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Old 19th Aug 2014, 12:18
  #177 (permalink)  
Traffic_Is_Er_Was
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: QLD - where drivers are yet to realise that the left lane goes to their destination too.
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Once upon a time, boys and girls, there existed a really, really strange system where pilots requiring Air Traffic Control talked to Air Traffic Controllers, and everyone else didn't. They used a mystical thing called the Area Frequency, and everybody was happy. Imagine that! Just a choice of 2 frequencies.
Then a simple car radio installer came up with a scheme that he said would be the salvation of the Australian aviation industry. He chopped the airspace up into an alphabet, and made ATC responsible for everything, and made lots of new frequencies available, depending on where you were or what you were doing. To make it easier for the poor overloaded ATC, pilots were told not to say anything, to only speak when spoken to, and to just look out the windows and enjoy the view, which after all, is what flying is for. Also, they didn't have to worry about track keeping or traffic now as well, as those clever ATC's with their big radars would be keeping a watch over all of Australia, just like Santa. If something bad was going to happen, the ATC would forget all about those pesky jets full of hundreds of people and give all the help he could, because, maybe he might end up in court if he didn't. After all, he had nothing better to do than watch a couple of C172's cross tracks.
So now things are even simpler than they were before, if you can believe it!
There is absolutely no confusion about any of the rules, pilots don't have to worry about which frequency to be on as they are not supposed to talk on it anyway, and the Australian Aviation Industry has gorged on the savings and grown and prospered until it has become the example the world turns to.
And then they all lived happily ever after.....

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