Pete wrote:
Why is this hard? The yanks seem to have been coping with this gunk
for years without complaining about it...
Are the Yanks making an inbound call, then three circuit calls?
Yes. The NAS2c procedures are modelled 100% on the American ones.
One reason there's resistance to this change is that before 27/11/05, the
advice was "Make an inbound call, and one circuit call: more calls are not
better." Now there's been a backflip and more is said to be better...
_much_ more.
That's not all that's changed, though. The other thing (which doesn't
seem to be getting as much discussion) is that you're discouraged from
responding to said calls.
"In the old days" if you heard someone make an inbound call or a circuit
call you'd respond with your own position, and indicate whether you had
sighted the other aircraft. There'd be a back-and-forth dialogue between
virtually everyone enclosed within the CTAF boundary to make sure that
pilots weren't nervous about hitting each other (which is distinct from
making sure that pilots don't actually hit each other!).
That'd mean that if you were on the Eastern boundary of a CTAF at 2000',
and someone else on the Western boundary made an inbound call at 3000',
you'd broadcast your position to them even though you were ten nautical
miles away at different levels with absolutely no possibility whatsoever
of presenting a collision risk.
CASA reckons that back-and-forth occupied about 40-seconds of broadcast
time *per event*. I'm sure you've experienced busy CTAFs where it's
almost impossible to get a word in edgewise because other people are so
busy telling everyone else that yes, indeed, the aircraft which has
just sent a position report *really is where he said he was.*
Can you imagine navigating your body around a house using old-style
CTAF procedures? You'd say, "Pete Siddal is walking from the lounge
room to the kitchen," and you'd get responses from all over the house:
"John Smith is in the main bedroom," "Alice Johnson is already in the
kitchen next to the oven," "Robert Edmonds is in the toilet." Most of
those calls would provide you with totally useless information.
Under the new procedures, that back-and-forth dialogue no longer exists.
It's not needed, because with everyone making the recommended broadcasts
in the recommended manner on the CTAF everyone will already know where
everyone else is. The new broadcasts take less than 7 seconds each to
perform. And the circuit joining and midfield-crosswind procedures
maximize the effectiveness of lookout and minimize the potential for
collision during circuit joining.
So in the room-navigation analogy you'd say, "Pete Siddal is walking
from the lounge room to the kitchen," and everyone else, educated about
your position and intentions, would shut the hell up and try to locate
you. And your lookout, combined with the lookout of anyone you were
likely to encounter (who would now know where you are), would ensure
that you didn't walk in to anyone.
The CTAF will get congested if folks don't adjust to the new procedures.
If, ten years from now, we have die-hards who simply refuse to adjust and
who continue to instigate a back-and-forth dialogue whenever they hear
a position report then we'll continue to be assailed with reams of crap
we don't care about from airfields hundreds of kilometers away. But if
pilots adjust to the new system the end result will be a *decrease* of
CTAF congestion, not an increase.
I expect I'll be making one, two or three circuit calls, depending how
busy the frequency is, and how busy I am. If the pilot has an operational
reason for not making a call, he doesn't have to. One of my reasons will
be that "base" and "finals" are only seconds apart in some tug circuits,
and I've got more important things to do then.
... which is precisely within the spirit, and the letter, of the new
rules.
- mark
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton
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