PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - MATZ penetration and communication with a military airfield
Old 23rd Oct 2017, 14:40
  #65 (permalink)  
fireflybob
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
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It all boils down to money. Some of us are old enough to recall 30 odd years ago or more where the UK had military master diversion airfields which were open H24, fully manned and equipped with surveillance and talk down radar and also the ability to lay a foam carpet within 30 minutes if you needed to do a wheels up landing.

Now because of a paucity of such stations which are open H24 (peacetime Air Force now where the enemy doesn't attack at the weekends, bank holidays or outside office hours) there are times when vast swathes of the FIR is devoid of any radar service.

I'm sure the relevant authorities would say H24 radar service would be available if we paid for it but how much would they want to charge airspace users?

How about the conduct of commercial air traffic IFR in Class G without radar cover?
I realise this is easy to say but those operators have a choice whether or not they operate into airfields and on routes outside controlled airspace and/or radar cover. Do we as GA pilots want more controlled airspace? (I fully appreciate that for commercial reasons those operators choose to operate in Class G!)

Last edited by fireflybob; 23rd Oct 2017 at 15:15.
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