[Sandy Reith]

Meanwhile - beneath the Iceberg.

Non aviation folk (Muggles - ) particularly in Australia are well accustomed to ‘over regulation’; so it’s no surprise when aviation starts screaming about the same. Most folk would just point to their industry ‘manuals’, shrug and say ‘you are not Robinson Crusoe mate; look at this pile of guff”. This is a fair call; however, the thing that those who ‘rubber stamp’ aviation law fail to understand is just how ‘badly’ formed the underpinning for those regulations is. I intend to bang on about this, so bail out now if not interested. I might add this opinion is a summary (thumb nail in tar) of many hours of BRB discussion and PAIN research. Are you sitting comfortably – then I’ll begin.

The two posts by TB (above) introduce a sketch of just two examples. Part 61 is an appalling load of clap-trap; the following comparison between Australia 91, the USA and NZ versions are an easily understood example of differences between ‘professional/collaborative/practical‘ law and the Australian ‘gobbledygook’ version. The how; and, the why  this is so is the subject topic.

TB – “The new Australian regulations are rich in similar examples of “amateurish regulatory framing.”

“Amateurish Regulatory Framing” jumps off the page and it is here, at the grass roots we must begin our journey in the not too plush offices of the Down Under Charter Kompany – trading as Duck Air (DA). The directors of DA have bought a new company – registered and badged up – nice and legal.(tick). Developed a business plan (tick) Thrown some money into a bank account (tick) Opened an office (tick) identified their aircraft (tick) now then: What’s next. Well, the will need a licence to operate – to wit – an Air Operators Certificate (AOC). To do this they must first engage a Chief Pilot (CP) A.K.A. the donkey on which the tail may be pinned. To this unfortunate falls the task of gaining the AOC; first step – produce a grandiosely titled ‘Exposition’ which is a flash expression for an Operation Manual (OM). Here begins a nightmare journey through the swamps and dark places of Sleepy Hollow.

Potted version – sincere apologies to the ‘experts’. ‘Tis but a twiddle to spark a light for the dim candle, not yet lit.

To begin with, nearly every CP on this planet has not ever had any ‘legal’ training, let alone completed a law degree. The CP may well be and most probably is an experienced pilot familiar with Air Law; and, in an operational sense have a good grasp of the requirements. So far, so good. So armed with quill, ink and candle the CP sits down to begin drafting ‘the Manual’. I’ll labour this point because it is important. It is not enough to simply state ‘we will comply with part XXX’. The ‘manual’ must define ‘how’ compliance will be achieved. Try an experiment – if you can bear it ( I have and the results were both hilarious and terrifying). Get half a dozen pilots to write a section of an OM related to a topic of choice – pick one. Turn ‘em loose, give ‘em a week, then collect every scrap of paper they’ve written – from the first to the last attempt. The pattern will be similar; the first attempt a sketch, the second will be ‘wordy’ using all manner of legalese, long winded and fanciful. The third, and possibly the last iteration will be so convoluted and confounded as to beggar imagination.

(in part, ie reduced)

Having been around long enough, that is having commenced my General Aviation career in 1968 and set up firstly as a charter operator (joy flights and occasional travel flights) with a bare Commercial Licence, I can attest to the veracity and logic of Karon’s argument.

I obtained a Commercial Pilot’s Licence which logically allowed me to offer my flying abilities to the public on the basis that I had the necessary skills. A small manual of about 12 pages was sufficient to be granted a Charter Licence. There were no fees involved, no Chief Pilot interview, no premises required, no library needed to be evident and any VH registered aircraft could be utilised. After two or three years a flying school was added with little fuss.

That regulatory environment allowed me to start a business and introduce thousands of first time passengers to flying, and serve as aerial transport for all sorts of people with all sorts of special needs. Not to mention to be part of a community, raise a family, buy property, and employ many junior pilots, several of whom went on into the airlines.
Luckily for me I was able to retire as as the paperwork mountain grew higher and the associated fees were imposed in concert.

In latter years a decree was issued that we had to write, in our own words, how we would comply with each and every regulation. This is when the rot really set in, this was undoubtedly the progenitor of the “Exposition.”

I mulled over this extraordinary imposition, reasoning to myself that by logic the whole adult population should be required to write a similar treatise of how they will comply with the criminal code in toto. I still think this is a fair question, a question that goes to the supreme nonsense of a bureaucratic requirement that seeks to perfect by mental enslavement.

I more or less decided that I would not be party to this CASA piece of debasement, I would not kow tow, I would not waste my time. For about three years I stalled on this, then as I needed to rewrite my then much larger set of operating manuals (shelfware), I employed an outside contractor for the task. He produced the new manual and a “compliance” statement booklet which listed each regulation with, line by line, a statement that read “Management acknowledges it’s responsibilities in relation to this regulation.”

Rather like having to write lines at school for some discovered misdemeanour.
No doubt some bright spark with legal training had realised that they couldn’t enforce anything different. Too bad that probably a couple of thousand Chief Pilots who did not know this in the first place, as they toiled nights, unpaid, for weeks on end, wrote up ‘how they would comply’ stories that no one would ever actually read, on each an every regulation.

The whole charade of bureaucratic regulatory perfection is more elaborate than ever and the shrinking industry of General Aviation is testament to the fact.

Without political influence real reform is practically impossible.