I fly in Africa. I fly in Asia. I fly in India and the Middle East. I have flown in Alaska, and dealt with 'Heathrow Director' and 'SOCAL (Southern California) Approach'. I deal with the boys and girls on 'Hong Kong Radar' during typhoon season.
In none of these places have I ever been 'chipped' for 1 mile offsets twelve kilometres above the earth's surface, had argy-bargy over 'readback requirements' before entering an active runway (non-Aussie FO just saying what we say everywhere else), been required to give other inane readbacks (weather deviation), or seen two successive go-rounds due to spacing foul ups; except in: AUSTRALIA! And, of course, this thread is about one of our aircraft head-to-head with Virgin in Australian airspace.
Like the isolated Galapagos Islands, Australia has evolved its own species; in this case an ATC system which seems to have a firm grasp of the non-essentials. As an Aussie myself, sometimes it's embarrassing operating into the place with British, European or North American crew as cockpit mates; other times it's just plain excruciating.
Last edited by Captain Dart; 5th Jul 2011 at 04:33.
Reason: Spelling nazism.