Manwell
I think you oughta stay away from using 2 crew analogies.
I completetly agree with what you say about bureaucratic survival instincts.
I think you will find the system very much has the flexibility to see and avoid in CTRs...be it via TCAS climbs/descents or visual seperation during seperation breakdowns, rare as they are in radar environments. That is not to say that it is, or should be, the primary seperation technique...which you seem to be suggesting?
"Anything that does not demonstrably increase safety and efficiency, actually detracts from it."
Please explain to us how the Class E procedures, part of your much beloved NAS after all, fit in with this statement....which I agree with BTW.
Your analogy of the Vovo driver is a very good one. As someone who has done my fair share of training and checking over the years, including jets, I can attest to the fact that the standards of freshly minted CPLs are dropping alarmingly...what PPLs must be like, on average, I know not and do not wish to think about. I have said for a long time that NAS is fiddling while Rome burns. Pilot licencing standards are a lot more in dire need of addressing than an airspace system which aint broke!!!
I think you will find that the see and avoid system has been around since Adam was a boyscout and Pontius was a pilat...the BASI reports merely highlights the fact that it is not without limitations...particularly as aircraft have become faster and the skies a little more crowded since the 30s. No-one, least of all me, is suggesting that see and avoid is not a pilots responsibility and is not part of that which we label good airmanship...HOWEVER it's not what CASA/AsA/ARG/DS are now insisting it should be, i.e. a panacea for all ills and a way for the above alphabet groups to reduce levels of service. ALL BASI are saying when the make the statement that 'poor' lookout does not equal 'poor airmanship' is that in todays more complex aircraft and airspace it is unreasonable to label a pilot at fault if, in the few seconds it takes for a midair to happen, he is not looking at the particular piece of sky where the threat aircraft was. He may even be looking up a frequency which used to be on the chart he has neatly folded on the coaming. The human eye is a very fallible tool..I have had two heart stopping near midairs over the last 23 years and I was looking out...believe me!!!
See and Avoid/airmanship is not merely looking out the window, it's more about situational awareness. Knowing where an aircraft was, is going, and at what altitude gives you the maximum chance of seeing and avoiding the aircraft...of knowing when your attention MUST be outside the cockpit. Clearly that level of awareness is not going to be possible all the time (in Class G airspace for instance) but it should be available in places like Class E, D and around airfields with a mix of IFR RPT/VFR traffic.
I believe you're a little nieve if you really believe that placing all responsibility for separation on pilot's eyesight and the hope that they will be looking in the right piece of sky in the right few seconds, purely by fluke, will allow greater airspace capacity and flexibility.
Many years ago two people I knew, one a great friend and one of my early instructors, the other an examiner of airman who had been CFI at the Royal Aero Club for 26 years prior to joining CAA (and who did my initial IR flight test) were killed when the CAA V35 Bonanza they were in was involved in a mid air with a glider on departure. they were hit from above and behind removing the tail and they spun to earth. I knew both these individuals as thorough professionals of the highest order and they would have had both sets of eyes on full alert departing a Glider field...but it still happened.
I have put in a request to Air BP, as an account holder, for a breakdown of what percentage of the $1.08 odd I pay/lt for avgas is Govt taxes. I will be surprised if it's less than 30+% plus GST. This user is well and truly paying when you consider that probably $30 an hour of my direct operating costs are going to the Govt in tax of one form or another yet I'm told I must pay a user fee if I want to fly IFR
Or that by requesting the levels of service that go with IFR even though I may be VFR, on that route segment, that I'm getting something for free. really
Chuck.
Ps Manwell...carefull you don't allow your posts to become much more condescending, you might end up breaking your own rules
Edit for snarek's last post.
I agree completely re ADSB...but I bet, despite the taxes we pay, ADSB won't be a gift from the Govt.