Now is the winter of our discontent.
“Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
It has, much to my chagrin (and discomfort), been quite while since I've had the energy to reacquaint my friendship with Aunt Pru; suffice to say I had little choice and 'limited' options. No matter; seems the world is not to be shut of me, well not in the short term at least. The temptation is to catch up; however, it seem that very little has improved during my time 'in maintenance'. The bureaucrats continue to hold the politicians in the palm of their clammy, greedy paws. The politicians ever grateful for the escape provided to them from any and all responsibility. Aye, the game is as old as Sin itself. Indeed -“Older than sin and twice as mean”
“There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.”
Ah! the 'stuff' people do – and the motives behind their 'doings'. Take the ATSB and the buffoon leading that merry dance on a pathway to irrelevance; or, CASA endlessly reworking tenets which the 'real' world has put aside, learned from and are still working through audits and consultation to reduce the percentage chance of accident. It all stands as the old 'chicken and egg' argument – which came first and whats' to follow? It simply cannot go on; not as it is. The real question, to me at least, is WHY? To what 'end' are they working? What 'is' their 'purpose'?
“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”
As a pilot, my purpose was always to deliver both aircraft and content in one piece at the selected destination – end of. Toward that highly desirable end, continued study, application to task and much attention was given 'learning'. Not just a pass mark in the mandatory studies; those were considered a base point. First encounter with non VMC conditions (at an early stage) prompted some serious study of 'Crash comics' and any other related material; first multi engine rating led to deep study of asymmetric flight and related accidents; I could bang on – but you get the drift; in short a license was simply an examination 'pass' – then I had to learn my trade; mostly the hard way.
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”
Now, only my opinion, but it seems to be that CASA and ATSB have drifted far from their purpose; their design function is, if you will, in primus, to ensure compliance with ICAO world best – standard – practice as scripted, with minimum exceptions. There is also a requirement to ensure that 'operations' are conducted as scripted etc. In years gone by, there was a cohort of very experienced, competent airmen who actually (Gods forbid) went flying with pilots to ensure a standard level of competency and dispensed 'words of wisdom to those who, although qualified, could perhaps brush up certain elements within their performance. They even had quiet 'discussions' with operators about standards and operational matters; all on a sensible, professional basis – mostly. Compare that to the tragic, completely preventable travesty in Broome; or. even to the Crocodile egg collection fiasco. One scalp will not suffice; those events were symptomatic of a failing system in free fall.
“Authorities usually invite and support detrimental conduct in insidious ways that minimize personal responsibility for what is happening. Moreover, the intended purpose of sanctioned destructiveness is usually disguised so that neither issuers nor perpetrators regard their actions as censurable. When reprehensible practices are publicized, they are officially dismissed as only isolated incidents arising through misunderstanding of what had, in fact, been authorized.”
However, to my mind at least, the last bulwark to 'operational' safety crumbled when the ATSB became hand maiden to the colossal failings of the CASA to simply 'perform design function'. Back as far as the Pel-Air event; to modern day events, such as MH 370 all the way down the scale to the humble fatal events which have claimed so many lives since the dynamics changed and successive governments were glad of those changes.
“Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.”
Seems to me (at least) that we have a recurrence of accident and serious incident very similar to that which, in my younger years, was kept to a minimum through good training and careful practice in and careful management of operations – airline and the 'rest'. We had 'good' reporting and 'responsibility' from operator, crew, management and the 'authorities'. The 'real' accident statistics are off the charts and no-one seems to care – “not a feather or a fig”. Least of all the minister, CASA or the ATSB. Great work if you can get it – wages of sin eh? Not too shabby either.
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
Aside - it used to take 20—30 minutes to draft a Gazette. Alas. But no matter; I can at least beat up a keyboard now. In the words of the indefatigable P2 - MTF. (Gods willing etc)..........
Selah. -.-
“Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
It has, much to my chagrin (and discomfort), been quite while since I've had the energy to reacquaint my friendship with Aunt Pru; suffice to say I had little choice and 'limited' options. No matter; seems the world is not to be shut of me, well not in the short term at least. The temptation is to catch up; however, it seem that very little has improved during my time 'in maintenance'. The bureaucrats continue to hold the politicians in the palm of their clammy, greedy paws. The politicians ever grateful for the escape provided to them from any and all responsibility. Aye, the game is as old as Sin itself. Indeed -“Older than sin and twice as mean”
“There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.”
Ah! the 'stuff' people do – and the motives behind their 'doings'. Take the ATSB and the buffoon leading that merry dance on a pathway to irrelevance; or, CASA endlessly reworking tenets which the 'real' world has put aside, learned from and are still working through audits and consultation to reduce the percentage chance of accident. It all stands as the old 'chicken and egg' argument – which came first and whats' to follow? It simply cannot go on; not as it is. The real question, to me at least, is WHY? To what 'end' are they working? What 'is' their 'purpose'?
“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”
As a pilot, my purpose was always to deliver both aircraft and content in one piece at the selected destination – end of. Toward that highly desirable end, continued study, application to task and much attention was given 'learning'. Not just a pass mark in the mandatory studies; those were considered a base point. First encounter with non VMC conditions (at an early stage) prompted some serious study of 'Crash comics' and any other related material; first multi engine rating led to deep study of asymmetric flight and related accidents; I could bang on – but you get the drift; in short a license was simply an examination 'pass' – then I had to learn my trade; mostly the hard way.
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”
Now, only my opinion, but it seems to be that CASA and ATSB have drifted far from their purpose; their design function is, if you will, in primus, to ensure compliance with ICAO world best – standard – practice as scripted, with minimum exceptions. There is also a requirement to ensure that 'operations' are conducted as scripted etc. In years gone by, there was a cohort of very experienced, competent airmen who actually (Gods forbid) went flying with pilots to ensure a standard level of competency and dispensed 'words of wisdom to those who, although qualified, could perhaps brush up certain elements within their performance. They even had quiet 'discussions' with operators about standards and operational matters; all on a sensible, professional basis – mostly. Compare that to the tragic, completely preventable travesty in Broome; or. even to the Crocodile egg collection fiasco. One scalp will not suffice; those events were symptomatic of a failing system in free fall.
“Authorities usually invite and support detrimental conduct in insidious ways that minimize personal responsibility for what is happening. Moreover, the intended purpose of sanctioned destructiveness is usually disguised so that neither issuers nor perpetrators regard their actions as censurable. When reprehensible practices are publicized, they are officially dismissed as only isolated incidents arising through misunderstanding of what had, in fact, been authorized.”
However, to my mind at least, the last bulwark to 'operational' safety crumbled when the ATSB became hand maiden to the colossal failings of the CASA to simply 'perform design function'. Back as far as the Pel-Air event; to modern day events, such as MH 370 all the way down the scale to the humble fatal events which have claimed so many lives since the dynamics changed and successive governments were glad of those changes.
“Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.”
Seems to me (at least) that we have a recurrence of accident and serious incident very similar to that which, in my younger years, was kept to a minimum through good training and careful practice in and careful management of operations – airline and the 'rest'. We had 'good' reporting and 'responsibility' from operator, crew, management and the 'authorities'. The 'real' accident statistics are off the charts and no-one seems to care – “not a feather or a fig”. Least of all the minister, CASA or the ATSB. Great work if you can get it – wages of sin eh? Not too shabby either.
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
Aside - it used to take 20—30 minutes to draft a Gazette. Alas. But no matter; I can at least beat up a keyboard now. In the words of the indefatigable P2 - MTF. (Gods willing etc)..........
Selah. -.-