Ferris, this is so unbelievable I don’t know where to start my answer. It is obvious that your mind is totally closed or it is set in concrete.
I made no mention of aircraft (to quote you) “descending below the sector lowest safe”. I’m talking about the lowest safe altitude further than 25 miles from Benalla.
I don’t actually envisage any complex system around airports. I would simply copy proven systems from the United States, Canada or Europe.
You appear to be so isolated you think that if we are going to introduce this system we will have to design it ourselves – a bit like a Nomad – instead of just buying or copying a proven system.
You state things like:
Even if you spent the many millions of dollars required to enable accurate terrain maps to be sampled by software …
This shows your complete lack of knowledge. Any school child can click onto Google and read the altitude mapping taken by the space shuttle of the whole world. You can buy a complete TAWS database from Garmin for $500, giving the terrain contours for the world.
Giving Flight Service radar feeds and ratings would have been the height of stupidity when we already had trained air traffic controllers who could take responsibility for the lower airspace. No other country in the world has trained Flight Service operators to use radar. They use trained air traffic controllers because controllers can actually control aircraft – i.e. turn left, turn right, climb or descend. That is what they are trained to do.
My suggestion is that you lift up the phone and talk to one enroute low level US or Canadian controller who provides instrument approaches in radar covered airspace. They will tell you how simple it is, and how many times they have potentially saved lives.
Max1, it is a futile waste of time answering your posts. Your mind is obviously closed. Surely the number of air traffic controllers depends on the number of planes that are being controlled or given traffic information. Australia actually has more air traffic controllers employed per IFR aircraft than the USA.
This is not a fair comparison, however are you really telling me that we cannot provide an MSAW service for at least one airport – say Proserpine? I bet we will after 150 people die there.