Mr. Carmody might believe that the ASSR recommendations are largely implemented and that industry trust of the regulator is being restored.
Too bad that the General Aviation industry is still in a nose dive and that as every day that passes fewer pilots are flying, more aircraft are lying about unused and depreciating in value.
Where there used to be hundreds of flying schools, especially in country areas, this once busy scene is still virtually a desert. One senior instructor nearby to me paid $8000 up front with a flying school AOC application eighteen months ago, still nothing but grief from CASA and no AOC. In the USA this instructor would have been making a living from day one and been able to put $8000 into a suitable training aircraft.
The GA industry is still strangled by all the disastrous strict liability criminal sanction and unworkable rules of Part 61. What used to be a biennial flight review is now a flight test. No consideration or incentives are built into the regime. For example no amelioration for aircraft owners, commercial licence or instructor ratings.
Same for the outlandish ASIC requirements, $283 two years only. No clarity or help to industry which the AVID could easily substitute and the excuse that this is controlled solely by the Department of Infrastructure won’t wash. How many pilots actually have either of these two security identification cards? I have enquired for comparative figures from ten years to the present, same for flying school numbers but CASA doesn’t bother keeping such unimportant numbers. Living in the Can’tberra bubble.
The best potential real reform in years is Mr. Carmody’s belated medical changes which, if implemented in the present form actually will induce pilots to either drop their instrument ratings or not bother obtaining such in the future thus depriving flying schools from valuable work Forget that Instrument Flight Rules is a higher and safer standard of flying operations.
The separating out of the low weight category to induce thousands of flyers into less capable and less strong aircraft remains one of the worst decisions ever perpetrated on the flying industry. Hats off to all those that have had to design down to an extremely low weight and all segments should have a fair go but there’s so many that would have been much better off in fully certified (IFR capable) aircraft. But no, CASA in its lack of wisdom still supports this massive error of public policy.
The whole fee gouging and unsupportable system is still in place and no amount of twiddling at the edges and hoping against hope that some ‘just culture’ attitude change will materially alter the outlook is not realistic.
Only legislative changes, political determination, will cause a true revival of GA. Expecting CASA reforming itself is a forlorn hope, it’s just not capable.
Too bad that the General Aviation industry is still in a nose dive and that as every day that passes fewer pilots are flying, more aircraft are lying about unused and depreciating in value.
Where there used to be hundreds of flying schools, especially in country areas, this once busy scene is still virtually a desert. One senior instructor nearby to me paid $8000 up front with a flying school AOC application eighteen months ago, still nothing but grief from CASA and no AOC. In the USA this instructor would have been making a living from day one and been able to put $8000 into a suitable training aircraft.
The GA industry is still strangled by all the disastrous strict liability criminal sanction and unworkable rules of Part 61. What used to be a biennial flight review is now a flight test. No consideration or incentives are built into the regime. For example no amelioration for aircraft owners, commercial licence or instructor ratings.
Same for the outlandish ASIC requirements, $283 two years only. No clarity or help to industry which the AVID could easily substitute and the excuse that this is controlled solely by the Department of Infrastructure won’t wash. How many pilots actually have either of these two security identification cards? I have enquired for comparative figures from ten years to the present, same for flying school numbers but CASA doesn’t bother keeping such unimportant numbers. Living in the Can’tberra bubble.
The best potential real reform in years is Mr. Carmody’s belated medical changes which, if implemented in the present form actually will induce pilots to either drop their instrument ratings or not bother obtaining such in the future thus depriving flying schools from valuable work Forget that Instrument Flight Rules is a higher and safer standard of flying operations.
The separating out of the low weight category to induce thousands of flyers into less capable and less strong aircraft remains one of the worst decisions ever perpetrated on the flying industry. Hats off to all those that have had to design down to an extremely low weight and all segments should have a fair go but there’s so many that would have been much better off in fully certified (IFR capable) aircraft. But no, CASA in its lack of wisdom still supports this massive error of public policy.
The whole fee gouging and unsupportable system is still in place and no amount of twiddling at the edges and hoping against hope that some ‘just culture’ attitude change will materially alter the outlook is not realistic.
Only legislative changes, political determination, will cause a true revival of GA. Expecting CASA reforming itself is a forlorn hope, it’s just not capable.