Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
"Matthew S. Whiting" wrote in message
...

Beats me, I'm not a controller.



Well, I am, and you apparently felt you were in a position to tell me I was
wrong.

Go back and read it again. I never said you were wrong. I said the
system had a flaw if it didn't have a means, beyond the memory of a
controller, to ensure that a pilot landing at a non-tower field on an
IFR flight plan closed his flight plan. Once I knew that flight strips
were still in use and in front of the controller until they removed them
(which provides the memory jogger I was after), I agreed that no further
automation was needed. This is an archaic system, but certainly one
that should work.


From what you've said, doesn't sound
like anything does. Nothing needs to though when you can see the
airplane land or crash as the case may be.



Yeah, I think I said something like that several messages ago.

But you didn't say why. Sorry, but I seldom accept "it is right because
I say so" as a viable answer without knowing the why.


I never saw any comment about having a strip that is thrown away until
I'd commented several times about needing something as a reminder to
ensure the airplane had closed the flight plan.



Why did you assume there wasn't something as a reminder?

Because there were replies that suggested that there was nothing.


I saw comments about nothing happening and nothing needing to happen,

but no explanation as to what actually was happening. I never said I

didn't buy having a strip that stays in front of the controller until
the controller manually disposes of it.



Okay, so do you now understand that nothing happens and nothing needs to
happen?

No, I understand that something happens (a flight strip must me manually
removed from in front of the controller), and this something is
sufficient to ensure that an overdue IFR flight is detected in a
reasonable time frame. It was the insistence on your part that nothing
happened and nothing needed to happen that kept this thread going. This
is pretty disengenuous when you knew that something does happen. Then
again, I know from past experience that you love to argue over trivia...
:-)


Matt