Originally Posted by
Downwind.Maddl-Land
Jan Olieslagers: I’ll readily admit that the UK system is not perfect by any means (MATZs being a specific that is well past its sell-by date – they offer no effective protection to mil aircraft conducting IFR approaches and their main function appears to be as a symbol on a chart to notify the presence of a aerodrome that may be worth calling!) and I do sympathise with overseas crews that have to contend with ‘our way of doing things’; however, that doesn’t mean they are ‘wrong’ or otherwise unfit for purpose.
The UK has been providing ATSOCAS in various forms all my adult life (and that’s a long time now!) and the system is mature, flexible and seems to provide what the customer wants – most of the time - without the establishment of swathes of regulated airspace, as tried in Germany as you point out. You will be aware of the likely reaction of the UK GA fraternity to any moves along those lines!
I know I've said it before but I think all ATC (not AFIS) airfields with approved iaps both military and civil, with or without radar, should be given a 5nm radius ATZ rather than the 'Meagher'(sic) 2 or 2.5nm ones which do absolutely nothing to 'protect' iaps. You could then dispense with the stupid 'MATZ' system (yeah I know the military will probably still insist on having a stub at one or both ends of the 'instrument' runway) as instructions from ATC in an ATZ are always mandatory to all traffic even though they may be Class G airspace and you will thus avoid establishing 'swathes of regulated airspace'; I for one definitely wouldn't want MATZ to become Class D or E airspace.
Don't forget,when MATZ were first invented in the late '50s (partly due to 'pressure' from the USAF who weren't used to operating iaps in 'open' FIR airspace) , there was an immense amount of military flying in the country when compared to nowadays so it wasn't unreasonable to make them mandatory only for military aircraft; nowadays the situation has changed and the number of civil flights has increased so that the 'balance' is totally different from what it was over 50 years ago.