LoDown
I genuinely understand your position and frustration. I guess those issues you raise are the watershed that have brought the airspace reform agenda to where it is. As you pointed out the LLAMP process was well advanced and at least included all the various sectors of industry. Progress was being made albeit slowly. Telling though in that process was that everyone had their point of view and was able to express their preferred end state. Given the complexity/difficulty of providing those things that each wanted through the process of negotiation (within safety guidelines) the inevitable result was in this example the retention of radio for alerted see and avoid and the like.
Yes, that might not have being VFR pilot’s preferred outcome, it was however an acknowledgement that no one group had the right to force another (IFR in this case) to reduce flight safety levels. To do otherwise would be undemocratic and unpalatable to those whose operations would be negatively affected by the change.
With regard to oveflight of primaries.
Category of airspace i.e. A is by nature restrictive (Everything separated) given how complex the airspace arrangements are around SY, BN, ML etc. Could that be changed?? I honestly do not know.
The rules ATC’s operate within in these terminal areas are now so complex (Coordination between APP, DIR, TWR, DEP, SID’s, STAR’s, Noise abatement, Noise sharing Runway modes, Flow control to multiple runways, etc), it becomes a nightmare dealing with the big stuff let alone a VFR over the top. I am not attempting to make excuses in this regard, it is just the reality of the primary beast.
Class B used in US primary areas may provide easier access to VFR and might be possible here. It would have to be a compelling case to further increase the capacity and cost of ATC to accommodate the extra complexity of allowing a few VFR into a very busy and complex environment given it is not simply a case of talking to one Controller on one Frequency.
There is of course far more to the primary access issue both operational and political than the brief comment above.
I would highly recommend that interested pilots contact AsA and perhaps organise a visit to the TCU (Terminal Control Unit) in their capital, it is the best way to get a real picture of how the system works.
