Manwell how long have you been in this industry...your post indicates to me that you're a relative newcommer?
FWIW.
I have been flying 23 years, 10000+hrs in everything from SE VFR PNG to International jet command. I have been listening to and reading Dick Smith's words since he penned '20 years in the Aviation hall of doom' back in the early 80s.
It's interesting that when he wrote that he was as vociferously anti CAA as most of us are today...and with good reason...since then he has been CASA boss and upset more professionals within this industry than just about anyone else I can think of.
Clearly he is a very successfull individual in his professional life. Most people who succeed as he has done could be discribed as 'control freaks' and I believe his terrier like pursuit of 'aviation reform' has more to do with proving he is right than anything else.
Do you honestly think that when the vast majority of aviation professional disagrees with him he is still right and we are a bunch of children hell bent on the status quo?
He is convinced that the US system is the best in the world but that is NOT the system he is trying to introduce here. The US system works well enough in the US but our system here works bloody well too...this is not the US.
Our system in Australia already shares many common attributes with the US system, CTAFs are one example. Our IFR system, particularly that used by International IFR RPT traffic is already in line with ICAO and effectively identical to everywhere else.
So that leaves the unwanted tinkering with the domestic VFR/IFR mix that does not effect any international arrivals/departures and therefore does not need to be anything other than what WE consider to be the best system for OUR levels of traffic/weather/levels of infrastructure.
Between 1986 and last November I did virtually no VFR flights in Australia as I was mostly working overseas. When I had left these shores we had full reporting, FS units etc.
Last November I went down to Scone to retrieve my Bonanza after engine overhaul and approached the flight back to QLD with a slight feeling of unease. Mostly because it had been so long since I'd flown VFR but more because I didn't feel good about the VFR system that Australia has now which effectively excludes any aircraft not paying money to the system. While tracking north just inland of the coast in marginal VFR conditons much IFR traffic was arriving and departing from various coastal cities and they didn't know I was there. It bugged me so much I ended up calling ATC with my current position/alt/tracking details and estimates and asked them to inform any IFR traffic that might be nearby. Their initial response was somewhat amazed that I'd bother but soon they asking for weather reports from me etc.
Things got a whole lot safer because I insisted on being in the system and used the radio. When I'm IFR I DEMAND to know who else is ducking and weaving around build ups.
Unlike DS's simplistic view of the world IFR aircraft are not in cloud and, like VFR will be looking for the gaps in the weather to avoid damage from hail etc and to give the pax a smooth ride.
My next flight was out to Longreach. I decided that as the system didn't want to know me I'd play their silly game again. NOSAR/No Details it used to be called....and it's dumb. 30-40nm from Longreach I decided there must be heaps of other aircraft all going to see the 747 arrive so made an all stations call...there were and they all popped up with details...some were quite close and given the mix of high wing/low wing we may not have seen each other until it was too late. Perhaps we may not have known of each other until the last 10 miles...bit late in my opinion.
After that I decided that I would fly as per the good old days with proper flight plans submitted and ATC clearances where required to operate in Class C airspace. My next trip was to Mittagong and I just planned straight through whatever airspace was there at safe VFR levels and got cleared as required by the, as usual, brilliant ATCOs. Easy, pleasant and safe. Everyone who needed to know where I was did and I was able to participate in what, in my experience, IS one of the worlds best systems...equal or better than anywhere else I have flown.
The only clearance I didn't get was across Sydney. I could have been cleared if IFR at FL110 but as my aircraft is VFR only for the time being I declined and went VFR via the Lane of Entry etc. No big deal but around Brooklyn Bridge conditions were marginal and the overall effect was less comfortable and a little less safe. Once again aircraft were close around me and the conditions of cloud and haze made see and be seen the joke it really is...so I used the radio...in the manner that Dick says is innappropriate within that LOE...and avoided a near miss with another VFR aircraft.
I believe Dick Smith is wrong and the fact that so little information is forthcomming from the ARG convinces me that they have few good answers.
As far as the King show is concerned I did not attend. If they were the professionals CASA claim they would have known better than to come to a country they have not flown around before and ,after a quick trip in a IFR Piper Chieftain, pretend that they are qualified to offer any comment whatsoever.
Chuck.