GAAPs are there these days mostly for flight training. Sure, other GA has its place at some airports, but student pilots account for the majority of aircraft movements.
In the training world the inbound and outbound tracks make life easier for ATC and the pilots. Can you imagine the problems that will occur if a bearing and distance is required when making the inbound call (if reporting points are not used). Commerical pilots can handle it, but student pilots or the inexperienced? Three scenarios:
- modern aircraft with GPS information, possibly a glass cockpit. A lot of eyes-inside flying, making see-and-avoid less effective.
- older aircraft, no GPS or tracking data readily available. Unless stong SOPs or educational material are made available, pilots make incorrect assessments of position, leading to ATC confusion in an environment where radar cannot be used to 'officially' identify aircraft.
- people flock to positions they already know and use, therefore conflicts are not reduced.
Back to circuit traffic - of the three collisions recently only one was in the circuit during tower hours. The accidents that have occurred are tragic, but the unfortunate reality is accidents will occur again, no matter the rules. I'm sure I'm also not the only one to have been cut off by another aircraft, during tower hours, when there have been a lot less that six aircraft on frequency.
I don't have the answers but, in my eyes, CASA's knee-jerk reaction is not correct. I'm off to a meeting with CASA tomorrow, maybe I'll be convinced otherwise.
The new rules will further strangle operators when schedules are affected and flights cancelled because the pattern is full. It will be bad enough for the larger schools, what impact will it have on the smaller operators if even an average of one flight a day is cancelled?
CASA, the mailout last week was a joke, as is your involvement with the real stakeholders.
On a positive note this has been the fastest piece of legislation I've ever seen pumped out by CASA.
Rant over, looking forward to other's thoughts.