[Peetwo]

LMH 13 Oct '17: Really ASA?- More on expert register & Part66 clusterduck -  

Via Oz Flying:

The Last Minute Hitch: 13 October 2017

– Steve Hitchen

Airservices has repeatedly told us that the 900 people they made redundant has had no negative impacts on front-end services. If what they call "best effort" in locating contact details for 2000 ALAs and HLSs around the country is any indication then we can assume the redundancies have had a massive impact on back-end services. I mean, really Airservices? Your "best efforts" couldn't come up with contact details for Broken Hill Airport, possibly one of Australia's busiest non-capital-basin airports? It even has RPT ... did you think to ring REX? And the same could be said for so many sites mentioned in AIC A17-H29. Too many of them are commonly used airports that pilots seek (and find!) contact details for every day of the year. Colac, Tyabb, Evans Head, Warnervale, Lilydale, Sandfly ... all of these are commonly used. Can I suggest it probably would have taken nothing more than a browse through a country airstrip guide to find the contacts? And many of these airports actually have websites! OK, it's true that keeping the details up to date is the responsibility of the aviation community, and that same community needs to respond now and get this straightened out. But, please, don't tell us this was your "best effort" when its obvious there wasn't much of an effort made at all.

You see how this could get very large very quickly?

CASA's concept of an Expert Register has proven to be another division catalyst in Australian GA. A great idea at face value, and apparently nearly 300 people have jumped on board, but there are those in the industry that want to be paid for their expertise and time, which is not going to happen. There is some merit in the demand for remuneration, especially when you consider that CASA charges a not insubstantial amount to provide regulated expert services to the industry, including in instances where the CASA person actually has less expertise and experience than the person they're providing services to. Nothing in general aviation is cheap, and companies are struggling to make a buck, so it does seem reasonable that CASA should take the best people on a consultancy basis. Now for the flipside: there are hundreds of Australians who put in hard work every year and do it for the good of GA and not for the money. Should they be paid as well? You see how this could get very large very quickly? It is encouraging that 300 names have already been taken, and done so on the condition that they won't be paid, but it presents a larger problem for CASA: are they the right 300 people? I am happy to concede right now that many who have forwarded their own names may not really have the expertise and experience that CASA needs. It's an issue that is going to have to be managed carefully.

CASR Part 66 looks like it's doing orbits over a VOR somewhere. The feedback from the aviation community has strongly supported the position the MRO industry put forward when this who debacle kicked off. CASA was told that extending maintenance and licencing regulations for airlines to GA wouldn't work and it could even threaten the health of the industry. And they're still saying that. Part 66 will end up the great exemplar of regulation that was foisted on a industry, of consultation that really meant not so much as a jelly bean because the matter was a fait accompli before the industry was consulted, and of a desire to fix a situation that was never broken in the first place, just terribly inconvenient for the regulator. I am in total support of the MRO industry in this case. Part 66 won't work for general aviation because it was never designed to work for general aviation. So, CASA, are you really surprised that the feedback is telling you to go back to the way it was? Some tweaks were needed, but wholesale changes for the hell of it have left the industry sitting amongst wreckage. You were told.

There is now just under a month until Funflight 2017 on 12 November. This is a charity day in which we pilots get to put our skills to fantastic use flying sick and underprivileged children. If you haven't done one yet, find yourself a location close by and sign-up; you won't ever regret it. Funflight is so named because it is supposed to be fun for the children, but it's also great fun for the pilots, the organisers and the aircraft loaders as well. And it is the one of the most satisfying things you will ever do with an aeroplane, and it seems to me that many pilots are missing out by not getting involved. As for me, I've done about five of these, and I'll be back in there again this year. Go onto the Funflight website to find out more, and don't hold back if you and an aeroplane are available on the day. Give so that they may fly.

And I need to extend my thanks to Philip Smart who did a great job as stand-in editor of Australian Flying whilst I sat back and did not a lot during September. Phil's issue, November-December 2017, is out now and waiting for you to find it and take it home. Have a look here at the line-up, then go get.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/the-l...h6uEaYI.99

 
MTF...P2