[Peetwo]

Dick Smith: air traffic system OneSKY ‘hamstrung by 1930s rules’  

• by: EAN HIGGINS
  
• From: The Australian
  
• July 31, 2015 12:00AM
  

Reporter
Sydney


OneSKY aims to meld the nation’s civilian air traffic control system and the military system in to one highly sophisticated ­operation. Source: AP  
Airservices Australia will proceed with an ambitious new national air traffic control system despite claims from businessman and ­aviator Dick Smith that it will do nothing to improve air safety ­because the rules will still enforce “a 1930s airspace system”.  

Mr Smith has written to Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, whose transport portfolio covers aviation, calling on the government to put the planned OneSKY radar and air traffic ­control system on hold until moves to introduce the US-style of air space management are ­followed through.

Mr Smith, a pilot and former Civil Aviation Safety Authority chairman, has also described as “irresponsible” the fact that, while Airservices last week announced it had signed “the initial contracts for the design and build of the software system”, neither it nor Mr Truss would say how much the project will cost.

“As a government business ­enterprise it has to be completely transparent,” Mr Smith said.
At the time of its announcement, industry sources put the cost of the implementation phase of the project at $600 million.

Airservices says the cost will be revealed in due announcements.

OneSKY, announced in February, aims to meld the nation’s civilian air traffic control system, which is divided into two parts, split between Brisbane and Melbourne, and the military system into one highly sophisticated ­operation.

It envisages 200 radar consoles operated by civilian and RAAF controllers around the country displaying the same ­information in real time.

“Once implemented, Airservices Australia and Defence will share technology and information, giving Australia the most advanced and integrated air ­traffic control system in the world,” Mr Truss said in a media release in February.

But Mr Smith said the One­SKY program, due to be carried out between 2018 and 2021, would be a pointless exercise until the oft-promised shift to the protocols of the US air traffic control system was carried out.

In the US and Canada, air ­traffic controllers direct all commercial air traffic almost right to the runway, whether radar coverage is available or not, maintaining positive separation between aircraft.

Australia in the early 2000s announced it would introduce the US system, but has not taken on this main element.

In contrast to the US system, in Australia some busy regional airports, like Ballina in NSW and Gladstone in Queensland, are designated as being in uncontrolled airspace and controllers do not direct pilots even if the aircraft remain on their radar screens.

Instead, pilots of both airliners and light aircraft, while flying in cloud, talk over the radio to each other to try to work out their relative positions and negotiate what manoeuvres each can take to avoid a collision, a system pilots describe as “calling in the blind”.

“It is simply not logical to ­install a brand-new radar system that is purchased to operate with a 1930s airspace system and then bring the airspace up to date after the equipment has been ­installed,” Mr Smith said.

Airservices says it “regularly works with the regulators, airlines, airports and government to improve and deliver the safest and most efficient control of air traffic in Australia”.

A spokesman for Mr Truss said there would be no delay to One­SKY. “The transition to OneSKY is not scheduled to commence for a number of years and will operate consistently with the applicable airspace arrangements at Australian airports,” he said.

The spokesman said that ­“revealing the budget for the full contract would compromise ongoing negotiations”.

[b]Dick's letter to the Minister (i.e. deferral ONESKY TFFF) - Planetalking comment.[/b]

Dick Smith says ATC upgrade plans verge on ‘criminal negligence’

Ben Sandilands | Aug 04, 2015 3:18PM |

Dick Smith has written to the Minister responsible for Aviation, Deputy PM Warren Truss, describing current plans to upgrade Australian air traffic control as “verging on criminal negligence.”

This is very strong language applied to a very important and complex matter, and the body of his letter to Mr Truss, dated 14 July is reproduced at the end of this report.
Plane Talking isn’t going to try and take readers on a fair and balanced examination of the issues, which deserve discussion in those publications and forums supported by general aviation users and private aircraft owners like Mr Smith who have some real concerns about their impact on their livelihoods, businesses and investments.

The issues are deeply technical, although efforts have been made by Mr Smith, and those who disagree with him, to reduce the arguments to newspaper story sized reports with big picture terminology. Or at times a sort of ‘Yes, No, Yes, No’ discussion that almost nobody not intimately involved in aviation will understand.

In my opinion, Mr Smith’s case has merit in that there is an issue of potential mismanagement of the changes and thus the money that it will largely cost the industry rather than the taxpayer in these user-pays days. The goal of AirServices Australia, to achieve an integrated military civilian control system with the catchy and original title of OneSky, for one nation, is noble, but if Mr Smith is right, nobly screwed in its proposed implementation.

This whole issue has been fought in intricate detail behind the paywall on The Australian already, although it isn’t clear just how many of any of those readers who haven’t given up on the saga could pass a written examination to test their comprehension of the issues.

MH370, the financial performances of Qantas and Virgin Australia, airline seating atrocities, and whether or not passengers using the new Sydney Airport should pass through a terminal resembling a cross fit training box would score much higher in reader engagement.

But to be serious, the main problem Dick Smith will have with this Minister, or any other, is that Ministers in Australia always take the advice of their departments, which are always protective of pet projects, even when they are flawed or incompletely planned.

Perhaps some of the relevant air safety experts in the FAA should be enticed into doing a quick audit of the OneSky project to a deadline of say four weeks in which they review potential safety or efficiency related scenarios raised by Mr Smith and then make a recommendation to the government as to whether it should pause or amend its implementation to resolve any show stoppers.

This would have the added benefit of deferring any interest the FAA may have in auditing the general performance of the Australian safety regulator CASA and failing it, with dire consequences for Australian flag carriers.

 
Short sharp to the point, well done Ben...

MTF...P2

Ps 2 weeks today till the Senate ASA sausage sizzle...