Hi Walley
Calling outside the nominated boundary is something many operators/pilots have done for some time. You may remember that when there were AFIZs the size was 15nm but the recommended call was at 30nm.
Making an early call is just good airmanship and like many other things in that category it should not have to be written down. Please don't give CASA an excuse for more rules, we have enough and I think we have a real problem when people ask for every item to be written down. It doesn't have to be and whats more it shouldn't.
Part of the problem is that the legal people in CASA (the ones that really run the outfit) have no idea what airmanship is let alone the ability to define it within the regs. So as a result they have to write pages and pages of rules which few people read, have no relation to common sense (can't define that either) and we wonder why we have the problems we do!
Sadly, many good airmanship practices these days are not passed on (they are not taught) and there are many pilots about, especially those trained in the past 10 years that really don't seem to know what it means and don't have the CDF to apply it!
As for the current US rules, I don't have a copy and based my comment on past experience over there.
It is good to hear that you believe that the CAGRO is working, but I think it will take time for the practice to evolve to many other locations, even tho' some are quite busy at times and there may be a need.
NAS will not work in this country unless there is a volume of education to the level we have never seen before. Feather#3 is correct in that many will NEVER be taught the changes. The other thing that has to occur before the change process is successful is to convince us all that it is needed. 'IF' they can do that, then maybe, just maybe we might see the wheels turn.
And as the holdiday season is now over, I think it is about time the NAS team and the Smith's came out of their bunker.
