I have started a new thread on this issue as it is important.
Some will remember the Aviation Reform Group (ARG) that was set up by John Anderson. One if its high priorities was the development and implementation of airspace reform.
The Aviation Reform Group consisted of Chairman Ken Matthews (Secretary of the Department), John Forsyth (Chairman of Airservices), Ted Anson (Chairman of CASA), Air Marshal Angus Houston, and Dick Smith. The Executive Director was Mike Smith, and the Deputy Executive Director was Group Captain Warrick Paddon of the Royal Australian Air Force.
The National Airspace System (NAS) document was prepared by the various project officers and approved by the Aviation Reform Group. On page 8, it stated very clearly:
“… a major change is that … all frequency boundary information has been removed from the charts.”
The new airspace system became effective on 27 November 2003, and all charts were printed before this time by Airservices, without showing the frequency boundaries – as per the policy, and internationally proven procedures. About three months later, Airservices printed a special chart with the frequency boundaries, and posted it free of charge to each pilot in Australia. The cost must have been staggering.
Of course, it goes without saying it completely undermined the decision of the ARG and the NAS Implementation Group. Amazingly, no education material at all was sent with the chart – but it was a clear message that there was a major change in the policy.
I spoke to the Director of Aviation Safety at CASA at the time, Bruce Byron, and he was absolutely horrified. He said:
“Dick, I heard talk of Airservices doing a chart. I told them not to do a chart unless there was an adequate education program beforehand of how the wound-back system would work.”
As there were no safety incidents reported at the time that were linked to the removal of frequency boundaries, can someone advise who made the decision to print the charts? I have always thought it would have been driven by people in the “iron ring” with concrete minds in CASA, putting pressure on Airservices secretly. Who would have authorised the expenditure to do this?
It certainly stuffed up the whole implementation of NAS, and the education program which was part of the implementation. It is the prime reason why CASA, a number of years ago, demanded that pilots operating at aerodromes not marked on charts use the area ATC frequency when taxiing or in the circuit area. It is also the prime reason they are now proposing gigantic 40 mile across, 5000’ high CTAFs – unlike anything else in the world.
Surely now, some 14 years later, someone must be able to spill the beans on who authorised the expenditure and sending out the charts without any educational material, so the whole of the NAS program was undermined. Surely it must come out one day. I would love to know the true story so I can put it in my memoirs.