"State" aircraft, i.e. military aircraft, are generally exempt from newly emerging Comm, Nav, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management initiatives that various civil aviation authorities are and will be implementing; RVSM is one of them.
The problem lies in that Air Traffic Controllers are burdened with accomodating the volume of traffic that they have to deal with, in their particular sector, at the time. The accomodation of non-RVSM compliant aircraft has and will continue to be less the case. Why? It was simply stated above; those non-compliant aircraft have to be handled as we all were prior to implementation. Wiht 2,000 foot separation above and below; OUCH! So at teh controller level it really isn't manageable in an ever expanding aviation market.
AETC has chosen not to equip their trainer aircraft for RVSM compliance and they will therefore rely on the existing exemptions. AMC has similar problems with it's C-21 fleet; they had the problem for quite sometime with overseas deployed C-21s but the general officers weren't giving it much attention until RVSM was mandated in the U.S.; those same GOs now can longer rely on C-21s because they are not RVSM compliant. Sucks to be them now! The bulk of the AMC cargo/tanker fleet is equipping for compliance and will feel little if any impact on operations.
Cheers
The problem lies in that Air Traffic Controllers are burdened with accomodating the volume of traffic that they have to deal with, in their particular sector, at the time. The accomodation of non-RVSM compliant aircraft has and will continue to be less the case. Why? It was simply stated above; those non-compliant aircraft have to be handled as we all were prior to implementation. Wiht 2,000 foot separation above and below; OUCH! So at teh controller level it really isn't manageable in an ever expanding aviation market.
AETC has chosen not to equip their trainer aircraft for RVSM compliance and they will therefore rely on the existing exemptions. AMC has similar problems with it's C-21 fleet; they had the problem for quite sometime with overseas deployed C-21s but the general officers weren't giving it much attention until RVSM was mandated in the U.S.; those same GOs now can longer rely on C-21s because they are not RVSM compliant. Sucks to be them now! The bulk of the AMC cargo/tanker fleet is equipping for compliance and will feel little if any impact on operations.
Cheers
