David
quote:-
"NOTAMS - Something amazing happened here!
Perhaps for the first time in history, a group of concerned citizens joined together outside of the central bureacracy to materially change the course of events in a (quasi) government department."
A little OTT perhaps.
The reality is that AIS, on their own initiative, invited Russell and I to visit them so that they could hear our views.
This developed into an ongoing dialogue in the course of which we used the forums to canvass the views of others and come up with some proposals.
The CAA were already aware of the deficiencies of the new system and it was they who called the meeting of 15 November last at which the proposals were considered and accepted (with the exception of the Q Line which is ongoing).
You paint a picture where we triumphed in the face of an implacable bureacracy. In reality we were invited in, listened to, and action was taken.
The strength of feeling that was expressed by your own efforts and those of others in writing letters, contacting their MP's, filing MOR's and posting well reasoned arguments on the forums undoubtedly strengthened our position and greatly helped us in winning the arguments and ensuring that the necesary funding was made available.
And yes I agree that Captain PPRuNe deserves the thanks of all of us for making it possible to debate these matters and for making that debate visible to others. CAA and NATS may not be allowed to participate in the debate but they do follow it.
AIS certainly got it wrong at first, but they recognised the problem and have worked hard to rectify it. We've had the easy job of pointing out the mistakes
. They've had the hard job of fixing them.
So all credit
to the chaps and chapesses involved for the hard work they have put in at a time when their revenues have been tumbling and they've been coping with a lot of changes.
We're still not quite there but things are infinitely better than they were and we now have a very direct and open channel of communication with both AIS/NATS and the CAA.
Finally:-
It has been suggested by Phil Bate, Manager UK AIS that it might be possible to arrange a visit to the AIS office at Heathrow so I'll start a new thread for feedback on that.
Mike