I dont believe it...we are going back to FSU's. Hooray!!!!!! JUsy why the hell they were shut down in the first place is beyond me (I know Dick, $$$$$$), but it now looks like we are going back to them.......the wheel turns slowly but surely!!!!:ok:

CaptainMidnight,

I don't believe that the new Unicom Operators will be bag snatchers ... I understand that they will be employed by Airservices as dedicated Operators and will not have additional airport duties.

What service they will be providing is yet to be seen ...

If that were to happen, even in a general sense, someone should get Slater and Gordon on to a class action. At the very least, we should get back the absurd bonuses that Dick's stooge Frank Baldwin took with him for being a non-speaking hatchet man.

I'm not even sure he had the faintest clue about aviation. Never in the history of Australian aviation has there been money less well spent than on that Kiwi figurehead's thirty pieces of silver, and it will never be forgotten by a lot of people.

Bear that in mind, Dick, as you seek the hearts and minds of everybody in aviation by swaying in the wind. It ain't going to work, you've burned too many bridges.

Re-reading some of the responses in this thread, we seem to be in danger of committing the same sin which I think blew NAS out of the water (well one of them anyway). The sin is importing an American concept and terminology and then Australianising it. Any argument that it works in the US is then invalid because we have not actually adopted the US model.

Much time has been spent arguing about traffic information from a UNICOM operator. The US AIM quotes the following:

Information Provided by Aeronautical Advisory Stations (UNICOM)
1. UNICOM is a nongovernment air/ground radio communication station which may provide airport information at public use airports where there is no tower or FSS.
2. On pilot request, UNICOM stations may provide pilots with weather information, wind direction, the recommended runway, or other necessary information. If the UNICOM frequency is designated as the CTAF, it will be identified in appropriate aeronautical publications.

UNICOM Communications Procedures
1. In communicating with a UNICOM station, the following practices will help reduce frequency congestion, facilitate a better understanding of pilot intentions, help identify the location of aircraft in the traffic pattern, and enhance safety of flight:
(a) Select the correct UNICOM frequency.
(b) State the identification of the UNICOM station you are calling in each transmission.
(c) Speak slowly and distinctly.
(d) Report approximately 10 miles from the airport, reporting altitude, and state your aircraft type, aircraft identification, location relative to the airport, state whether landing or overflight, and request wind information and runway in use.
(e) Report on downwind, base, and final approach.
(f) Report leaving the runway.

The important points to note are that it is non-government, that the pilot has to ask for the information and other necessary information can be supplied.

The reason for these words I believe is,
1. it has no "official" standing;
2. the pilot has asked for the information therefore a reasonable person will help the pilot out by replying to the best of his ability;
3. other information may include the fact that other aircraft are in the circuit however the pilot asking will have to make his own mind up about where they are by listening to their circuit calls.

I think this is a service allowed by the FAA because there are people listening to the CTAF that can provide useful information to pilots. By giving it official mention the FAA makes it quite clear it is unofficial and should be used with discretion. For frequency congestion reasons mentioned by the FAA in the AIM and others in this thread, it is obviously most useful at relatively quiet airports.

However as the FAA does not provide an FSS or Tower until certain passenger movements are reached an attempt to operate a UNICOM might occur at a busy GA airport. I've never experienced such a service but I imagine that it would be self limiting due to frequency congestion, and anyway why would it be needed if there were lots of pilots in the air to give more accurate and relevant advice?

Two months have gone by so once again I am late to the party.:hmm:

Some time ago I developed an automatic system that provides a pilot entering the zone with information regarding traffic already in the zone as well as wind, pressure, temp etc.

It also give pilots assurance that their radio is working, is on frequency etc and does not clutter the aerodrome frequency.

I wonder if it is time to bring it out for "show and tell"?