[Peetwo]

4D & the 1st official GAAG in Can'tberra -

Via 4D's media boffin:

Work begins with GA Advisory Group

The new General Aviation Advisory Group has met for the first time, discussing a range of key issues including the classification of operations, levels of flying activity, skills and training, and regulatory reform.

[*]The first meeting of the Group discussed a range of issues including skills and training, regulatory reform, and categorisation of aircraft operations.
[*]The Group provided initial feedback on the General Aviation Study.

The new General Aviation Advisory Group has met for the first time, discussing a range of key issues including the classification of operations, levels of flying activity, skills and training, and regulatory reform.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester attended the meeting in Canberra and said direct engagement between the industry and the Government was key to achieving the common goal of a safe, growing and sustainable aviation industry.

"The General Aviation Advisory Group will ensure the industry has a voice at the heart of Government by providing advice directly to me on matters affecting the general aviation (GA) sector,” Mr Chester said.

He reiterated that the aviation sector should develop strategies to attract young people, including more women, into the industry.

The Group received a briefing from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) on the progress of the General Aviation Study and members provided initial comments to inform the study going forward.

The Group also agreed on its terms of reference and operating protocols.

“I look forward to working with the GA Advisory Group to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that lay ahead for the sector in Australia,” Mr Chester said.

The next meeting of the Group is expected to be held before the BITRE finalises the GA study, which is scheduled to be completed by 30 June 2017.

More information on the GA study is available at: infrastructure.gov.au/aviation/general/index.aspx

[*]
So did they also mention the progress of the ASRR, the just released Aviation Workforce Skills Study and that disturbing story that featured in the QLD Sunday Mail??

SBG weekend mag

Aviation firms grounded amid skyrocketing costs and regulations
Michael Wray, The Sunday Mail (Qld)
March 12, 2017 1:00am

QUEENSLAND’S general aviation industry is being throttled under skyrocketing costs and ballooning regulations, with half of the flying schools at the region’s largest hub going out of business in the past two years.

Operators claim costs are increasing and regulators such as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority have swamped them with so much paperwork their administrative burden has increased tenfold without making flying any safer.

New CASA licensing regulations introduced in 2014 ran to more than 1200 pages yet were full of problems and have had to be constantly ­revised since then, leaving even the regulators unable to answer queries about what the rules mean.

At Brisbane’s Archerfield Airport half of the flying schools have closed in the past two years, including the Royal Queensland Aero Club, the oldest flying club in the southern hemisphere. Pic: Jamie Hanson

Pilots have told The Sunday Mail requirements on medical checks, licensing, safety equipment and other administration are the most onerous in world aviation, but they have not demonstrably improved safety.

The Royal Queensland Aero Club, which was the oldest aero club in the southern hemisphere and counted aviation legends Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler as members, folded in March last year, taking out southeast Queensland’s largest operator.

Three other flying schools have closed recently and the general airport activity has dropped dramatically since the industry’s glory days in the 1980s, with flying schools running heavily reduced fleets due to the lack of pilots walking through the door.

The flying schools still operating at Archerfield Airport think it's only a matter of time before they have to close down. Picture: Jamie Hanson

With general aviation struggling, there are fears that there won’t be enough locally trained pilots for the larger airlines, which would be forced to look overseas for pilots.

A CASA spokesman said the regulator was in constant communication with the general aviation industry, which includes virtually all flying activity below the commercial airlines, and recently set up a joint industry taskforce to address key issues to improve the new licensing regulations.

“CASA agrees the new regulations were not fully ­acceptable when introduced and has apologised for that,” he said. “Yes, we are always working to ease regulatory burden where possible and the taskforce’s work is an ­example of that.”

Dick Smith, a former CASA chairman and record-setting private pilot, said there was “not the slightest hint” that authorities in charge of the industry “had any idea what they are doing”.

“If you are in the general aviation industry, do everything you can to sell out, get out now because it’s really bad what’s happening,” he said. “The new regulations are more and more expensive and you will become completely destroyed.”

Some of the major industry complaints include:
● Skyrocketing landing costs;
● More costly maintenance as businesses fold;
● Invasive medical checks;
● A security card that has to be renewed every two years rather than be linked to a pilot licence;
● Unnecessary airport fences;
● Duplication of civil and military air traffic control costing hundreds of millions of dollars;
● Overzealous enforcement;
● Flight and duty time restrictions to be implemented by May 2018.

Airplanes at Archerfield Airport in Brisbane.

Andrew Nacsa, who was head of operations for the RQAC’s training arm, Airline Academy, said rising cost and regulations in the general aviation industry meant fewer people were interested in flying, ultimately driving the business in to the ground and forcing it to close its hangars and the 20 planes it was operating.

“If general aviation stops then so does the whole industry,” he said.

Australia’s regional carriers are also struggling with 17 airlines folding in the past 13 years.

Mr Smith said regulators seemed to consider that ­policing the skies would be easier if only commercial planes were flying but it would take the “total collapse” of general aviation ­before the public noticed.

“When people find that they can’t get a rescue helicopter because there’s no maintenance people and they can’t get an aerial ambulance because there’s no maintenance people, then they’ll start to write to their minister and ask what’s happened,” he said.

A CASA spokesman denied commercial airlines were favoured and said authorities “allocated very significant resources to supporting the general aviation sector each year”.

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester has commissioned a study into the state of the general aviation industry, and has said it will include a review of private pilot medical requirements.

The review is due to be completed by June 30.

* * * * * * * * *
Southern Skies Aviation owner Brian Westin. Picture: Jamie Hanson

WE NEED TO MAKE SYSTEM WORK, SAYS VETERAN PILOT

PILOT Brian Westin says his office high above Brisbane’s Archerfield Airport is the best in the world.

A pilot for 45 years, the freedom he feels in the sky and the satisfaction he gets from passing his skills on to budding young pilots have not diminished.

But lately he has dreaded returning to his office on the ground, where a mountain of never-ending paperwork and bills awaits.

The situation has become so bad after a raft of new regulations from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority that Mr Westin said the only thing keeping him flying was his passion for the industry.

“It’s getting to the point now where most of the operators I’ve known over the years are saying that it’s not worth it any more,” he said.

In the past two years, the number of operators at Archerfield has halved, with just four flight schools left. Two of those have been there for decades and are only hanging on because of their love for the industry.

“People are just walking away,” Mr Westin said. “I’ve been at Archerfield for 27 years and I’ve seen the demise of the industry, the amount of machinery operating here has halved in that time.”

The owner of Southern Skies Aviation has trained hundreds of pilots, including senior captains at some of the world’s major airlines, and could not see that flying was being made safer with the new regulations.

“It’s great to make regulations but we still have to make the system work,” he said.

“It makes them feel all warm and fuzzy that they make you tick all the boxes but is it really achieving the effect that they say it should?

“I don’t think so.”

With so many operators dropping out of the industry and few budding pilots walking through the door because of the cost of getting a licence, Mr Westin said he feared for the future of the industry.

“The airlines are Australia’s umbilical cord to the world and we are the ones who supply them with pilots,” he said.

“If you don’t have general aviation you can’t get pilots for the top echelon.”

Still trying to get my head around the bizarre disconnect where we have the miniscule trying to increase the uptake of women to offset the industry skills loss and prattling on about his favoured 'GAS' report due to be released in July:

"..Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester has commissioned a study into the state of the general aviation industry, and has said it will include a review of private pilot medical requirements.."

Then in the MR 4D says:

 ..."This report is important to the future of an industry estimated to have added more than $15 billion to the Australian economy in 2015–16.

“The findings will now be considered by key industry stakeholders and the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) in the context of the General Aviation Study.

“I look forward to working with the Department of Education and Training and our stakeholders to develop solutions that will ensure that the supply of quality trained aviation professionals meets the future demand.

“Delivering this study fulfils a key election commitment of the Coalition's Policy for Aviation...

Yet the Aviation Workforce Skills Study was commissioned by the miniscule's own department and included input from pretty much all highly credited professional industry stakeholders and  Alphabet associations...

...providing not only a comprehensive top down look at the present & future issues industry faces, but also provides suggested solutions...

So what is it exactly the 4D GAS report will add to the argument and proposed solutions as outlined in the AWSS & the ASRR?

[*]

Hmm...no comment -
MTF...P2