[thorn bird]

I am truely perplexed Tom,

So much of the way we do things here and the motivation behind it is so often hidden in the smoke and mirrors of our so secretive bureaucracy.

I recall a few years ago, descending into Inverell, weather was forecast at the minima. Gave a thirty mile call on CTAF, inbound, no response from any other aircraft, but up came the totally illegal, at the time, Inverell unicom.

He reported overcast with low cloud, appears lighter to the north, wind calm, caution aircraft heard overhead.

I immediately entered a hold on the inbound track, tried a call to any aircraft Inverell on CTAF, no response, so I tried centre. Centre stomped on a reply to tell me I was on Centre not CTAF, but I caught a callsign, called him and it was an ambo shooting the approach. I held at twenty miles until his missed approach and departed for his alternate.

I always wondered why CAsA was so vehemently opposed to unicom's. In the US many small local airports have unicoms, centre over there will hand you off to them with "Cancel on the ground", the system works very well, try flying into a small regional called Fernandina beach on a Friday afternoon around four PM and you'll see how well unicom works with multiple heavy medal corporates inbound from New York for a weekend of golf. The Unicom guy was an ex navy pilot in a wheel chair, the unicom was not just a hobby, it was his life, all voluntary.

I have been told CAsA's objection to them is largely driven by the union movement trying to protect their bailiwick, so a layer of protection that could be available in Australia is not, bound up with smoke and mirror requirements to prevent it.

The above anecdote is just one example of why our system needs reform, not just our reg's and airspace management but our whole way of viewing aviation. The Yanks have got it as close as "Right" as you can get I believe, their system works very well and is very safe, ours flounders around with competing "opinions" pulling it this way and that by inept influences trying to protect their rice bowl, the industry, its needs and well being totally ignored, drowned in the cacophonous noise.