In an interesting article by Paul Kelly headed, “
Dick Smith is Wrong on Air Safety: Houston” in
The Australian newspaper this morning, there is a fascinating statement by Angus Houston as follows:
When I was chief of the air force I supported the implementation of the NAS a full 100 per cent. That’s because it was government policy and it was my job to implement government policy.
I find this an extraordinary statement. I was completely fooled! I thought Sir Angus was, at the time, a strong supporter of moving to the US system. He mentioned a number of times how he had flown regularly in the system and I thought he really supported it. It appears that now he was only supporting it because it was Government policy.
I must also be mistaken – I thought it was the Aviation Reform Group who actually recommended the policy to the Minister, John Anderson and, of course, Angus Houston was a member of this Group. Once again, I thought Angus was a strong supporter.
I must admit that I believe that for general aviation and for airline traffic the North American airspace system as used in the USA and Canada is simply the best in the world. And why wouldn’t it be? These are wealthy societies which are also very litigious and which also have high mountain ranges and experience abysmal weather conditions. In this situation you end up evolving to a very safe and efficient system.
It’s interesting – a number of pilots disagreed with Sir Angus’ views in relation to ADS-B. Below is the complete article by Ean Higgins which appeared today next to the Paul Kelly article in
The Australian referred to above.
Remember, the CASA Regulation Impact Statement talked about general aviation saving up to $20 million per year on fuel costs because it could do more direct tracking. Of course, what was forgotten was that 90% of GA flies in uncontrolled airspace and can go direct tracking anyway. In fact, the Regulation Impact Statement was a giant, fraudulent con in my view.
NEW NAVIGATION SYSTEM OF LIMITED SAFETY USE, SAY CRITICS
by Ean Higgins
The Australian Newspaper, Friday 26 June 2015
A new air navigation system promoted by Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston is imposing crippling expenses on aviation but fails to address key airspace safety issues, according to industry figures.
Sir Angus yesterday issued a statement hailing the GPS navigation system known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast as providing “enormous safety and service benefit”.
But aviators told The Australian — and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority confirmed — that ADS-B would not of its own lead to an extension of airspace under air traffic control, and would not provide any weather data, nor local air traffic information about the movements of smaller private aircraft that do not have to install it. Sir Angus’s statement was designed to counter attacks from businessman and aviator Dick Smith, who has renewed a campaign for reform of the nation’s airspace regulation along US lines.
Government-owned Airservices runs the nation’s air traffic control system as well as fire and rescue operations at bigger airports.
Mr Smith has called for an extension of controlled airspace along US lines, where all commercial aircraft are guided by air traffic controllers, compared Australia’s piecemeal system, where generally below 8500 feet, pilots are left to their own devices.
Mr Smith wants the Airservices firefighters to be trained to man the Unicom radio service to provide basic local air traffic and weather information to pilots at regional airports which do not have air traffic control towers such as Ballina in NSW, Newman in Western Australian, and Gladstone in Queensland.
In his statement, Sir Angus said “the technology and global thinking in relation to air traffic management has shifted dramatically in the past two decades.
“Where once our systems relied on radar and pilots reporting their positions to ground operators, there is now a global shift to implementing satellite-based systems, such as ADS-B.”
In ADS-B, aircraft are equipped with sophisticated satellite GPS systems which determine their position, direction, speed and altitude with great precision. That information is relayed in real time to air traffic controllers via ground stations. Commercial aircraft are progressively being compulsorily fitted with ADS-B. The program is to be completed by 2017. But it will not address either of the issues raised by Mr Smith, who described the system as “a complete waste of money”.
A CASA spokesman said the introduction of ADS-B would not of its own lead to an extension of controlled airspace, saying that for airports in uncontrolled airspace like Ballina, “it would not be the single deciding factor although it would be a consideration”.
The spokesman confirmed that since smaller, private recreational aircraft which follow visual flight rules are exempted from having to install ADS-B, there would be no change to the system in which at airports like Ballina, pilots have to talk to each other over the radio to relay their positions in a bid to avoid crashing into each other.
The fact such aircraft not equipped with ADS-B would not be picked up by that system, and it is not a weather tool, mean what many pilots say is a need for radio operators at airports like Ballina, Gladstone and Newman to provide local weather and traffic information, is not obviated by ADS-B. The technical director of the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, airline captain Peter Gardiner, said that while the GPS component of ADS-B operates everywhere via satellite, it is of no value without ground stations to relay the information to controllers.
The number of ground stations remained relatively few, Captain Gardiner said, and over the vast majority of Australia there is no relay of ADS-B data at all but the highest altitudes.
Brad Edwards, the principal and chief pilot of Edwards Aviation which operates seven charter aircraft out of Armidale in NSW, said none of the promised operational benefits Airservices had promoted of ADS-B had eventuated, and the additional safety element was “zero”.
“There has been no perceived benefit in that regard for us,” Mr Edwards said.
He said Airservices’ eagerness to bring in ADS-B ahead of other countries meant for his bigger jets he could not buy off the shelf products and had to have equipment specially designed, which cost $120,000 per plane.
“For me as an operator, this has cost me a lot of money, all because of the egos at Airservices wanting to have this implemented five years ahead of the rest of the world,” he said.