"I wonder if you have worked closely with me - maybe not - so you could be relying on advice that is here say ."
Actually Dick, I did try and work closely with you, but with very little success - the reason I remember it so well was because of a conversation we had many years ago when you relayed a story to me about the day you were taxying at Taree or Port Macquarie ( I think ) in your citation, and Flight Service gave you about half a dozen lots of traffic.
You unashamedly told me that you couldnt even write them down quickly enough and because the skies were blue, you decided to completely ignore the traffic information and blast off regardless. At that point, you lost me. Hardly what you would expect from the Chairman of Casa. Your reasoning was your utmost belief in the see-and-avoid principle.
The folly of this principle was finally proven by the CSIRO who wrote an excellent article on the subject, debunking the whole concept. As a professional airline pilot, I can vouch for their opinion a thousand times over as I'm sure many others would as well. Even when we spot someone on TCAS, we often don't spot them visually til the very last second, at which point it would have been too late to take avoiding action if they HAD been in conflict.
So are the CSIRO and all the PROFESSIONAL aviators out there the people whose advice you chose to ignore ? It seems that way Dick, and that is a real shame. As I said previously, such a pity that such a fine Australian spoils himself when it comes to matters aviation ( with the greatest of respect ).