[Peetwo]

"Better, better get a bucket - better make that two .." -  

Bucket please - just read #

The cynical beast roars WTF in protest as I read the latest ‘puff piece’ from ATSB. The urge to vomit at the soft sell of ‘Dave the Saviour’ reads as though it was written to be inserted between recipes and advice on how best to remove stains from underwear in one of those journals for the mentally challenged, they leave lying about in waiting rooms (does anyone actually pay hard earned for that crap?).

Anywhere else on the planet the simple rule of 1, 2, 3 applies to your pre flight fuel planning (in broad terms)

IFR Alternate Airports (1-2-3 Rule).

When filing an IFR flight plan, you must include an alternate destination airport when the weather forecast at your original destination predicts conditions below those specified in CFR 91.169. To help remember those conditions, you can use the 1-2-3 rule.

1 - During the time 1 hour before to 1 hour after the estimated arrival time

2 - Ceiling less than 2,000 feet

3 - Visibility less than 3 miles

If the above conditions exist, an alternate airport must be filed.
The alternate airport also has requirements that it must meet.
• If the airport has an instrument approach published, the weather must be forecast to be (at the ETA) better than the alternate airport minima specified in that approach or the following standard conditions:
o Precision Approach: 600ft ceiling and 2SM visibility
o Non-Precision Approach: 800ft ceiling and 2SM visibility

Not in Australia – crew are hung out to dry, forced to make all decisions and be legally responsible for ‘getting it wrong’. The BoM factor something like 70% +/- error on their forecast conditions, let the computers do the modelling and waltz off, Scot free, whenever they get it wrong; or, the system fails to get the 'new' information delivered in time for that information to be of any value.  

But no matter, our latest new best mate ‘Dave’ is going to do an ‘academic’ study for his degree and we must have the good manners and patience to wait for the results, until he has finished buggering about editing and refining his ‘thesis’, to impress other academics and further his own CV, while we pay him to do so. Bollocks - we don't have the time to fanny about, waiting on his pronouncements.

Pel-Air and the Mildura cock-up tell the tale of organizational and systematic errors very clearly. Only a degree in common or garden sense is required to see the gaping holes in not only the safety net, but in the lines of responsibility. No one has offered a solution, but all, except the flight crew, have gilt edged ‘get out of jail cards’. A company like Qantas have been operating a system of ‘cut out’ points for making diversion decisions for donkeys years now; all the expertise we will ever need is contained within the collective wisdom of their system. Why not ask them, politely, to share that ‘wisdom’ and adopt that advice into law?

I could, if I tried, care a little less about ‘Dave’s’ ambition and his aerobatic experience. This fluffy little bit of scripted bullshit typifies the standard approach to any and all ‘operational’ problems. Anything will do but address the problem head on and sort it out, quickly, effectively and properly.

I tire of the Hood ‘touchy- feely’, soft –softly, apologetic approach: that ducking ‘correcting the record’ thing they do is too pathetic to even be risible. Does he not realize that the organization he runs is a sad, sorry, failed, bloodless imitation, a sick parody of what it is meant to be.

"Ground-breaking aviation research to reduce incorrectly forecast weather risks".

Bollocks !

Standby with the 2nd bucket Ferryman as the hard working committee secretariat have at long last tabled Hoody's opening statement and the PelAir update:

6.) Document titled 'Chief Commissioner Greg Hood Opening Remarks for Senate Estimates'. Tabled by Greg Hood, Chief Commissioner, Australian Transport Safety Bureau on 22 November 2016.
(PDF 2.27MB)
7.) Document titled 'ATSB Investigation Update'. Tabled by Patrick Hornby, Legal Services Manager, Australian Transport Safety Bureau on 22 November 2016.
(PDF 1.22MB)

Another day another bollocks statement and yet another bucket...

MTF...P2