Cap'n C - no need to get personal, "sunshine"......
A Beechjet goes in and out of Temora, for instance -
I understand it carries the fellow behind the museum.......been there a couple of times with everything from the Beechjet and Chieftains to no-radio Drifters, Karatoos and Sapphires (you
do know what a Karatoo and a Sapphire are, don't you?
) there, with IFR arcraft coming down through a mid-level overcast to where the visual folk were flying. This is not a "new" situation promulgated by Dick Smith.
You're right about not all TSO'ed GPS's having offset, apologies. The GNS430/530 combos coupled to A/P I've flown seem to be just under 1NM to R of track en-route and a *much* lesser distance to R of track in TERM mode, automatically - beats wandering around on a scalloping VOR radial. It's not illegal to be "off track" outside controlled airspace (BTW OCA means Oceanic Control Area, not outside control area) and RNAV tolerances for those who inadvertently wander are +/- 2NM before notification is required). For VFR ACFT there is a recommendation re: track offset for use of GPS made in an old AIC that is now buried in the CASA or ASA site - really should be promulgated more widely and used for IFR as well, in my opinion.
Quote: "I'll bet you london to a brick that your average joe-blow VFR is now spending more time in the cockpit drooling over his GPS than looking out!" .... and has the midair rate increased??
Quote: "Dick got rid of quadrantal levels" .... and has the midair rate increased??
We'll have to disagree re: plenty of places where aircraft mix it not on the same frequency. You may or may not be aware how many ACFT actually are able to get airborne without a radio or whose hand-held plug-in has very limited range, not to mention those boundary crossing scenarios or the high speed jet route areas (have a look at the Area 40 NOTAMs tonight for a nice chunk of Australian airspace). Radios are not compulsory in CTAFs or below 5000'. Aircraft without TXP are not visible on TCAS.
The only point of my overtaking vs. passing scenario was to try to get some answer from ASA folks as to the actual discrimination in DISTANCE (not time) that they can discern - WhatWasThat referred to a "minute", but that can refer to wildly different volumes of airspace. As for dangerous situations, I would contend that the overtaking descent/climb would be the potentially most dangerous, as I understand that it
has been the cause of most midairs in the aerodrome vicinity and circuit.
I think that the radio calls, transponder and concentrated look out make a positive contribution to safety in the vicinity of busier aerodromes, and I'd
like to think that they do en-route..... but am not convinced really how much contribution they actually make in the latter situation in the low density traffic environment outside the major centres of Australia. Sometimes we're a bit bit precious about things we'd
like to believe we have control over.......
And yes, I read the BASI report when it first came out.
Safe flying
NOtimTAMs