captainnobars,
We all understand that there is a massive attempt to mitigate/minimise exposure by the operation, but it still fails to accept that the location is a dangerous one. They have an obligation to broadcast on all frequencies: your assertion that they are doing a favour by covering more than two is indicative of your lack of knowledge on this issue. Allowing 30 seconds per broadcast and retune, that's ~3 minutes from the first broadcast until the end of the last. Another 2 minutes to dispatch, another minute or so before the chutes appear, and you have easily five minutes elapsed before a chute appears at 3000ft.
In that time a helicopter can start, lift and depart the Yarra Bank helipad and transit to Pt Ormond, totally unaware of chutes in the air. Or a training aircraft depart MB, change frequencies along the coast and bimble along northbound unaware of objects dropping from above. We all like to keep a decent lookout but how often does your scan take in a vertical aspect?
Local (MB) operators are now avoiding the coastal route and tracking inland to avoid the airspace: did someone say something about "sharing"? Suitable forced landing areas are few and far between inland as opposed to the beach/coastal route. Safety first?
Compromises are being made, but in a negative manner for the majority of airspace users in order to accommodate a minority. Safety is being compromised, and should not be.
That is the issue, and I don't believe that it can be resolved as long as we dance around believing that every operator has a God given right to access airspace regardless of the outcome it has on others.
Last edited by Squeaks; 18th Sep 2012 at 23:58.