A PS to my last post:
Senator Bill Heffernan, from NSW, was very direct in asking CASA OAR just what present airspace policy was in place.
By my count, Heffernan asked three times, to make certain he understood the answer.
I am certain that it came as a surprise to many in this afternoon's Senate RRA&T hearings, to listen to Peter Cromarty, Head of the CASA Office of Airspace Regulation, come out so firmly in support of the current Government airspace policy, as contained in the Airspace Act and Regulations, in particular the current Airspace Policy Statement.
As some of you will know, the Airspace Policy Statement is under review, and believe me, the current draft needs serious work.
Bill Heffernan even asked him if ,"as a pom", words to the effect how he really supported a US based system for the Australian NAS, and not a "pommie" system.
In answer to (at least) the three questions on the subject, Cromarty came down very firmly on the side of the present policy,adopted years ago, which is, in reality, an ICAO compliant NAS very closely patterned on the US NAS ----- and we all know what the trogs think of that!!
It was good to hear that he is such a firm supporter of risk management based and cost benefit justified allocation of airspace management resources (which will never be unlimited ,you should have heard AA explain the controller shortages a little before CASA "took the stand") to produce optimum air safety outcomes **, ------ and very clearly not keen on some "do it yourself policy" that is just a bunch of motherhood statements, with no serious policy content or performance requirements.
Any suggestion that the current ICAO airspace classification, A to G, was going to change any time before 2025 plus, here or in the US, ( or anywhere, really) was also very thoroughly scotched. This will come as a disappointment to those who think alphabet soup airspace is headed for the scrapheap, in favor of some "controlled/uncontrolled" brave new world of ATC "knowing all traffic" ---- despite some suggestions, a few years ago, from a low level ICAO CNS/ATM "Wet Dream Team".
I guess this will all be available, in print in Hansard, it takes about a week to come out.
Tootle pip!!
** One thing we could copy from Eurocontrol is the publication of target standards of CNS/ATM risk levels, and actual achieved risk levels.