Dick,
you do not help your reputation or argument by insulting Terry Wesley-Smith or his approach to airspace reform. Certainly I found him to be a genleman and willing to spend time examining an issue and seeking advise from his members and experts.
The RAAA is now one of the influential voices with regards air space reform and this was achieved by Terry. At meetings trying to get some studied approach to the NAS and NASIG, I have seen him stand up to Ministers and CASA. He is no crawler nor does he Kow-tow to Senior Execs or Ministers.
Dick, you raise a number of legitimate concerns that need to be answered.
What was the industy consultancy?
Has TCAS become a safety mitigator?
Where is the DAS for Avalon?
Is the DAS too subjective?
ATC COSTS. Allowing for support staff to cover leave etc, plus the inevitable taxes and charges, accomodation subsidies,including amortisation of capital investment. The cost to supply a 10 hour 7 days per week CAGRS service is around $750,000 pa. Therefore I would expect a D class tower to be less than 1 million.
For one I would like to see these questions answered by a post that directs us to the information raised by these questions.
Dick, for once we are not in direct conflict and I hope this post finds you and yours well. (that is not crawling and no one should believe I would Kow-tow to you!)
Cheers Mike