AMATS Implementation – First Impressions

I felt the CA A could have been stronger in its refutation. In an emergency situation clearly nothing has changed. All that is necessary is to come up on the Flight Service frequency (as before) and cry “help”. In fact I am certain if that was actually done all the necessary assistance would be forthcoming. (A case actually occurred in the UK some years ago when a very frightened trainee pilot caught above cloud could only think of the word “help” – they got him down safely!)

Once a Mayday, Pan or any call for assistance is made on the Flight Service frequency it doesn’t matter whether the aircraft is on full reporting, Sartime or has left an ETA with Mum, the full support of the system will be forthcoming.

Where the problem lies is in a general reluctance to make the initial call. If an engine fails, or a wing drops off, most pilots will not hesitate to broadcast the fact. However, if they have got themselves into a situation through their own fault, most pilots will tend to keep it to themselves, beyond the prudent point of telling someone.

The fear of having an incident report filed on you is a great deterrent to letting the world know that you have screwed it up. There is no easy answer to this one. Clearly if a pilot has breached the rules and this is exposed by him openly admitting it, then something has to be done about it. As always, it comes back to the pilot in command; he must assess the situation as calmly and dispassionately as he can under the circumstances, and then make the decision that its time to seek help.

Returning to AMATS, when I left the military and had to start paying for my flying, I naturally filed full reporting as that was the way I had always done it, even though my flights were now VFR. When the new rules were about to come into force I thought I had better give Sartime a go in readiness for the glorious 12th (however, referring to my earlier comments, there remained at the back of my mind the thought that I would be hung drawn and quartered should I fail to cancel my Sarwatch!)

To my surprise it wasn’t at all painful and there was the added advantage that one could sit back and enjoy the flight without having to worry about ETA:s being within two minutes as planned. The next logical step was to try a cross country under the new rules which invite you to leave your flight details with a responsible person rather than file a Sartime flight plan. After overcoming the problem of a change of telephone number for the pilot briefing room at Canberra (must have missed that one somewhere), as I attempted to check the weather and possible Notams the only other problem turned out to be finding the right words to get a clearance from Canberra Ground to taxi. In the end I decided I would tell them who I was, what I was, where I was going to end up, the route, preferred height,(eastern sector odd plus 500ft, western sector even plus 500ft) ATIS, and POB. It worked fine and we were away. Once released by Canberra Departures I advised Sydney Flight Service that I was listening out and the height I was cruising at. I tried a call on the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency CTAF as we passed over Cootamundra but no one answered (it was Sunday lunch time). At the same time I pondered the 5nm radius and 3000ft AGL for a CTAF and thought that the 5nm was a little tight.

The only other question was how far from the Canberra control zone should I make my call seeking clearance to enter. I decided five minutes from my estimated time to the boundary should be sufficient (105kts G/S); this worked out fine as I received an immediate clearance to enter controlled airspace. What it will be like when we return to a busier situation after the holiday period remains to be seen.

At no time throughout the flight did I feel that we were on our own, Flight Service was there should we have been unlucky enough to have had an emergency.

As I said at the beginning, it is early days yet but indications are that the new procedures are quite painless and are designed to make life easier and more pleasant (and one hopes, cheaper). Lets hope that the rest of the changes are as smoothly implemented as the first