Coral
Re your Post 35
I’ve been told many times that the airspace between Melbourne and Brisbane is as busy as any airspace in the USA. In that case, I can’t see why the sector sizes are dramatically different to the U.S. Of course, enroute controllers will have to be trained to do approach work. That’s a basic part of NAS.
Sometimes I fly for up to fifteen minutes in complete silence when IFR. Would you agree at those times that controllers may be able to have a little more workload?
To me, we have what is like a third-world system, ie. in the enroute environment below 8,500 feet even in radar covered airspace we give no air traffic control at all. In other modern aviation countries you get superb air traffic control which uses the radar right to the lower limit of its coverage.