Leadie, I disagree entirely with the premise that the winding back of NAS was entirely industrial. I genuinely believe it was safety driven.
I, and clearly a large number of fellow pilots were really concerned that we were going to get ourselves into a position where our lives, and the lives of those that we were transporting, were going to be placed in danger.
The personalities involved at the big end of town were indeed big personalities prone to theatrics however that didn't apply to the chief pilot of impulse, who I had and continue to have an enormous amount of respect for. I really can't see him caving on some flimsy industrial argument. Without putting words into his mouth or indeed knowing what he was thinking, but using what I know of the man, I just can't see NAS being the fight he would have in order to satisfy some form of industrial agenda.
At the end of the day what is ICAO? How can a one size fits all approach to anything the world over possibly mean anything other than a compromise for most if not all of the parties? Not just aviation, but anything? Do we have standard electrical safety standards the world over? Do we have common traffic laws the worldwide over? Do we have common medical standards world over? These are areas where the risk to lives is real and as we know from the statistics medical and road safety standards or lack thereof kill 1000's of times more people than aviation.
Let's fight the fights that matter, the fights that genuinely improve safety and reduce the number of lives lost and families decimated by their loss. The number of mid air collisions between aeroplanes, particularly lighties and airliners is larger in the US than it is here, and whilst a reasonable argument can be made that says the rates of traffic are greater in the US and as a result the real risk of a mid air here, given our traffic levels, is correspondingly low and therefore considered negligible and can be disregarded, the fact remains that we, the people who will be directly impacted - literally and figuratively - by a midair, have concerns. Why should our concerns be disregarded as industrial crap simply to satisfy the need some people have to align with a theoretical model that cannot possibly be all things to all people.
We of course have been guilty of industrial sabotage of safety improvements or changes - CVR's/FDR's, weather radar, two man crews (yes, yes I know but you get my point), so it is not unreasonable to suspect it as an underlying motivation, BUT in this instance it is my genuine belief that the fear of being splattered across the landscape (however remote and unlikely that may be) is the true motivation of most pilots at the coal face.
Last edited by Snakecharma; 15th Apr 2016 at 20:35.