Originally Posted by
thinkofdolphins
You clearly missed the point. They use procedural over the ocean because they DON'T have radar coverage. Why would you use this process when you have a perfectly good radar?
Because you don't need to use radar, or more specifically you don't need to use highly skilled and qualified radar controllers whose licences/validations cover very precisely delineated and defined volumes of airspace. Oceanic covers thousands of miles, an extension of a few 100 miles is not much if the separation standards employed are the same as now. Radar sectors are great when its busy, reduced separation means you can move more metal, when its quiet procedural over larger 'sectors' would reduce the need for so many radar controllers.
And the point about being 1000' apart is that if you cant SEE them then pilot error, wrong pressure setting blah blah blah can cause incidents.
This is no different to today.
Take a look at the incident reports in oceanic airspace and maybe you would see the point a bit better ie pilots appearing at the wrong entry point only picked up when seen on RADAR
I do see the point, do you see mine? Are you seriously suggesting that procedural control is unsafe and increase in its use is likely to significantly increase the number of SSE's?
BD