[Peetwo]

RAAA GA advocacy? - Too little, too late..   

Personally I don't think Carmody and the Iron Ring would do little more than roll over and fart when they read this Oz article from Mike Higgins CEO of the RAAA:

RAAA calls for CASA to consult
MIKE HIGGINS
The Regional Aviation Association of Australia is proud to be a strong supporter of general aviation in this country.

A strong GA sector is vital as we acknowledge that, in many cases, flight instructors, pilots and maintainers tend to move up into the regional airlines after gaining valuable experience in the smaller GA organisations.


As another recent example, the RAAA is a key and vocal member of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority technical working group on Civil Aviation Safety Regulations Part 43.

The proposed new Part 43 will be a much improved way of maintaining aircraft operating in the private and aerial work sectors (not the RAAA world directly).

Under the proposal, future compliance costs for existing maintenance providers will be substantially reduced by the removal of obligations to conduct internal audits and obtain CASA approval to expand or change the range of maintenance ser­vices they provide.

In a nutshell, the proposed rules are based on the GA safety standards found in the US. Therefore, we can expect the changes to maintain or raise existing levels of safety and concurrently increase productivity, as less time will need to be devoted to the soon-to-be-redundant CASA red tape that has not improved safety outcomes.

This is a great initiative for maintainers and aircraft operators based in regional, rural and remote Australia. Congratu­lations to CASA on this one.

On the other hand, the new CASR Part 135, which will affect every current charter operator in the country, is before the parliament without any reference to how this sector is to be maintained. Therefore, the Australian community (via their sitting members) is being asked to vote on a half-baked package.

How can one reasonably make such a momentous decision affecting every charter operator in the country when 50 per cent of the picture (maintenance requirements and therefore costs) are not yet available?

To make matters worse, there is a rumour within CASA that CASR parts 42 and 145 (currently applying to the largest aircraft operators and maintainers in the country) will be tweaked and pushed down on to current Civil Aviation Regulation 30 maintenance and charter organisations. This would be a disaster.

There is a way forward.

Sector risk profiles are collaborative meetings between CASA and experts in industry. The RAAA has been represented in almost every SRP undertaken to date. The RAAA is urging CASA to pause and conduct a SRP on the CAR 30 rules and organisations. A CAR 30 SRP would determine exactly what, if any, improvements might need to be made for current CAR 30 organisations to continue maintaining charter operators under the new Part 135.

Mike Higgins is chief executive of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia.

Hmm...no comment, except to say is this an attempt by the RAAA - & by association TAAAF - to try to placate their smaller GA operator membership? 


MTF...P2