Originally Posted by
good egg
Well, here's a definition for you (again)...
"Radar control is the term used to indicate that radar-derived information is employed directly in the provision of air traffic control service." (ICAO Doc 4444: PANS-ATM)
Furthermore...
"Radar control is employed where available within controlled airspace for traffic identification, control and separation in all phases of flight."
(I do, of course, agree that separation is not required for VFR in class D but radar derived info can be used to identify and control VFR flights. And I do mean "control" as VFR flights must comply with ATC instructions in Class D - or state that they cannot.)
Same definition is used by EASA.
As I understand it the UK AIP hasn't filed an amendment to the definition so it still stands.
A cursory glance at AIP, Section 1.2 of link below, describes the ATC service provided.
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadba...2016-03-31.pdf
There is nothing sinister in the term "Radar Control Service"...in fact it should provide VFR flights with some assurance that radar is available to provide a better service to your flight. No additional obligations to VFR flights.
For the first part of you post you are defining radar control. But not radar control service. Not very useful. I want to know what "service" I can expect, not how it is derived. (Service in quotes because actually it is nothing of the sort).
The middle part of your post is the crux of the problem. In class D, ATC doesn't have to provide seperation for VFR. But ATC can control VFR, ie make them do something. Without regard to whether it's going to cause them to crash into someone else. So as in my case, my clearance says I must fly over the threshold of the runway at the specified altitude. A specific point in space. When I am very close to the overhead that severely constrains my ability to change my flight path at all, and still comply with my clearance. But then another aircraft at substantially different speed gets the same clearance. So that we will be in the same point in space at the same time but with a big speed differential. All on the whim of ATC who is not worried about whether we might crash, and all when there is a massive amount of sky that we could be flying in to increase our separation were it not for ATC's desire to funnel us into the same point.
If you can't see that the system is fundamentally flawed, then you are part of the problem.
The last part of your post, link doesn't work but I'll have a look at the AIP.