[Peetwo]

APTA (Glen B) embuggerance update - 4/06/19

A job of work.

Serious, mind numbing, tedious, heart breaking grind; alas, if the Australian Flight School industry wants to survive, it has to be done – and soon.

There are ‘other’ sensible solutions, which could avoid the head and heart ache. This however would involve CASA taking a long, hard constructive look at the ‘type’ of people they employ and the ‘power’ gifted to those people. I am of course referring to the Glen Buckley saga and the incredible tangle CASA have landed both themselves and APTA in. What an unholy mess.

But, before asking you to get a handle on the copious amounts of ‘paper’, the incredible ‘word count’ and the confused action; to consider one small, but, IMO essential element of the saga.

In the beginning APTA elected to go whole hog on a transition to Part 142 operations. This, without considering the hidden, heavy burden Parts 61./141/142 would place on any operation and the confused, overreach this legislation, in conjunction with other confused, unclear ‘rules’ would produce was their first mistake. 61/141/142 should have been rejected, out of hand by industry and it probably would have been, had industry had time, money and a care for the future. Industry simply went along to get along, hoping for the best, never expecting or considering the worst of how that same legislation could be used against them. But I digress; start again. Click – restart.

In the beginning APTA elected to go whole hog on a transition to Part 142 operations. In good faith, they invested their time, money and effort in the project. They worked hard and consulted often with a highly professional team of CASA’s best. It was an enormous, expensive team effort, clearly demonstrating how effectively industry and CASA could work together to achieve a better outcome – 600 ‘line items’ all addressed to the satisfaction of the operator and the CASA ‘A’ team. Good to go; congratulations all round. Bravo.

Pretty much ‘out-of-the-blue’ APTA had a change of oversight team. A reasonable person could assume that – give or take a bit – the same level of support and consultation would be available from the new CASA crew and their ‘manager’. Remember; a small mountain of time, money and effort had been invested – by both CASA and APTA achieving ‘compliance’ with what is arguably the worlds worst rule set, encompassed in Parts 61/141/142.

In a heartbeat – a great example of industry and CASA cooperation to unravel the mysteries of this dreadful legislation had disappeared. The upshot is contained in the writings and pleas for common sense and for reasonable sanity provided by APTA, rejected through the artful use of carefully selected ‘rules’ by one man. Faith, hope, confidence in the regulator, money and time; lost, and gone forever. Have CASA no shame?

We have all witnessed this event on several occasions, this is not the first nor is it likely to be the last – unless there is a concerted effort, from industry – from Big Q down to the humblest one man show to put a full stop to the CASA saga of whimsical embuggerance. 

Not that it will happen; we will need a lot more than a minister with a backbone. NZ sets the bench mark – a Royal commission may help; but nothing short of a united government effort to right the wrongs and build a reliable regulatory authority, we can be proud of will change the dreadful damage CASA, some of it’s sociopaths and hedonists have served up; for far too long.

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”


One director, one board, one minister could, with a little effort and backbone, sort the shambles out. They know it’s wrong; the world and it’s wife know it’s wrong.

Aye well: (sigh) - I know – dream on – back in my box -

Toot – toot.

&..

And from the "K" post above:

glenb – “I was fully approved, and then in October 2018, I received a notice that CASA intended to bring a cessation to all operations, and that's where the story begins. There was no prior indication at all. That opened up a pandoras box of problems. Soon I will start outlining some of these on here.

I must emphasise that there are no allegations of any safety concerns, in fact CASA have agreed that APTA increases safety, so one would wonder my Mr Graeme Crawford in his role would work so diligently to bring APTA down. This individual may be a ripper bloke outside of the work environment, and probably gets himself involved in the local community, and contributes widely. I can only talk of my own personal experience with him, but in my opinion his manner is bullying and intimidating in nature and only degrades safety outcomes.

Whilst, it is only my perspective, and he is entitled to Procedural Fairness, I have launched a substantive complaint against him I feel that he has compromised safety, acted in breach of his obligations under the PGPA Act, and breached CASAs own Regulatory philosophy.

I have no doubt that at some stage this morning, I will receive a letter from CASA threatening action against me, but frankly, its time for me to protect APTAs reputation, and the many professionals that have workred in so diligently and in such a well intentioned manner. Let me return shortly with only one example of my CASA experience. Everything is fact, and I will provide evidence. As it is related to aviation safety, it is in the public interest.

Once again folks, thank you for the support.

Hmm...shades of the Scottish Git's letter to Bruce Rhoades...




The latest from glenb 3/06/19:

CASAS APPROACH IMPACTS ON SAFETY

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To those of us operating at the General Aviation (GA level) in Australia, and I include smaller Charter Operators and Flying Schools in that grouping, the manner in which CASA conducts itself with Industry compromises safety and that's why it must be checked.

Whilst I am somewhat time limited, I do intend to demonstrate, from my own personal experience, how the Aviation Group headed up by Mr Graeme Crawford has lead actions, or been responsible for actions that have negatively impacted on safety in my Organisation On all occasions my organisation has taken action, and often at significant expense,to counter the effects of those actions.

I intend in this post, and by updating via the "edit" function, to very clearly demonstrate that. I am sitting here waiting to have a coffee with someone, so will return and update as time permits. 

Example One

I have received a very high level of support from many areas of industry including many GA Operators. My advice is do not become involved in my issue if you have a commercial interest in the industry. If you have nothing to lose, or are prepared to lose everything, I welcome your support. 

I have been a critic of many of CASAS decisions over the years, and I have put my name to those criticisms. I've been very upfront admittedly. The passage of time has demonstrably proven my criticisms correct. From my own personal experience, CASA as an organisation, is dangerously resistant to Continuous Improvement or substantive feedback. From my personal experience, that creates personnel within CASA that have an "axe to grind", and they will use their position inappropriately, and make decisions that cannot be demonstrated to be in the interests of safety. The result of those decisions, is that they will cause commercial, or other damage to your business. CASA personnel would be aware of those impacts when they make those decisions. I draw on my own personal experience when I make those statements. That commercial impact on your business and its effects on safety must be considered, in deciding your course of action.

CASA have created an environment where many operators feel too scared, too intimidated to speak up. That negatively impacts on safety. That has been my personal experience.

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And in support of glenb:

Okihara - Glen, thanks for sharing your story and spearheading the effort against this tyranny.

Words of encouragement will only lift your spirits so much and, as you mentioned, some who may not want to become personally involved with your issue may still want to put their money where their mouth is (or would be in this case).

Quote:

CASA have created an environment where many operators feel too are scared to intimidated to speak up. That negatively impacts on safety. That has been my personal experience.

Hence: why not set up a gofundme.com page and raise some funds for your upcoming legal expenses? As others pointed out, you need to lawyer up lest you get gobbled up by your opponent. Many in the industry stand to benefit from your initiative so let them support you. This way people can support you while remaining anonymous.

What I would also suggest: Think of this as opportunity to take the APTA philosophy of united we stand to make it the defender of GA rights across the board and not just for your own organisation. Talk to your contacts in flight schools across the country and propose a $10/h (voluntary) increase on instruction rates to finance your legal costs.

Apologies if that has already been mentioned before. I'm still catching up with this thread.  

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Stickshift3000 - I'm a student at an APTA-affiliated flying school. Having witnessed the significant benefits of this business arrangement first hand, I - and likely many other students - would be happy to offer any support via means mentioned above.  

Having now read some of the vast volumes of meticulously recorded information (i.e documents email chains etc.) from glenb, on the despicable case of embuggerance of AFTA, I am starting to join the dots and form a picture of the level of conceit and sheer bastardry being deployed by the current crop of self-serving/self-preserving Iron Ring acolytes.

Much like with the Angel Flight imbroglio, the biggest question with the APTA case of embuggerance is why?  

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With a great concept with smaller Flying Schools acting together in an alliance to help minimise the forbidding costs of setting up and remaining compliant with CASR Part 142. Working together proactively with the CASA Southern Regional manager and the assigned CMT (Certificate Management Team) things were going along swimmingly until this:  

Five months later some obscure, NFI AWI/CTM (Chamberpot look-a-like) from the FNQ region was inexplicably placed in the Acting Regional manager role (Southern Region); and almost immediately issued this to the totally blind-sided APTA management team: 

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Next remember this?

Now in the shady book of coincidences this suspected (above) CASA IR acolyte just so happened to be also in an Acting role - i.e the Acting Executive Manager, Regulatory Services &. Surveillance. This meant that not only was he more than likely to be responsible for the (Chambers lookalike) David Jones temporary assignment as Ag (Southern) Regional Manager but also he would have been at least CC'd, if not helped instigate the action against APTA...

Finally as another passing strange coincidence, if you visit the CM LinkedIn page (see HERE) under 'Skills and Endorsements' it says:

Change Management

See 1 endorsement for Change Management1

Graeme M. Crawford has given an endorsement for this skill

Hmm...MTF - MUCH! P2