MJBOW, Dick, LS - yes jets descend in G airspace where they run the gauntlet of 'GA' aircraft making full use of their 'Free in G' 'rights' as confered by Dick during his 'rein' at CAA.
There was a time when anyone above 5000' or travelling more than 50nm was required to file a flight plan and be full reporting/constant 2 way coms with ATC/FS. An RPT crew would be given all this detail and be able to nut something out - "ok its a Baron and he was over XYX at 24 @ 8000' and his estimate for Blah VOR is 51. Hmmm 3 miles a minute so he's clear/Hmmm 3 miles a minute, hey its close we'll maintain 9000' until well clear/we'll call him up (we knew what frequency they were on remember?) and talk to him.
I would argue that the vast majority of pilots in those days who,
while below 5000'/within 50nm/nosar no details etc, STILL had the discipline/knowledge/training to be on the right frequency and listening out and be responsive to the pilots around them.
I remember that system - it worked well.
Then Dick et al destroyed that system - and the RPT pilots went "ummm...ahhh...well gee, I mean, fck"
When you destroyed that system you also destroyed the sense of inclusiveness and discipline that the system engendered among the vast majority of the users both professional and recreational. We have since had a couple of decades of propaganda aimed at finishing the job YOU started - who could forget that DILL glowering from the front of the CASA rag like a psycho headmaster at errant students - how dare you little people use your radios!!!
Now we have yet more of the same HORSE**** from Dick but this time its E over D. Its like the death of a thousand cuts!
From an international harmonisation point of view NOTHING beyond minor tweaking needed doing to the system as used by international long haul crews. Radio phraseology, stop heights on SID charts etc. And NO international jets in uncontrolled airspace. I don't care what they do in the US that is there business. I fly in Asia, Australia, NZ, ME, Europe and UK and we are NEVER outside A, B or C airspace.
Domestically RPT flight in G must ONLY be tolerated to the absolute minimum extent that Australia's unique technology and demographic circumstances demand.
The aviation system and infrastructure exists FOR ONE REASON ONLY - commerce - its a nationally and internationally vital system of commerce . Without it western society implodes. 'C' airspace is
Commercial Airspace.
I have said it before and I will say it again - if tomorrow at midnight EVERY aircraft below 5700kg ceased to exist the system would not change in ANY way shape or form. The same could NOT be said if all the jets went away.
For that reason alone E over D
or any other whacko airspace ideas you might come up with Dick are utterly without logical foundation. YOU might think E over D is the next logical step in your crusade to democratise airspace but who asked you?
Having (Hicap/RPT) jets outside controlled airspace on climb/descent, the highest workload phases, just defies any logic. There is not a SINGLE good reason that justifies the additional risk no matter how small YOU deem it to be. Its stupid, its irrational - its moronic!
I am an aircraft owner as well as a long haul pilot - I fly a large range of aircraft from open cockpit vintage biplanes to B767s and LOTS of my workmates do too - NONE of us expect 'the system' to be shaped or biassed in favour of our light GA/recreational aviation hobby - interestingly among my PPL friends NONE of them expect it either.
So just who is your 'constituency'?
Given the total of 2 members of your cheer squad on here (its never been any more than maybe 3 over the years we have been debating this on Pprune) I actually don't think you have one - this whole 20+ years in the Aviation Hall of Doom you have been instrumental in creating is merely about your bloody ego.
All it takes is ONE. One mid air collision between a Boeing/Airbus and a lighty - just ONE caused by your Dickspace and hundreds die. The chances are NOT vanishingly small - it has happened more than once in the US. We came
uncomfortably close (that is, by definition, what a TCAS RA IS!!) MORE than once in Australia.
Professional pilots and ATC feel that
viscerally. You clearly don't.
You suggest the big payoff is that ATC will be relieved of some workload by E airspace and be 'better' able to monitor the D airspace. That is not a payoff that is BS justification of the most base kind.
The only airspace that makes a mid air collision 'vanishingly small' is controlled airspace, be it procedural or radar/adsb monitored. 100+++ passengers in a 737/767/777 or one of those silly French aeroplanes
deserve NOTHING less.
Recreational aviation should be welcome in the system but on the system's terms not recreational aviation's terms in the same way that recreational boaties uses the seaway.
IF I want to fly my Bonanza in the same airspace as my colleagues in a jet I put in a flight plan and fit in around them - when I am descending at 400kts/3000' per minute in a 767 I damn well expect that everything airborne that can possibly hit me is known about and talking to somebody
who is also talking to me.