[Peetwo]

Woebegone and disinterested, the ministerial look.



Has any government department yet realised the stark reality of the ‘drone’ situation? IF there is; and, my tote says there must be, a serious bingle between and unlicensed ‘rouge’ drone and an essential service helicopter, the political fallout and media field day will be massive. The major aviation safety agencies have been at silly buggers since the question first arose – and done SFA since; ‘cept cover their collective rear ends. It not only typifies their approach to ‘pro-active’ safety, but the inbuilt reflex denial of any responsibility, whatsoever. CASA for example refuse to believe there is a problem at all -



The thing that still amazes me, even now after this excellent Senate committee has finished doing the ‘heavy lifting’ is the pallid, bland, reluctant responses to what is, quite seriously, an out of control situation. The time taken to shake the dozing departments awake is mind bending. The need to continually ‘hammer’ the message home beggars belief; but that, stand alone is not the reason for taking a long, deep, soothing breath.

I cannot; will not, ever, understand how our major aeronautical safety agencies and their handlers must be dragged, in a fine exhibition of the sheep dogs problem (passive resistance) to accept that they have an urgent responsibility – now: right now to get ahead of this increasingly, dangerous problem. WTD is the matter with ‘em. This is real, this is now – what the hell will happen if a laser loaded drone downs a medivac chopper carrying a hurt kid to the hospital? – Seriously; it could happen, tonight; scenario: - car crash, medi-vac, drone strike, and a two ton chopper smashing into the roof of a busy hospital. The government would fall.

Time the minister started taking some photographs that mattered – instead of pissing about with Barmy-Baby in the Tamworth aero club dunny - ne pensez-vous pas ?




On the latest Hansard video evidence, even the DoIT lady was ‘defensive’, calling up ‘inter departmental’ bollocks and road blocks. The lack of initiative is stunning. DoIT wants to wait for the Senators to sort it out, give them a plan so they can then wait for the ministers response, before they’ll actually do something. Bollocks. Time to get this done before there is an accident; the numbers – as in the odds, are increasing by the second. Why don’t the public servants start actually serving the public interest? Hells bells they’re not even serving 6D AGAD; he’s the one who will wear the shame when it happens. Oh yes minister, not a question of IF; only when.

That’s all the help I can offer – it costs a fortune to rebuild a hospital – but why should 6D give a duck; not his budget is it.. You’d reckon, even in self defence the hapless 6D AGAD  would have the whip out; seems he rather take pictures of Barmy’s. Such is life in the ministerial fast lane.

Toot – Plonker – toot.

Still waiting for Hansard -

Finally Hansard is out -  

17 Oct 2017 Canberra, ACT (HTML & PDF)

..CHAIR: I'm not sure, but when we raise this sort of stuff with CASA they don't want to know about it. It's: 'She'll be right. Christ, we've got other things to worry about if one of these hits a plane.' But that is why I have to tell you, because in September, on Staten Island in New York, a drone hit an army helicopter at night. I don't know how the hell the helicopter got out of it. They did, and that's great, but this is the important thing I wanted to raise with you, as a very senior departmental official. We'll raise it again with CASA. They collected the drone, and DJI were able to identify who owned that drone. I don't know whether or not it's compulsory in the United States, but if anyone in CASA or the Australian government doesn't think that this should be a minimum compulsory standard then they need their head read. I just wanted to share that with you, because if you could filter that down to CASA that would be wonderful—if they could get on the same planet as us.

Ms Spence : Just for your awareness, Senator, my observations over the last 12 to 18 months are that CASA has certainly turned its attention—

CHAIR: Don't defend them with us.

Ms Spence : I do feel—

CHAIR: We're getting on fantastically and we want to continue to get on fantastically with you. They give us the whoops; you don't. But feel free if you want to defend them.

Ms Spence : It's just that I am conscious they have put out the discussion paper and they are—

CHAIR: They got dragged kicking and screaming into it.

Senator O'SULLIVAN: Seven months after they were asked for it—

Ms Spence : I'm just trying to—

CHAIR: But you're dealing with it, so we might leave it at that.

Senator O'SULLIVAN: and consequently there were some very terse encounters with this committee. We met with a delegation of seven of them—I think all three of us were present—and it was breathtaking. I know that their public position has improved but I'm not sure that the energy's there behind it. I share my colleague's view that they need to be monitored.

Finally more on the Carmody hour backdown on drones...

Via Spacial Source:

CASA tightens drone rules ahead of review
By Daniel Bishton on 23 October, 2017


Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has introduced tighter rules on recreational drone flight ahead of a full review of drone regulation.
 
CASA cites community concern as the prompt for the new restrictions, and a rising number of incidents being reported.

“We keep getting reports from pilots of seeing drones while they’re taking off and landing, often up to several thousand feet high,” CASA spokesman Peter Gibson told Spatial Source.

“The increasing number of drones, the number of people flying them recreationally, and the increasing number of reports of incidents and events made us look again at the drone rules — and we thought it appropriate to tighten them up, and clarify some areas where they weren’t as clear as they could be.”

The new regulations enforce a maximum ceiling of 400 feet (just under 123 metres) on recreational drones, and craft must remain more than 30 metres from people not involved in controlling the drone, and only one recreational drone may be flown at one time. All drones – recreational and non-recreational – must now be kept away from areas where fire, police or other emergency operations are underway unless there is approval from the person in charge of the emergency operation.

Drones weighing over 100 grams now cannot be flown within 5.5 kilometres of a controlled aerodrome — the major aerodromes in capitals and regional centres —  or non-controlled aerodromes, if it is clear that aircraft are operating at these sites. Controlled aerodromes can be easily identified by whether a control tower is present at the facility, or on Airservice Australia’s map.

Announced on October 20, the new regulations were accompanied by the launch of DroneFlyer, CASA’s new drone safety website, and are intended as a preliminary measure ahead of a full review of drone regulation in Australia that is in progress. Analysis of almost 1,000 responses to a discussion paper on drone flight regulation are currently being analysed as the basis of CASA’s review, with results and recommendations expected to be made public in 2018.

Gibson confirmed that CASA has been discussion with DJI regarding the potential implementation of their geofencing system, and that various applications of this technology were suggested in the discussion paper, though the agency’s position on the technology was yet to be determined.

The formal direction containing CASA’s new rules for drone flight can be found here.

Note how Pinocchio Gobson has completely changed his weasel worded spin'n'bollocks -


MTF...P2