[Peetwo]

EWH with LMH, via the Yaffa:

 

The Last Minute Hitch: 19 November 2021

19 November 2021

– Steve Hitchen

You heard it here first: CASA is working on a new Class 5 medical status, which hints at PPLs being able to fly VH-registered aircraft on a self-declared medical. A technical working group has the matter in hand, and I expect we'll see something go out for public consultation sometime next year. We should applaud now, but hold the standing ovation until we see exactly what CASA releases. Both the UK and the USA have had self-certification for a number of years, and in neither case has it resulted in an increase in aeroplanes dropping out of the sky. However, this is not likely to be a simple wiping-out of the Class 2 medical; it will come with conditions. The USA's BasicMED, for example, limits self-certification to aircraft certified for no more than five passengers and aircraft below 2721 kg MTOW. Curiously, the pilot must also maintain a driver's licence. So we can expect that CASA will probably apply restrictions to Class 5; they will likely limit it by weight and could ban Class 5s from CTA. But all this is second-guessing before the first-guessing has been done. The TWG still needs to thrash through the issue and present CASA with a solution that is not only acceptable to the GA community, but also is practical and brings about the results we all want: lower costs and less red tape.

Sandy in reply to EWH (& BJ ) - 

So there’s our answer, forget reform because the Minister will not act. 


Well done Barnaby, too frightened to tell us to our faces? No, just feed the chooks by leaking it out to a trusted CASA spokesman. Gee whiz, CASA is working on something and cleverly invents another Australian exclusive, a brand new medical Class, a Class 5! And some things might happen next year! Fantasies are like COVID, endemic. As feared, kick the can down the road right into the election frenzy of policy promises. 

Might happen next year, or the year after that;  imagine a doctor with a patient in hospital dying for lack of oxygen deciding to hold a two year inquiry into the possible means of administering said oxygen? The McDonald Committee peddled the pathetic excuse of not finishing after two whole years because of COVID. Believe that and fairies at the bottom of the garden. McDonald to Committee Secretary “better burn and bury that 2014 Forsyth report otherwise we’ll be accused of plagiarism.”

Paul Phelan would have had a field day with these old playbooks.

As for GAAN, never agaan thank you, what a lot of drivel, how GA is so special, and "General aviation does not exist as an end in itself,” and “a strategic plan is needed.” You don’t say!

Which junior in the DoIT actually wrote this nonsense?  

Not one definitive action is offered to as a means to provide assistance to a dying industry, worse than a waste of time.  

I’ve even seen an advertisement for a secondhand RAAUS registered aircraft which says make an offer before its exported. How many aircraft are being exported? The ‘why export?’ is all too clear, a signal to anyone who is watching our General Aviation industry go down the gurgler. 

MTF...P2