3 hours ago
The Last Minute Hitch: 27 June 2025
27 June 2025
– Steve Hitchen
Dateline: 23 January 1988, Casey Airfield, Berwick, Victoria. On that day I strapped into VH-RDN with an instructor beside me for my very first encounter with a Cessna 172. Having done all my hours to that point in a C150, the 172 seemed so big! That was the beginning of my relationship with the venerable Skyhawk, and I have flown many variants and individual aircraft since. I suspect my story is not very different from so many pilots out there, except nowadays you're more likely than not to start training in a 172 rather than a 150. With the model turning 70 years old this month, the GA community is reflecting on a machine that–along with the PA28–has provided aviation at all levels with a foundation that could be relied on. It was not the fastest tool in the hangar, but for most of its mission profiles that didn't really matter, and the inception of the current C172SP has solved that problem anyway. Surprisingly, the C172 was first marketed at the business aviation community, but went on to become the mainstay of basic aviation at all levels, and I am sure there are at least 45,000 customers out there who would testify to that. Although they've tried to obsolete the C172 before, Cessna is now married to the idea of continuing with the Skyhawk because the airframe lends itself to new innovation and upgrades so well. And after seven decades, even the older models are sought-after machines. The price of second-hand Skyhawks has skyrocketed, propelled partly through the sticker price of new ones, and partly because they've never surrendered their place in the hearts and minds of the GA community.
"..customer service evaluation can often be collateral damage.."
CASA CEO and Director of Aviation Safety[b] [/b]Pip Spence fronted the RAAA roadshow on the Sunshine Coast last week and outlined the steps the regulator has made in addressing declining service levels. Mostly, CASA is relying on moving functions online to fast-track administrative tasks, hopefully resulting in the bar charts in the satisfaction survey getting a bit taller. But pushing aside vertically-challenged bar charts for a moment, moving functions online is something you would hope CASA would do even if service levels were soaring, because it reflects modern processes and, with luck, returns some money to the aviation community in the form of lower costs. It's the modern way of doing things, but is it enough to create more harmony between the regulator and its stakeholders? Unfortunately, customer service evaluation can often be collateral damage from a wider dissatisfaction with CASA that continues to dog them after 30 years. So, despite genuine efforts to make improvements, it may not show on the scoreboard because of lingering stigma attached to anything CASA. Although an increase in satisfaction is not off the cards, a quantum leap in approval probably is. For that to happen, the GA community would need to extend significant forgiveness, and at the moment service delivery improvement is unlikely to be enough motivation for that to happen.
In other CASA news, the Class 5 medical standard review is now open for the GA community to submit feedback. Put in place in February 2024, Class 5 is a long-awaited self-declared medical for PPLs and RPLs that CASA implemented with several operational limitations. Those limitations, according to AVMED, were necessary because there are some things that pilots are thought to be unable to assess. And that has caused some significant controversy, not the least because such limitations are not applied to other sectors of aviation that have self-declared medicals, such as recreational aviation and gliding. Other jurisdictions also don't apply this level of operational restriction either. CASA has to fit their regulatory decisions into a risk matrix, and it can often be difficult to lever them out of that, meaning the GA community will have to present its A game to have some of these limitations relaxed. But I am getting the impression that CASA can be moved if the feedback is strong enough and well presented; no object is completely immovable if the force is genuinely irresistible. So, GA, now is not the time for apathy, now is the time to lick the pencil and get writing.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch
27 June 2025
– Steve Hitchen
Dateline: 23 January 1988, Casey Airfield, Berwick, Victoria. On that day I strapped into VH-RDN with an instructor beside me for my very first encounter with a Cessna 172. Having done all my hours to that point in a C150, the 172 seemed so big! That was the beginning of my relationship with the venerable Skyhawk, and I have flown many variants and individual aircraft since. I suspect my story is not very different from so many pilots out there, except nowadays you're more likely than not to start training in a 172 rather than a 150. With the model turning 70 years old this month, the GA community is reflecting on a machine that–along with the PA28–has provided aviation at all levels with a foundation that could be relied on. It was not the fastest tool in the hangar, but for most of its mission profiles that didn't really matter, and the inception of the current C172SP has solved that problem anyway. Surprisingly, the C172 was first marketed at the business aviation community, but went on to become the mainstay of basic aviation at all levels, and I am sure there are at least 45,000 customers out there who would testify to that. Although they've tried to obsolete the C172 before, Cessna is now married to the idea of continuing with the Skyhawk because the airframe lends itself to new innovation and upgrades so well. And after seven decades, even the older models are sought-after machines. The price of second-hand Skyhawks has skyrocketed, propelled partly through the sticker price of new ones, and partly because they've never surrendered their place in the hearts and minds of the GA community.
"..customer service evaluation can often be collateral damage.."
CASA CEO and Director of Aviation Safety[b] [/b]Pip Spence fronted the RAAA roadshow on the Sunshine Coast last week and outlined the steps the regulator has made in addressing declining service levels. Mostly, CASA is relying on moving functions online to fast-track administrative tasks, hopefully resulting in the bar charts in the satisfaction survey getting a bit taller. But pushing aside vertically-challenged bar charts for a moment, moving functions online is something you would hope CASA would do even if service levels were soaring, because it reflects modern processes and, with luck, returns some money to the aviation community in the form of lower costs. It's the modern way of doing things, but is it enough to create more harmony between the regulator and its stakeholders? Unfortunately, customer service evaluation can often be collateral damage from a wider dissatisfaction with CASA that continues to dog them after 30 years. So, despite genuine efforts to make improvements, it may not show on the scoreboard because of lingering stigma attached to anything CASA. Although an increase in satisfaction is not off the cards, a quantum leap in approval probably is. For that to happen, the GA community would need to extend significant forgiveness, and at the moment service delivery improvement is unlikely to be enough motivation for that to happen.
In other CASA news, the Class 5 medical standard review is now open for the GA community to submit feedback. Put in place in February 2024, Class 5 is a long-awaited self-declared medical for PPLs and RPLs that CASA implemented with several operational limitations. Those limitations, according to AVMED, were necessary because there are some things that pilots are thought to be unable to assess. And that has caused some significant controversy, not the least because such limitations are not applied to other sectors of aviation that have self-declared medicals, such as recreational aviation and gliding. Other jurisdictions also don't apply this level of operational restriction either. CASA has to fit their regulatory decisions into a risk matrix, and it can often be difficult to lever them out of that, meaning the GA community will have to present its A game to have some of these limitations relaxed. But I am getting the impression that CASA can be moved if the feedback is strong enough and well presented; no object is completely immovable if the force is genuinely irresistible. So, GA, now is not the time for apathy, now is the time to lick the pencil and get writing.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch