US Switch It Off" doomsdayers out there: Don't you think that by the time the world of aviation comes to rely exclusively on GPS, the techheads of this world wouldn't have figured out how to keep the system going by reference to the ground based WAAS stations alone in an emergency, for example?
Ducking for cover now
