[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 1 July 2022

1 July 2022

– Steve Hitchen


You have to applaud the courage and honesty of Ray Cronin. The AHIA president stood up at RotorTech last week and stated straight forward that pilots were to blame for most of the accidents in the helicopter industry. It made a very refreshing change from people blaming the system, or management or the alignment of the planets. This was problem ownership at its best. Cronin spoke about poor decision-making skills, and although he was referring to the helicopter community, what he was saying has application in the fixed-wing world as well. This is not to say the every pilot is to solely to blame for every accident in which they are involved; to do so would be to devalue the Swiss cheese theory so widely accepted by investigators right around the world. But it seems to me that one of the holes in the cheese belongs to the pilot of the aircraft. They are responsible for the alignment of their hole, and somewhere in nearly every accident you can see where the pilot made a decision that, had they zigged instead of zagged, the crash may not have happened. Part of the solution is owning the problem, which is what Cronin and AHIA have done.

"..the industry is going to wear the pain of delays inevitable under such change..."

Setting up any centralised system that replaces a structure based in the regions is usually very traumatic for the organisation. Those in the regions feel like empowerment has been taken away from them and, often but not always, people in the regions are quick to point out how fallible the central system is. So CASA's project to create a Guidance Delivery Centre (which always sounds to me like it has something to do with rockets) to provide more consistent advice was always going to be ambitious ... even if it is the right answer for the aviation industry. As an all-answers-in-one-place solution, there has been a lot of pressure on GDC from the outset and it shouldn't be surprising that it has wobbled a bit at the start. That hasn't been helped by the mass of other changes going on within CASA, which has placed the organisation in a state of reconstitution. On the good side of the ledger, both CEO Pip Spence and chair Mark Binskin believe in the concept, and they are applying enough slack to let the system bed itself in. In short, the industry is going to wear the pain of delays inevitable under such change until GDC is up to its cruise speed. However, the aviation community will accept (albeit begrudgingly) the situation for only so long, after which they will want to see GDC performing absolutely as advertised.

All those who were keyed-up and ready for the Brisbane Airshow this weekend are going to have to cool their jets for another week, which shouldn't be hard to do given the weather forecast: 16oC tomorrow with 20-35 mm of rain. The organisers made the call to postpone it for one week to 9-10 July, which can be a more difficult thing to do than postponing it for a year. Display aircraft may be scheduled to be elsewhere, volunteers may have planned other things for next weekend as indeed may have members of the general public. A shift of one week is an upheaval of more than just seven days delay. But there is a chance that the show will go on next Saturday, which is better than the odds you would have given it for tomorrow.

Nominations for the 2022 CASA Wings Awards officially open on Monday 4 July. The collector will remain open until 26 October. The success of the Wings Awards so far is nothing short of exciting. I was unable to attend the presentations at Bathurst on the weekend due to a non-COVID lurgy, which deprived me of seeing how much these awards actually mean to the GA community. The emotion had been palpable earlier in June when I was at the presentation of the Col Pay Award to Borg Sorensen, so I had a good idea of the impact recognition can have for the winners. It's such a simple thing, but it means so much. The sort of people who win the Col Pay are, by nature, not the types to nominate themselves; they rely on others. And that means you. If you know a person who deserves the 2022 Col Pay Award, then you need to put together the justification and get the nomination in. The same goes for the other CASA Wings Awards categories: Aero Club of the Year, Flying Training Organisation of the Year, Flying Instructor of the Year and Young Achiever of the Year. The impact winning has is such a positive thing that you have the ability to deliver to someone if you do the ground work to nominate them.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Kharon]

NOTAM - imminent BOHICA event.

Hitch - "You have to applaud the courage and honesty of Ray Cronin."

Well; no I don't, not at all.

Hitch - "The AHIA president stood up at RotorTech last week and stated straight forward that pilots were to blame for most of the accidents in the helicopter industry.

Yet, the 'facts' contradict this statement - in reality a quick run through the ATSB data base contradicts most of the remarks made; -see - HERE -for a fast fact check. 

Hitch - "It made a very refreshing change from people blaming the system, or management or the alignment of the planets.

Bollocks - Oh dear; spoken like a true amateur, holding forth at the bar; one who has never had to do the hard yards associated with making the transition from one who can pedal a light aircraft around the traps in fine fine weather but never faced the grim reality of operating in the 'real' world of commercial operations.

Hitch - "This was problem ownership at its best. Cronin spoke about poor decision-making skills, and although he was referring to the helicopter community, what he was saying has application in the fixed-wing world as well.

Clearly Hitch has never been involved in the working end of industry. Any Chief pilot or C&T bloke (or blokess) could educate him in about five minutes. There is a fine  art in transitioning a newly minted pilot to the flight line - no easy task - bit of a dark art in reality. The raw product from flight school needs to be managed through that transition; its not just a matter of 'ticking' the boxes in the endless paperwork. In fact, that part of the process and attitude toward it sets the tone for future attitude - tick, file and dismiss to the file cabinet. How the new start is 'managed' during the first half year sets the 'attitude' for the next decade. New pilots 'copy' and 'carry' the early lessons onto their data base. This is a 'company' problem to solve not the individual. Monkey see - monkey do..

Hitch - "This is not to say the every pilot is to solely to blame for every accident in which they are involved; to do so would be to devalue the Swiss cheese theory so widely accepted by investigators right around the world.

Perhaps a clear eyed look at the 'cheese' related to Mt. Disappointment accident is in order. Not the glib reaction, but the deeper, underlying motivating factors, the real pressures. This was a 'commercial' - revenue flight; representing the first hole in that famous cheese. Were the clients briefed that the weather was marginal for the operation? Were they advised that a turn back was a probability; or, that perhaps the flight could be delayed until the weather cheered up a bit? Were the pilots briefed to take a look and make a judgement call - and risk upsetting passengers who wanted to be and payed to be on time at their meeting?  Then there is the subtle pressure -  what will the boss say when they return to base or land elsewhere to wait a while? Then, there is peer pressure - what if 'A' got through and 'B' pulled the pin? What then? When the flight was authorised were the pilots given clear instruction - "if it looks dodgy; bring 'em back, don't mess about".

Hitch - "But it seems to me that one of the holes in the cheese belongs to the pilot of the aircraft. They are responsible for the alignment of their hole, and somewhere in nearly every accident you can see where the pilot made a decision that, had they zigged instead of zagged, the crash may not have happened. Part of the solution is owning the problem, which is what Cronin and AHIA have done.

Seems to me Hitch, like Cronin, is talking through his hat. Blaming the pilots is an old saw; an easy excuse for piss poor, greedy flight line management and covering the 'real' culture within a company. Flight crew reflect to base line company attitudes and ethos. Did either of those pilots at Mt. Disappointment have the wriggle room to say - No, not today -or;  let's wait a while and see how the weather works out. Yeah; sure they did - not....Not without 'penalty' in one way, shape or form..Command prerogative - anyone???  Shame on Hitch for a sorry, trite piece of sycophantic, inaccurate thoughtless scribble. 'Click'...

Toot - toot.

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 8 July 2022

8 July 2022

– Steve Hitchen

General aviation has many pressing problems at the moment; it seems they are all around us and each one demanding extinction-level attention. Among the impending disasters is a lack of senior flying instructors and examiners in a system rigged towards a high level involvement from CFIs/HOOs and Flight Examiners. Grade 1 instructors are getting thin on the ground, which is a self-perpetuating problem in that only a Grade 1 can teach the instructor rating, ensuring there is virtually no way of doing any succession planning. The airlines have plundered the Grade 1s and have started on the Grade 2s, ripping the heart out of the training industry and curtailing any chance of training replacement instructors. It's a spiral dive that is proving hard to arrest. CASA this week relieved some of the pressure by varying the rules around flight examiner proficiency checks and permitting approved Grade 1s to do assessments for some endorsements. The represents only a start. Another good move would be to permit instructors who have ratings and endorsements to be able to teach those aspects without having to go through even more training. Right now, an instructor can have an instrument rating or an aerobatic endorsement, but no matter their skill or experience they can't teach those skills because CASA says they need to be taught to teach those skills. A pilot who has an Instructor Rating and has a CASA syllabus in their hand is likely to be very competent at teaching any skill they already have. Being barred from doing so is simply a bureaucratic roadblock that the training industry can't afford to pander to anymore.

"..Anything that was 'glossed over' was probably something that we don't need.."

The Federal Government has confirmed the VFR ADS-B rebate scheme is going ahead in August as planned. Hopefully that will settle the hearts of some people who had their cages rattled this week by a poorly-worded statement on the Airservices website saying the program was under review. The review applied to the rules and regulations that underpin schemes such as this, not the rebate itself. That's good news for the GA industry, and is almost certain to make a direct impact on aviation safety. The subsidy was first proposed by the Coalition government, but drew immediate support from the ALP in opposition. Good policy is good policy no matter who said it first. What GA needs now is for the ALP government to apply some of that thinking to the rest of the work done by the Coalition government and the GA community across the 2020-21 period. That work culminated in the Aviation Recovery Framework, which got a standing ovation from GA, but was condemned by the ALP as "glossing over" a range of challenges facing GA. That has confused industry commentators and advocates because the framework addressed and provided solutions for most the issues that threatened the viability of GA. Anything that was "glossed over" was probably something that we don't need, yet it seems the ALP has already determined that we do. That has triggered some nervousness that the White Paper will not only deliver too little too late, but also what it does deliver will have minimal impact on GA revitalisation because it simply wasn't needed in the beginning. 

It doens't look like there is much going to stop the Brisbane Airshow from going ahead this weekend. Postponed from last weekend due to disappointing weather, the show has stumbled into clear and sunny conditions all weekend. After the torrential downpours that have bedeviled the region in the past weeks, they are due some well-deserved CAVOK. The aviation expo at Watts Bridge looks to be well supported, with major GA companies like Pilatus, Cirrus, Tecnam, Sling, PlaneSales, AvPlan and OzRunways all taking a supporting stake. So although the air display portion is geared up largely to the general public, there's plenty on the taxiways to attract the genuine GA punters also. And if you haven't yet worked it out ... you're the GA punters I'm talking about. If you're in the Watts Bridge vicinity this weekend, get down there and enjoy the show whilst the sun shines.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 15 July 2022

15 July 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Minister Catherine King's announcement of a SAF council for Australia is very good news for innovation and jobs creation in Australia. The international aviation industry has committed itself to a SAF future, and even now the volume of SAF used around the world is rising in thousands of litres per year. Two of the major ingredients needed to produce SAF are lots of spare land and buckets of sunshine. Sound like any country we know? Australia is beautifully placed to make the world's supply of aviation fuel going a long way into the future, but my fear is that this council could be a couple of prime ministers too late. SAF is already being manufactured in commerical quantities in other countries, which means Australia is late to market and, until lately, the SAF industry here has not  been supported. We are behind the rest of the world, and now have some catch-up to play. The new Gladstone facility is a great step forward, and establishing a working council to mature the industry should help Australia nab a large portion of the world market. And critically, it should also secure our supply of aviation fuel without having to rely on importing so much from other countries.

"..So what was it that prompted OAR to scotch the MBA idea?.."

How do you solve a problem like Mangalore? It was once thought a Surveillance Flight Information Service (SFIS) was the trick, but now apparently not. CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR) report came out this week ruling out a Mandatory Broadcast Area (MBA) around Mangalore, which knocked out the main supporting pillar of SFIS. Instead, the OAR has recommended a safety seminar and updating some documents. Sorry, Mangalore is a much bigger problem than that. The area is criss-crossed daily by every imaginable form of aviation from GA training to parachutists, hang glider, gliders, transiting aircraft and IFR aircraft doing training on the VOR. It's congested airspace and an area where safety is compromised by traffic volumes. So what was it that prompted OAR to scotch the MBA idea? That's a contentious question right there. It wasn't Airservices; they were the main proponent of the SFIS idea in the first place. Could the local stakeholders have raised objections robust enough to over-power the Airservices proposal?  It is very hard to believe that the recommendations in this report adequately address all the problems the stakeholders raised. In the meantime, Mangalore CTAF continues on in its own frenetic way, tempered slightly by Airservices' promise to keep up the Safety Alerting Service, a temporary fix that–like so many other temporary fixes–looks to stay in place for some time.

Registrations for Ausfly are open! The Australian General Aviation Alliance (AGAA) national fly-in is only two months away now and things are starting to ramp-up at Narromine. One look at the published program and you'll see more than 20 different seminar sessions plus the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia AGM, a public flying display and evening social events to keep you busy. The expo line-up looks pretty healthy thanks to extensive industry support, so it's very clear the GA community wants Ausfly. I have already registered and scored myself some handy accommodation (the first thing is easier to do than the second!) and am looking forward to a great few days. With a bit of good management, I'll catch up with a lot of you there.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Kharon]

LM Hitch Oz Flying...A neat enough nutshell:-

Hitch - "How do you solve a problem like Mangalore?'

The cost to this industry and nation of 'air safety' is a significant one. Part of that great cost is the salary paid to the so called 'experts' in various disciplines; the reason given being that they are in place to solve 'problems' - usually this happens 'after the fact'. IMO the true 'expert' anticipates 'problems' before they emerge and make moves to prevent the 'problem'. For how many years now has there been the potential for a mid air in the Mangalore area; a busy pinch point, the only reasonable training aid, many varied activities etc - ... IF Blind Freddy could see the potential - surely our 'experts' could see the same. 29 months have passed since the mid air event and our expensive genius group cannot provide a solution. Seriously?

Hitch - "It was once thought a Surveillance Flight Information Service (SFIS) was the trick, but now apparently not. CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR) report came out this week ruling out a Mandatory Broadcast Area (MBA) around Mangalore, which knocked out the main supporting pillar of SFIS.

OK, the wizards of the OAR have ruled; so where is the detailed analysis, explanation and solution? For that class of money, surely those operating in the area with a legitimate vested interest have a right to be made aware of the reasoning, not to mention 'strangers' visiting or transiting; or even those who pay for 'safe skies'. Why was the ASA 'fix' knocked out?

Hitch - "Instead, the OAR has recommended a safety seminar and updating some documents.

Stellar; ducking brilliant solution. The locals and regular users have probably more idea about 'situational awareness' and how the airspace is used than anyone; highly aware of others, when to avoid and how to dodge through. Instructors fully alert through practice and use, Talk about preaching to the converted. Education and document changes just insult every pilot using the airspace.

Hitch - "Sorry, Mangalore is a much bigger problem than that. The area is criss-crossed daily by every imaginable form of aviation from GA training to parachutists, hang glider, gliders, transiting aircraft and IFR aircraft doing training on the VOR. It's congested airspace and an area where safety is compromised by traffic volumes. So what was it that prompted OAR to scotch the MBA idea?

Good question - valid argument - both should have been answered long before the mid-air; 29 months later and this dribble from OAR is the qualified response from our 'safety watch-dog'? Disgraceful. The ignorance, arrogance and disrespect appalling, but it is what we have come to expect. And; where the hell is the ATSB in all this - it is a 'safety case'; ain't it?

Hitch -"That's a contentious question right there. It wasn't Airservices; they were the main proponent of the SFIS idea in the first place.

So; those who separate traffic all day every day, have the equipment to do so and are responsible for doing exactly that come up with a 'fix'. Perhaps not 'the' perfect solution but a working model which is within their ambit of expertise. No, no say the doyens of dribble -- WTD would ATC know about sorting traffic?

Hitch -"Could the local stakeholders have raised objections robust enough to over-power the Airservices proposal?  It is very hard to believe that the recommendations in this report adequately address all the problems the stakeholders raised. In the meantime, Mangalore CTAF continues on in its own frenetic way, tempered slightly by Airservices' promise to keep up the Safety Alerting Service, a temporary fix that–like so many other temporary fixes–looks to stay in place for some time.

Spot on Hitch - a classic example why Australian aviation is in such a bloody mess; another band aid from CASA - 29 months on without risk mitigation in any meaningful form, ASA carrying all the load and the poor old flight crew carrying all the legal and operational responsibility for not hitting anything - its Grade 1, Class A bullshit from the 'experts' shovel. All care, lots of hot air, no responsibility - but we'll take the big money and hide behind our expert, armour plated arrogance, covered all the way by the 'law' we drafted. 

Great work if you can get it - I just need a bucket.

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 22 July 2022

22 July 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Things were quiet in GA this week, particularly when it comes to news out of the manufacturers. That's not abnormal for the week leading up to AirVenture at Oshkosh. The biggest aviation party in the world starts next week, and as an aeroplane builder and exhibitor you want some announcements in reserve as bait to attract people to your stand. Expect quite a bit of news on that front next week. But for me the biggest announcement won't come from a manufacturer. The GA industry in the USA is expecting the FAA to release the draft MOSAIC regulations before the close of AirVenture. This is a program called the Modernisation of Special Airworthiness Certification, and it aims to transform what we now call Light Sport Aircraft into something infinitely more practical that removes barriers to modern technology. So far the FAA's thinking on MOSAIC has been locked away, but some leaks talk about removing the MTOW limit, permitting turbine engines and retractable landing gear, and for the USA, no speed restrictions. MOSAIC is not intended as a vehicle to re-certify existing aeroplanes, but rather to expand the scope of what manufacturers can build without resorting to full CS/FAR 23 certification. For example, MOSAIC would enable aircraft builders to design for the new RAAus Category G, which has an MTOW limit of 760 kg. The potential for new and safer designs is huge. The basis behind MOSAIC is that almost anything goes provided the aircraft complies with a formula that ensures the aircraft handling meets a define level of docility. Exactly what that looks like is what interests GA at the moment.

"..it could be because of a culture that just can't extract itself from the 1930s.."

This week's interim report into women in aviation is particularly damning for men in aviation. The Barriers to the Pipeline report effectively says that aviation still has a "boys' club" mentality driven by sexism and misogyny that women just don't want to be a part of. There is no escaping that this is an indictment of a culture created and maintained by men. The most disappointing part is that a large part of culture is attitude, and it is therefore attitude that is keeping very valuable people out of aviation at a time that we need them the most. As the industry digests this report, I am expecting to be inundated by a deluge of different opinions on this report and its conclusion, albeit interim. Men will often say there are no barriers to women because anyone can learn to fly, but this reflects a misunderstanding of the environments that women thrive in. They thrive in cultures that give them freedom to challenge themselves without their gender being constantly an issue. According to the report women are expected to give up their feminism in order to get along, i.e., remove the issue of their gender by behaving more like "one of the boys". The reason why men want women to behave more like them is a most perplexing one, and any attempt by me to explain will only add to the coming deluge of opinion. At the core of it all could be conservatism, it could be power, it could be fear. Or it could be because of a culture that just can't extract itself from the 1930s, a time when misogyny was considered normal rather than an abberration. The last vestiges of evidence that women can fly as well as men were proven fraudulent years ago, but the culture in which that was framed perpetuates. The change that is needed to fix this problem is actually larger than the problem itself, and it's time everyone in aviation recognised that.

Last week I sounded off at the CASA OAR about their decision to do pretty much nothing about traffic density problems at Mangalore. Despite them handling some awkward questions from me, I am still not convinced that the recommendations of education and adding some symbols to charts is any form of solution. In my research I was delivered an example of a simple solution that could go a long way towards increasing safety: a VFR transit lane. Right now, transiting aircraft fly overhead the airport where ab initio training and VOR training is prevalent. In our navigation training, we are taught to fly via airports because they are prominent landmarks and provide refuge from weather and a failing engine. But in the case of Mangalore the traffic density means overhead the field is not necessariy a safe place. A transit lane set up that directed traffic to either the east or west of the field would at least relocate that traffic to a point away from those aircraft that actually need to use the airport. It's a simple thing that could bring about a large increase in safety. Certain I believe it would have more value than a seminar.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 29 July 2022

29 July 2022

– Steve Hitchen

General aviation received some very disappointing news this week: the FAA will be making no MOSAIC announcement as was widely expected. MOSAIC is a program to revise the ruleset around special airworthiness categories including LSAs, and has been widely tipped to remove a lot of restrictive rules such as MTOWs and engine types. From what I have been able to gather, MOSAIC just got too big for the FAA to cope with, so they decided to divide the program and excise RPAS from it. That has meant a delay of anything up to 12 months whilst they sort it all out. The new rules, when they are finally established (work started in 2014), and hopefully adopted here, could mean new LSAs being built to slot straight into the RAAus Group G. That means an MTOW of up to 760 kg. Right now, there is no certification standard other than full CS/FAR 23 that will permit that take-off weight. For now, Group G looks like advantaging amateur builders, but exclude factory-built aircraft. We can but hope that in one year's time we have some better news.

"..It therefore follows that the most complex answer is the wrong one.."

Flight training used to be a very simple activity. You were a flying school that had the instructors, the aeroplanes and the approvals, and people paid you money to teach them to fly. Then came Part 61, Part 141/142, government loans, university courses, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, CRICOS, the various education departments and suddenly the system has become so complex, so unwieldy and confusing that it is probably now on the cusp of complete collapse. COVID has culled the stream of international students to the Part 142 schools and airlines have raided the training organisations like Border Reivers, carrying off the best of the Grade 1 instructors and starting on the Grade 2s. For all this organisation, cross-bureaucracy and regulation, the flow of good, qualified pilots to GA and the airlines is hardly commensurate with the weight of regulation. CFIs/HOOs are getting hard to find, which is threatening the existence of even the most financially-stable flying schools. If William of Ockham were here today, he would look at how flight training is done in Australia and scream "I told you so!" He theorised that "the simplest answer tends to be the correct one." It therefore follows that the most complex answer is the wrong one, and it's hard to imagine a more complex system than commercial flight training in Australia. With dwindling resources and increasing pressure, flying schools are starting to shutter their windows, and unless a whole-of-industry solution is found soon, everyone will feel the impact from ATPLs all the way down to RPCs.

During the week I had my eyes opened to something regarding our regulator. CASA has been beaten up so much for over-regulation that they may be reluctant to propose practical solutions for fear of further retribution; a case of 40-times bitten, 41-times shy. Instead, they are looking to the aviation community to determine the action needed and propose it back to them. It under-scored to me the importance of feedback to consultation and supporting voice for things that are just a damned good idea. Of course, this is a generalisation and there's no guarantee that good ideas will automatically be adopted nor does it mean that CASA won't come up with their own ideas in the future. To me, it is tacit admission that CASA doesn't have all the answers. I have been quite willing to throw rotten pears at CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR) for their report that recommended nothing concrete about the situation at Mangalore, but it was pointed out to me that the Airservices proposal was not workable and no other feasible solution was put up. I took that as a plea for the aviation community to get on board and make submissions to the OAR consultation process. The consultation is open until 11 August, so if you've got a good idea and you can articulate it professionally, now is the time to let CASA know about it.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 5 August 2022

5 August 2022

– Steve Hitchen

I find it continually intriguing that Australian aviators will go all the way to Oshkosh in numbers and send back thousands of photos every year, but they will baulk at showing up to a national fly-in in their own country. It is now only five weeks until Ausfly at[b] [/b]Narromine, yet it is on the radar of so very few pilots. Since the first national GA fly-in was mooted in early 2012, this event has not grown exponentially the way that it should have. There have been several fringe issues that have stunted the growth, but essentially the root cause is a reluctance by aviators to show up. That's not going to be a popular thing for me to have said, but I believe the first step towards solving any problem is recognising that it exists. Organisers and volunteers spend a lot of personal time sorting out air shows and fly-ins, and on the day will scan the skies hopefully looking for evidence that their effort has been justified. What more can they do but put on an event and a show worth showing up for? This year they've got Matt Hall, The Stooges, Emma McDonald, Jock Folan, Mad Dogs and UPRT lined up, which promises to be one of the best air displays you'll get. The thing about fly-ins is that they succeed on the level of energy in the event; energy that is provided not by the organisers, but by the people that show up. Everyone needs to bring their energy this year.

"..RNAVs are too powerful a safety tool to be restricted the way they are.."

The whole idea of technological advancement in aviation is to make things easier and safer, which commits us to ask a lot of questions when the use of technology is denied. Ten years ago, airports that had RNAVs lost them if they elected not to have their aerodrome certified. According to CASA, it was a matter of obstacles: the RNAV was not protected from people building tall things that protruded into the flight path unless the airport was certified. Now Mallacoota Airport in East Gippsland–the only airport in Victoria in a designated remote area–has lost its RNAV because the council found it was impractical to comply with CASR Part 139. Crucial air ambulance services are under threat, which is a very drastic outcome that was probably not intended by any party involved. For Mallacoota, the answer is probably to recover their certification by way of exemptions or a plea for the Federal Government to fund upgrades to meet the standard. That's not a path that can be considered by many ALA operators around Australia that are being denied the safety levels that RNAV approaches were designed to achieve. RNAVs are too powerful a safety tool to be restricted the way they are, and we have to find a way to permit non-certified airports to use them. CASA is not on board with this, believing the obstacle risk is far too great. It is hard to see how this fear is greater than relegating pilots to approaching airports in marginal conditions over high terrain. Prior to CASR Part 139, RNAVs at ALAs were considered safe (even without official obstacle monitoring), so why can they not be safe again?

I have a theory that all the answers to everything in aviation already exist, they just haven't reached the surface yet or do so in weak formats that just aren't listened to. If I am right, someone out there holds the key to resolving the traffic density problem at Mangalore. There will be countless pilots standing around aero clubs telling the nearest other beerholder how it is all so simple, but this is the weak format of which I speak. Strong formats are well-considered submissions to CASA consultation. Already some good ideas for Manglore have been run past me and I have encouraged each proponent to get their submission in so CASA has something in front of them. The consultation door shuts on 11 August only six days away, and if a meaningful answer is out there, we can only hope that it's in the mix for consideration. Don't sit on your ideas, get them in; consultation is only ever as good as the feedback.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 12 August 2022

12 August 2022

– Steve Hitchen

If you're out there looking for a good second-hand GA aeroplane at the moment you will have to be on the ball to get what you want; the market is skyrocketing in terms of price and there are buyers jockeying to get into the box seat. Aircraft like Archers and Cessna 172s in reasonable nick with good hours on them are in demand and they don't stay on the market very long at all. The current situation is an unintended consequence of problems sourcing new aircraft. Most of the GA manufacturers now are quoting up to two years to deliver new, meaning flying schools and charter operators are turning to the second-hand market as a source of fleet replacements. And with Lycoming rumoured to be around 15,000 engines in arrears world-wide, even a good aircraft with a time-expired engine needs to be mothballed and a used machine secured to keep the company running. Compounding this is the fact that Australia is running out of good condition low-hour aircraft that fit into the sweet spot in terms of utility and economy. Aeroplanes that would traditionally sell for around $60-70,000 are now fetching $100-120,000 easily. It has been a long time since a seller's market like this has existed, and it shows no sign of cooling down any time soon.

"...defending common interests are what associations were formed to do..."

I'd pay money to score a seat at the upcoming aviation skills round table with Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Catherine King. I have been told about 20 or so people have been invited, which in aviation means at least 22 different opinions will come to the party ... normally. What is bringing everyone together at this time is a new awakening from the Federal Government that a healthy aviation industry relies heavily on maintenance engineers, and all sectors of aviation agree that here just aren't enough of them to go around and the pipeline is clogged. Where things could get entertaining on 23 August is a difference of opinion over priorities. There will be conflicting interests jostling for prime spots in the ear of the minister, fired by counter-advocacy from several quarters. Flight training organisations would very much like the airlines to stop poaching highly-qualified instructors, and airlines would dearly like to keep doing that. There are other points of heated discussion that I won't go into here. That's to be expected; defending common interests are what associations were formed to do. King's challenge is going to be finding an all-of-industry solution that is workable and easy to implement. My fear is that all of this will disappear into a huge melting pot of stuff that will eventually solidify into the new Aviation White Paper (more below on that). That would be a disaster; white papers take time and time is the only thing the industry is shorter of than engineers.

It is true the ALP government has inherited a pile of coal from which they are expected to make diamonds. The national debt is in the trillions, supply chains are rusty and fractured and almost every employment sector is saying the government must do more. The Federal Government has to make a little bit of cash go a long way. It is therefore very surprising that it is determined to spend a couple of million or so on a new Aviation White Paper when they already have at their fingertips all the information a white paper will ever give them. But most of that information is contained in documents that carry a Coalition masthead, so therefore needs to be discarded. Another compelling reason is that a new white paper was an election promise, albeit a promise that the industry didn't want and didn't ask for. The smartest, cheapest and most efficient thing the ALP could now do is implement the plans that the aviation sector and the Coalition sweated over to create, and shelve the white paper idea completely. I am guilty of pie-in-the-sky thinking here, because I have ignored political imperative. This is the ever-present undertow that influences policy from the shadows of Canberra. If you want to see the damage political imperative can do, just read the Aviation White Paper produced by the last ALP government, then steel yourself for what's coming ahead.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

Comment in reply from Sandy (yet to be published -   ):

Editor Hitch says “almost every employment sector is saying the government must do more.”

I would say all the government has to do is less;  and that means it must remove bureaucratic road blocks and allow free enterprise to get on with providing the real goods and aviation services that Australians value, voting with our dollars is the essence of a growing and prosperous society. 

This means making decisions against the immediate interests of CASA and the Public Sector (what we used to call Service). Moving to a White Paper for aviation simply leaves us in the Black Hole.  

Successive governments haven’t had the courage to admit that the independent regulator model, which is  outside Ministerial control, is wrong and cannot work. In 1988 Labor Minster Gareth Evans shoved aviation out of his Department in defiance of the Westminster principle of Ministerial responsibility.  He created what was laughingly called a ‘Government Business Enterprise,’ a state sponsored monopoly corporate, and no government has had the fortitude to tackle the problem since, no plans and no actions unless interminable inquiries and ‘papers,’ at huge expense, count as action. 

The last Minister Barnaby Joyce made a tentative gesture by creating a Statement of Expectations that hinted about some real reforms but there’s nothing in legislation that gives force to ‘Expectations.’

Certainly the value of secondhand aircraft is increasing but not because General Aviation is growing but because, as Hitch points out, lack of new aircraft and also because of the accelerating cost of same, exacerbated by our low dollar value. Too bad Australia, your GA industry is, given my watching from a life and career in GA from 1966, about 1/4 the size of it’s potential, what should have been, an iconic and far more useful part of National life. 

Well said that man! -   

Sandy (only a month ago via email) provided the solution to the current political and bureaucratic impasse on the woes of the aviation industry: 

Time for a private member’s Bill to have CASA disbanded and its functions carried out in a Department of Government with a Minister in charge. This is the proven Westminster system which has the responsibility for governance firmly with our elected representatives, this being the foundation of democracy.

General Aviation (GA) will continue to languish until the current system is replaced. The independent Commonwealth corporate CASA (an entity that can be sued) is a failed experimental form of governance, How else would one account for the loss of hundreds of flying schools, charter operators and maintenance businesses? In addition, the almost universal dissatisfaction, to put it mildly, of CASA throughout General Aviation.

We should ask the Senators and House Representatives would you give over the Department of Defence to an unelected corporation like CASA?

The General Aviation (GA) sector cannot grow and strengthen in the National interest until our representatives in Parliament force change.

Senator McDonald initiated the current drawn out two and a half years RRAT inquiry into GA which has produced only interim findings so far.

The ASRR inquiry (Forsyth) of 2014 produced some 35 government accepted recommendations, MPs should demand action on those. The current RRAT Senate inquiry is a rehash of the Forsyth Report. It has 74 submissions only, nearly all from the same cohort that contributed to the 269 ASRR Forsyth submissions and with all the same problems.

Eight years after Forsyth all we have is a worsening situation with CASA’s complexities and relentless piling on of unnecessary and expensive procedures. These problems cannot be solved properly within the present structure which is not fit for purpose.

With respect, and acknowledging the efforts of individuals like Senator McDonald, the problem is that no previous government has made the necessary decisions that only Parliament can deliver.

Those of us that have lived the great boom of GA, when one was hard pressed to find a parking spot at Moorabbin, and the skies were constantly plied with GA aircraft, know only too well the destruction that’s occurred in GA. For those that don’t have that experience we have the BITRE statistics that clearly show the decline of GA, and if plotted against population growth would look much worse.

We’ve lost hundreds of flying schools and charter operators before and during Senator McDonald’s RRAT hearings. One deleterious outcome has been the dearth of home grown airline pilots. As we’ve been predicting for many years, our airlines have now to look overseas for flight crew. Foreign pilots have been recruited under 457 visas. General Aviation is the bedrock for training and we used to supply plenty of Aussie pilots of the highest quality and with the best practical experience from flying in Australia.

Some exemplary reforms by Government are desperately needed now, take the rules out of the criminal code, should be misdemeanours, remove the expensive ID card, the ‘ASIC,’ recommend by Forsyth, and prevent the further alienation of irreplaceable airport land on Commonwealth airports which is being lost to property developers. CASA should and could quickly reform Private Pilot medical certification in accordance with the AOPA plan, allow independent instructors outside Part 141/142 and reform the aircraft maintenance regime.

All of this goes not only to our prosperity, but also to our security and strength as a Nation where the mobility of aviation (and airports are crucial infrastructure) is an obvious necessity in a land mass with low population such as ours.

MTF....P2 

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 19 August 2022

19 August 2022

– Steve Hitchen

CASA's Your Safety is in Your Hands campaign is one of the best things the regulator has done over the past 10 years. Not only is it well structured to create awareness of basic principles of safe aviation, but also demonstrates that CASA understands safety is much, much more than regulation. Safety is an attitude, and campaigns like this have more chance of influencing that attitude than a string of legal documents that always end in the level of punishment to be meted out should you transgress. Getting associations and organisations like RAAus and AHIA involved is also a brilliant idea; the membership will buy in once the leadership gets on board. Some of the material could do with some polishing (talking-head seminars are not really attention-grabbing), but in general the messages are directed in the right places and at the right people. The Pilot Safety Hub is well worth exploring when you get the chance, and I am looking forward to this platform being expanded to cover other topics.

"..What is needed is incentive for Grade 1s to stay in the training industry.."

CASA's expanded privileges for Grade 1 flying instructors is intended to encourage Grade 2 instructors to upskill, thereby increasing the pool of Grade 1s needed for CFI/HOO roles. The most important part of this proposal is not the proposal itself, but rather that CASA recognises the problem and has shown they are prepared to roll-back bits of CASR Part 61 to fix the problem. But will it? There are more than enough Grade 1 flying instructors in Australia to fill the need many times over, it's just that the airlines have them and are regularly raiding the flying schools to spirit away more. This is causing the scarcity of Grade 1s more than a lack of incentive for Grade 2s to step up the rung. It may be that if the expanded privileges actually work and more Grade 1s are created, it may do nothing more than enlarge the pond the airlines can fish in. CASA, however, can do nothing about this, it's an industry problem. What is needed is incentive for Grade 1s to stay in the training industry; retention is easier than replacement. That may be higher rates of pay, or it may be relaxed bureaucratic demands from CASA that allow CFIs to actually do some flying rather than spending a lot of their working time on desk-bound tasks.

If you haven't noticed, the Federal Government's VFR ADS-B rebate scheme is now open for applications. This scheme will allocate $30 million to owners of VFR aircraft to adopt ADS-B technology through either an avionics upgrade or a portable  electronic conspicuity (EC) device such as the SkyEcho 2. But it's not open slather; the scheme will fund 50% of the upgrade costs up to $5000, which means owners will still have to kick in some of their own hard-earned. Even so, this is an opportunity too good to turn down and one that was never offered to owners of IFR aircraft. The scheme is not limited to VH-registered aircraft and is open to all RAAus members as well as almost any aircraft operated under an ASAO. It shows that both CASA and the ATSB are serious about using ADS-B as an aid to see-and-avoid. The funds are there until the $30 million is spent or until 31 May next year. Given the lead times on most aircraft components nowadays, you're better off getting on this now rather than procrastinating for a few weeks. Check out the Federal Government's business website to see if you're eligible and the conditions surrouding the rebate.

Dads, sometimes you have to make things easy for your children even if they are adults. Right now they're probably worrying about what to get you for Father's Day, so the best thing to do is just tell them you want a 12-month subscription to Australian Flying. To help out, we've slashed the price of a print and digital subscription by 25%. That means you'll get a hard-copy magazine mailed to you six times a year and you'll have access to a digital version via Zinio for only $40.00. It's a great read, will keep you entertained and relieve a bit of the kids' stress as well. Send them to the Great Magazines website to take advantage whilst it's in the offing. And if you're also into fishing, bike riding, photography, walking, sport shooting or woodworking, you might find some good deals on some of Australian Flying's sister titles as well.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 26 August 2022

26 August 2022

– Steve Hitchen

CASA OAR completed the review of the airspace around Avalon in February 2020. Now, 30 months later they have started consulting on a proposal to remove the Class E overlying the airport and extend the Class D all the way up to the base of the Melbourne control step. That means, under current arrangements, RAAus pilots won't be able to overfly Avalon as they have no access to CTA. RAAus is very confident that will be rectified in the future, but for now, their members will have to divert around the Class D roadblock. The issue I have will all of this is the disconnect that occured between the review and this week's proposal. The review was written pre-COVID when Avalon was a busy secondary airport for Melbourne. Since that time, Air Asia has gone to MEL and VietJet didn't end up coming at all. Jetstar has cut back flights and movements have halved. The Avalon that was reviewed in 2020 is not the Avalon we have today, although start-up Bonza is expected to take-up some capacity when it starts later this year. My feedback to OAR is that for the time being, the best strategy is to do nothing. Shelve the project and watch to see what the Avalon of the future will be. Right now, OAR is operating on data that has been invalidated by time and circumstance, and it's hard to make a good decision when so much has changed.

"..it will take much more than ineffective measures and motherhood statements to recover the situation.."

General aviation's leaders have been known on occasion to differ in their opinions on things. Many occasions, to be truthful. But in Canberra last Tuesday, it seems they found reason to agree on something: the performance of Catherine King. The new minister put out the call to parley at a round-table meeting on the jobs and skills shortage that is proving an existential crisis for aviation, and those that answered the call came away impressed with King's level of engagement and interest. King gave the impression that she was genuinely interested in the state of affairs in GA and actively encouraged the group to put forward their ideas for solutions. This, of course, created a modicum of friction given that one sector's solution had the potential to be another sector's burden. Anecdotal evidence suggests that King handled things fairly and without any obvious bias. That's a good sign for general aviation, because what the industry needs right now is for positive action rather than political appeasement. The members of the round table all agreed on one other point: the stockpile of expertise in engineering and flight crew training has reached a nadir, and it will take much more than ineffective measures and motherhood statements to recover the situation. If King was engaged and interested as people believe, there is no way she could have left the room under any other impression than that the industry was desperate to turn things around. Only what she elects to do next can tell us if the optimism she generated in Canberra last Tuesday is justified.

In some good new, CASA has confirmed that they are working with East Gippsland Shire Council to get the RNAV back for Mallacoota Airport. The instrument approach was deleted after the council elected not to go ahead with certification because they felt it was not practical. With the loss of certification came the loss of the RNAV. CASA's team were intially bewildered with the council decision not to seek certification, as they believed the problems were not insurmountable. Yesterday the regulator said they expected that Mallacoota would regain its certification by 6 October and had re-checked the RNAV. Whilst good news, I believe a better solution would have been to let the RNAV stand even though the airport wasn't certified. CASA likes to point out that there is no jurisdiction in the world that permits instrument approaches at non-certified airports and that Australia was not going to be the first. That sort of ignores the fact that prior to CASR Part 139 coming into force, RNAVs were successfully operating at non-certified airports around Australia. So whilst the Mallacoota situation is good for aviation in general, the wrong method was used to arrive at the right answer.

Father's Day is nine days away, which means you still have plenty of time to get on board our Father's Day subscription special. This will deliver you six issues of the print magazine and its digital version for a clean $40.00. That's saving of 25% off the standard price. Get to the Great Magazines website right now and make sure you don't miss out on this offer.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 2 September 2022

2 September 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Last week's aviation jobs and skills round-table was convened to enable the minister to take the collective challenges facing the aviation community to the Federal Government's summit currently underway in Canberra. There were a lot of issues canvassed and several voices listened to, making it impossible for all of them to get a golden ticket to the summit. The GA community will have to rely on minister Catherine King to air our problems. It therefore irks me somewhat that Qantas, which was represented at the round table, also gets a seat at the summit so they can be their own voice. Is this an indicator of the level of importance the government places on GA against Qantas? Being Australia's largest airline, it's probably fair that they get their own seat, but GA as a collective is believed to represent as many–if not more–jobs and employment opportunities than Qantas does. A voice for GA at the summit could have delivered more value to Australia than a single voice coming from Qantas, which tends to be a clarion only for itself. GA has been forced to put its faith not only in Catherine King's willingness to advocate for us, but also treasurer Jim Chalmers' willingness to listen. That is a much weaker position the being able to stand up and speak for yourself.

"..That one is not fringe; that one is game-changer.."

CASA took two more steps this week as they plough through the GA workplan that was issued in early May. They have put in place exemptions for the helicopter industry until they can get a multi-engine class rating into Part 61, and outlined details for the industry to train its own flight examiners. Although for many these may seem like fringe issues, for the rotary and training communities they are large initiatives that should have been take care of when the original Part 61 was signed into law nearly eight years ago. So far, CASA seems to be sticking well to their projected timeline for workplan tasks. If they keep this up, we can expect guidance material for independent flying instructors by the end of the month, and significant reforms in maintenance regs for private and airwork categories by the end of the year. The other big one that is theoretically due by 30 September is a proposal to give access to CTA for recreational aircraft. That one is not fringe; that one is game-changer, and unfortunately it seems to be lagging behind the program. Consultation was due on 30 June and the new Part 103 MOS by then end of this month. It seems this one could be more complex and time-consuming to put together than some of the other promises in the workplan. I have been assured that the project is progressing, but anyone holding their breath for the MOS at the end of the month will soon take on a cyan patina.

AusFly is only two weeks away now, so the GA industry is making its final preparations for what is expected to be a great show. And this year, Australia's national fly-in celebrates 10 years since inception. The Sport Aircraft Association of Australia, AOPA Australia and Australian Warbirds Association Ltd were the driving force behind the show. The idea at the time was to promote unity and co-operation within the GA community. Whether or not that aim has been achieved is highly debatable, but what it has done is provide an annual party for GA that was sorely needed in 2012, and perhaps even moreso now. Over the years, AusFly has been through some disruption. There was no event in 2014 due to a high workload shouldered by the SAAA's people, and in 2016 was combined with RAAus' Natfly to form OzKosh. It was then re-branded again to a year later to AirVenture Australia and in 2018 re-located to Cessnock NSW. Among concerns that the event was no longer what it was originally conceived to be, AusFly rose again in 2018, completely separate from AirVenture Australia. AirVenture is gone now, but AusFly has shown it is a resilient event despite the turmoil, demonstrating its importance to GA in this country. Had that not been the case, we wouldn't all be readying ourselves to be at Narromine in two weeks time.

It's Fathers' Day on Sunday, which means time is short for you to sign Dad up to a one-year subscription to Australian Flying and bag yourself a 25% discount. You'll get six issues plus a digital subscription via Zinio for only $40.00. Right now, you honestly can't do better than that. Get onto the Great Magazines website today and grab this offer whilst it is still there.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 9 September 2022

9 September 2022

– Steve Hitchen

TAFE colleges offering aviation diplomas have been under withering fire since the Box Hill TAFE/Soar Aviation controversy broke in January 2020, and they will be back the sights again after the Victorian Skills Authority revealed that only 5.4% of enroled students go on to be qualified CPLs. Over the five-year period that the stats look back on, TAFEs turned out 85 CPLs from 1500 enrolments. That is no way to tackle a pilot shortage. Flight training organisations that are accredited as a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) offer the diplomas independent of a TAFE, and in Victoria have a completion rate of 21%. Even so, that means a lot of students are entering the top of the pipeline, but so very few are coming out the other end. Learning to fly is not easy. It's a hard job that requires some application and many start who never finish; the drop-out rates from all flying schools are high. That's disappointing from an RPL/PPL point of view, but it's disastrous from a CPL point of view, and in the case of TAFE colleges, dropping out saddles students with a heavy debt and no qualifications to get a job. It's not good for them, and it's not good for the aviation industry. The data shows that students have more chance getting through by signing-up directly with an RTO and bypassing TAFEs, which may be the primary direction the training industry needs to encourage.

"..on some occasions in the past the bleeding logical has escaped them anyway.."

We have reached a now-or-never position on self-declared medicals for PPLs. With RAAus now openly supportive, the TWG thought to be on board and a real appetite for reform dominating at Aviation House, it would appear that all obstacles have now fallen. However, CASA works in mysterious ways, and on some occasions in the past the bleeding logical has escaped them anyway. Medical reform was all but guaranteed in the GA workplan released in May this year, but still the issue has to go under the microscopes of the Part 67 TWG, ASAP and the Principal Medical Officer before it gets back to the place it started: the office of the Director of Aviation Safety. If CASA's past history still has echoes in Aviation House, the final advice to Pip Spence will have been filtered through bureaucracy to the extent that it may not fit the original intent. This effect was most obvious when medical reform produced the Class 2 Basic standard. Something, sort of, but not everything. The difference this time is that both Spence and CASA Chair Mark Binksin are openly embracing reform, which is an advantage the GA community hasn't enjoyed for many years.

This time next week AusFly will be in full swing. The SAAA is more than ready to go, super-charged by a two-year COVID-induced hiatus that deprived the GA community of a great party. The pre-registrations are better than this time in 2019, and are expected to be topped up by aircraft and aviators that just roll up on the day. Flipping through the seminar program and the flying display schedule, this AusFly could easily be one of the best, and that's saying a lot given that there have been some first-class events in the past. Remember if you're flying in that there are procedures to get in and out with minimal stress. You can download them from the AusFly website, and make sure you carry them somewhere in the cockpit within arm's reach. It probably doesn't need to be said that everything will be weather-permitting; that is the elephant in the hangar at all fly-in events across the country. Let's go, GA. Narromine beckons.

Ausfly will have another impact: I won't be putting out an LMH or an e-Newsletter next Friday. I've decided to delay both until Monday 19th so I can include news and events from Narromine rather than leave it for another week.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 19 September 2022

19 September 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Seeing blue skies at Narromine on Friday and Saturday was pleasing to see, but still a bitter pill to swallow for those of us barred from attending by an army of thunderstorms on the Thursday. It looked like fantastic weather for the scheduled days AusFly 2022, and reports have it that up to 50 aircraft arrived on the Friday morning having picked their moment to leave home well. The SAAA is chuffed with how it all went, particularly with the strength of the exhibition support, and although aircraft numbers were short of the 250 they were hoping for, they're looking forward to 2023 through glasses of optimism. I noted with some interest that the SAAA has estimated that 75% were home-builders or potential new entrants to the sector. That means only 25% of AusFly attendees were certified GA or recreational. For me those are very disappointing numbers, and not figures we can blame on thunderstorms. It seems the GA community is seeing AusFly as an SAAA event primarily rather than a whole-of-aviation fly-in. One of the contributing factors to that could be the very muted presence of AOPA Australia in the lead-up to the event, which left the SAAA to be the face of AusFly 2022. If the event is to be accepted as a genuine event by the GA community, then AOPA Australia and other contributing organisations need to do more and not leave it all up to the SAAA.

"..your GPS will be able to tell which end of your iPhone you are standing at.."


Friday's announcement that Australia and NZ are going to collaborate on an SBAS system called SouthPAN is more momentus for aviation than most people understand. The aviation community has been working to have SBAS rolled out in Australia for many years, with most of the hard lobbying being done out of the headlines behind closed doors in Canberra. SouthPAN means properly-equipped aircraft that will have a GPS accuracy to 100 mm. To put that in perspective, your GPS will be able to tell which end of your iPhone you are standing at. This is incredible accuracy that has the potential to increase the capability of GPS to levels never seen before in Australasia. For GA, it brings vertical navigation to the IFR world without the need for Baro-VNAV avionics. The project has taken almost exactly 10 years to get to this point, but it's still an example of what can be achieved when passionate people who have genuine expertise engage with government and regulators to push a project that has long-lasting benefits for aviation and for the wider Australian and New Zealand communities. For those who continuously put in the hard yards to get the job done, it is a very rewarding and satisfying moment.

For those following the Mallacoota RNAV saga, it will be restored following the airfield regaining its certification, but some delays have meant the original date of 6 October isn't going to be met, and the regulator is now targeting 3 November to have it up and running. People on the inside have hinted to me that there are issues with a third party (i.e., not CASA and not the shire) have caused the delay. The initial removal was controversial because it was coupled to a decision not to certify the airport, which itself caused confusion: CASA didn't see the reasons for not certifying as being show-stoppers. Kudos to them sort of; they pitched in and were able to show the council the way back. The kudos is qualified because I still don't believe that RNAVs should be tied to whether or not an airport is certified. I've stated that publicly before and am not backing away from that because I believe we are stifling the benefits of technology that is getting more capable and more reliable every year.

To those who love to get their LMH on a Friday afternoon, I apologise for this one coming out on a Monday. AusFly made me do it. I would also like to apologise because I'm going to do it next week as well! Being based in Victoria, I am subject to two public holidays this week: Thursday's day of morning for Queen Elizabeth II and Friday because there's an important football game the next day. This will make it impossible for me to do LMH and the e-News next Friday, so it will be Monday 26 September for the next one. We'll be back on our Friday cadence again after that.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

LMH on Mundy; & Hitch tick, flicks CASA Part 67 TWG?? -   

The Last Minute Hitch: 26 September 2022

26 September 2022

1 Comment

– Steve Hitchen

CASA has expanded their scholarship scheme to now include safety managers. This is part of their new philosophy of spending money on aviation in appropriate places and a deeper engagement with the industry. That is sort of a volte-face from a regulator that was set up more than 25 years ago charged with keeping its distance from the aviation industry. We've all seen how that went. So although scholarships and sponsorships are fringe issues, they're a indication that CASA is prepared to put itself out there. That is a sign of good changes to come; some previous management teams would not have engaged to the depth the current one has. For those that have been beaten up a bit by CASA in the past, this is nothing to salve their wounds, and if we are going to talk straight down the line, those wounds are unlikely to ever heal. All we can do in encourage the regulator in the right direction to ensure there is less beating-up and more understanding coming from Aviation House in the future.

"..GA hasn't really thrown its arms around any of these institutions.."

Try this: walk into an aero club bar or flying school ops room and loudly ask the question "Where is [b]Australia's[/b] home of aviation?" You're almost guaranteed to get either a series of unknowning glances or five or six different answers. No one location leaps out, except maybe [b]Point Cook[/b] where the Australian Flying Corps and the Australian Aero Club were both founded. Or you may get some votes for [b]Temora[/b] where the museum has built a home for flying warbirds, and, of course, [b]Avalon[/b]. But one place is starting to emerge with a solid claim to the title: [b]Albion Park,[/b] NSW. Not far from where [b]Lawrence Hargrave[/b] flew his boxkites, [b]Shellharbour Airport[/b] has since become home to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame (AAHOF) and Wings over Illawarra (WOI), the biggest air show held annually in this country. They are three very firm pillars underneath the case for Albion Park to be recognised as the home of aviation. But even so, it's missing once critical factor: general aviation. GA hasn't really thrown its arms around any of these institutions, which continues to frustrate the likes of [b]Mark Bright[/b] at Bright Events, who has been tirelessly working to get GA to front up to Wings over Illawarra in numbers. Conceding that weather hasn't helped across several events, many of the GA community just don't put WOI on their calendar because it is seen as a show for the public. That is true, but to a great extent, so is [b]Oshkosh[/b]. This year Bright Events has put on under-wing camping and a bar and social set purely for general aviation. There is no doubt they want people to come, but sometimes wanting isn't enough. Shellharbour can make a great home for aviation in Australia, if we embrace the idea and head home for the big party in November.
Nominations for the 2023 CASA Wings Awards close in one month on 26 October. For those that haven't got their submissions sorted yet, there is concern for concentration, but not alarm. Winning nominations all have one thing in common: they address the criteria as set down by the Australian Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). This take some thinking and a bit of work, but I can tell you that any nomination that hasn't adequately match the criteria hasn't ever won. If you need some help working through things, by all means contact us and we'll step you through the requirements. Start out by reading the criteria on the website, then take it from there.

You'll get two LMHs and e-Newsletters this week: today and Friday. The double-header is to get us back onto the Friday schedule that the GA community tells me they like and, indeed, rely on. Thanks for your understanding whilst we navigated AusFly and some public holidays. See you Friday.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

Plus Sandy comment in reply:

Sandy Reith • a day ago

An Australian Oshkosh? Avalon Airshow had that promise when it started out in the early ‘90s, although it lacked underwing camping, surely a major advantage both logistically and for a comparative financial incentive. In latter years a team of CASA inspectors took to interrogating arriving aircraft at Avalon, a time wasting turn off. Armed with the developed world’s most complex and intricate set of regulations which have been inappropriately migrated into the criminal code, any wonder that a fun day out flying might turn into a CASA induced nightmare and that thought did put offside the numbers that are required to sustain the interest of the promoters.

Hence Avalon has announced that Avalon East will no longer be available. One more nail in the coffin that our Commonwealth is steadily building to receive the body of GA.

In addition, as Hitch mentioned, weather can be a major problem which means that the most stable time must be planned, but if CASA persists with an Avalon style of surveillance, forget it, and proof of the pudding is, sad to say, the demise of the Avalon Airshow for GA.

Next Hitch's take on the Part 67 TWG recommendations etc. :

Technical Working Group recommends Self-declared Medicals

27 September 2022



The second report of the CASA Part 67 Technical Working Group (TWG) released this week confirms that the TWG has recommended self-declared medicals for private pilots.

In its advice to the Aviation Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), the TWG reached a general consensus to create a Class 4 medical standard that require no medical examination for PPLs. The TWG also recommended abandoning the Basic Class 2 medical.

"The TWG evaluated and analysed the concept for a simplified medical structure which encompassed five levels of medical certification," the report states. "The concept added two new classifications, which include the Class 4 (replaces Basic Class 2) and Class 5 (new), self-declaration based on Austroads private motor vehicle standard.

"The TWG felt that the creation of two new medical certifications will inevitably lead to more complexity and unintended consequences, increasing the likelihood of potential confusion over which standard applies to which pilots. It was also agreed that the sensitivity and specificity of the medical screening process is not sufficient to stratify the risk of medical incapacitation into five layers of likelihood.

"To simplify the medical structure, the TWG supports and recommends the creation of one new medical certification (Class 4 medical certification: Self- Declared) which would set out to achieve the outcomes of the Basic Class 2 and conceptual Class 5 medical certification."

The Class 4 medical, if implemented, would apply only to general aviation and come with limitations and restrictions based on the level of risk, including the number of passengers, flight operations and aircraft size.

The TWG also emphasised that CASA needed to do more risk analysis on operational limitations that would be applied to Class 4.

In the same report, the TWG also reached full consensus that DAMEs should be delegated to issue Class 1, 2 and 3 medicals with CASA oversight, provided the DAME is suitably qualified and has completed a CASA training course.

"CASA is grateful for the TWG members’ commitment of time and expertise to this work," said CASA Principal Medical Officer Dr Kate Manderson. "The depth and breadth of discussion, with contribution from all members, has led to the development of a comprehensive set of recommendations that genuinely represents the position of key stakeholders.

"CASA looks forward to continuing to engage with the TWG members and their nominating organisations as the Part 67 legislation and supporting guidance material is developed."

Hmm...the part in bold to me sounds a lot like the PMO regards the TWG and industry input (611 consult responses) as just someone else's opinion?? (Also see 'CASA: "We'll consult on the consult for medical certification!" - UFB!')

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 30 September 2022

30 September 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Aviation safety education measures have become collateral damage of the aviation community's general disengagement from CASA over regulatory and punitive misdemeanours. That means resources such as Out-n-Back have been somewhat under-utilised. Pip Spence partly acknowledged that at Safeskies when she said that research showed a lack of awareness of safety tools. For too many GA pilots, contact with the education side of CASA is poisoned by memories of dealing with the regulatory side, so the strategy used is to completely avoid anything with a CASA logo on it. The outcome of all of that has probably been a net decrease in safety. CASA's new safety campaign may find itself another victim of the resistance, but  those that venture forward will find some very good material on how to fly safely, and not all of it relates back to rules and regulations. Aviation safety often is a result not from strict adherence to rules, but rather from the actions a pilot takes in the grey zones where the rules are silent. This campaign covers those areas as well, and it's worth going into even if your previous experiences with the regulator may have been distasteful.

"..you can use perfect logic and reasoning to arrive at the wrong answer.."

The general momentum towards self-declared medicals is now so irresistable that it will take an immovable force to stop it. This week the Technical Working Group (TWG) report effectively endorsed the idea to the Aviation Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), which will now consider its advice to CASA management. That advice is likely to be passed on accompanied by a large green tick. But, CASA has in the past shown that it does indeed have immovable forces within. Data on medical incapacitation in flight shows the risk is almost non-existent, and the RAAus experience over many years proves that point further. Self-declared medicals for PPLs are way overdue and the GA community is starting to get impatient. However, CASA is a bureaucracy, and one guarantee you get with bureaucracies is that they will always do things the longest, most drawn-out way possible. They go through processes; box-ticking, analysis, application of logic and reasoning. In the end, you get something. However, it is a known fact that you can use perfect logic and reasoning to arrive at the wrong answer, often the result of the process being injected with a large syringe full of bias and self-interest. Working for us this time is that CASA has the necessary anti-bodies to the contents of the syringe: a cadre of senior managers that believe in the self-declared medical and have the power themselves to shift the immovable forces out of the way and let the momentum roll through to legislation.


Do you get the feeling we have to throw some old Cessna 150s into a volcano somewhere to appease the aviation gods? If it hasn't been COVID getting in the way of things it has been some very temperamental weather. This week, Warbirds Downunder was canceled because Temora has had more rain than a picnic in a waterfall. The show, one of Australia's premier warbird displays, was last held in 2018. The 2020 version was postponed to 2021 thanks to COVID, then put-off again to 2022 because nothing had improved in those 12 months. And now, only weeks away from the gates opening, Temora Aviation Museum has had to pull the pin again because the ground is waterlogged. In Temora. The place averages 541 mm of rain per year. This year the total has already passed 746 mm and there's more to come. And you can add to the deluge the tears of the organising team that has taken a hard decision late in the process that wipes out at least 12 months worth of work. Someone who can relate too well to that is Mark Bright at Wings over Illawarra. He has had the worst luck of any air show organiser in this country when to comes to weather. In his favour, WOI is largely held on hard-stand except for the camping ground/GA park, but even then, waterlogging has caused WOI to be postponed before (2015). We can but cross our fingers and hope that the rain doesn't deal a cruel hand to WOI again. And maybe chuck some old airframes in volcanos.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 7 October 2022

7 October 2022

– Steve Hitchen

As much of the east coast of Australia is belted by yet more rain, I have the luxury of staring out my hotel window across the sun-coated Swan River in Perth. It almost makes me feel guilty ... almost. I was lucky enough yesterday to take a nice new G1000 Seminole from Airflite at Jandakot south to about Mandurah and back. The reason was work, but save for a few inland showers the climate was very much playing weather. The aircraft was supposed to be a trainer, but the crisp handling and smooth feel of a new PA-44 made the aircraft a joy to get my hands on. In the next print issue of Australian Flying I will be justifying my day out with a feature on asymmetric cruising, something the Seminole is particularly adept at. Thanks to the team at Airflite for making it happen. It was my first time operating from Jandakot and you all made it such a great experience.

"..the ALP has shown no desire thus far to wake it from its slumber.."

Has the senate RRAT inquiry into the GA industry been one expensive and painful waste of time? Started in early December 2019, back when only epidemiologists knew what a coronavirus was, it dragged on for over two years thanks to COVID and other priorities before presenting an interim report in March then disappearing into abeyance. So far the ALP government has shown no signs of wanting to resurrect it and taking it to a conclusion. We can speculate about the reasons, but there are two that seem to have the most evidence in their favour: the ALP wasn't whole-heartedly behind the inquiry in the first place, and persisting with it could interfere with their ambitions for another White Paper. It was the Nationals and the independents that drove the hardest for the inquiry, and the GA community (including this title) added weight to the impetus, determined to hold CASA to account. There was blood and biting; sniping and protest. But in the midst there was some very good work done that highlighted some issues holding the industry back. The recommendations of the interim report were not misaligned with the previous government's Aviation Recovery Framework, which told everyone that we were on the right track. So where are we at now? After five months the inquiry is dormant and the ALP has shown no desire thus far to wake it from its slumber. This puts GA in a precarious position. The problems are now known; in many cases the solutions are known as well, but without a final report carrying significant reform recommendations, all we have is an interim report on a matter that neither the previous government nor the existing one wanted to inquire into anyway. With bated breath we wait to see if our endeavours are acceptable to the government, or if the government remains determined to embark on a path to find solutions that better fit their policies.

How good was it to see that the consultation for the CASR Part 67 review garnered 600 responses! Way to go, GA, that's how you do it. A lack of response to consultation is too often interpreted as apathy, but in this case CASA has no option but to understand the level of engagement GA has with the concept of self-declared medicals. Clearly there are many out there that have skin in the game and are prepared to tell it like it is. If all CASA consultation papers got this level of response, GA's messages would get stronger and louder. It also makes it easier for CASA to adopt policies more in line with what we need. Well done, GA community.

All of a sudden there are only three weeks left until nominations for the 2022 CASA Wings Awards close. By now the only thing you should have left to do is a bit of polishing on your submission before send it through the online system. Last year we had one of the largest responses we've ever had, and the judging panel is looking forward to having their eyes opened to the contributions of passionate people.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 14 October 2022

14 October 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Nervousness in the general aviation community is increasing that the government will push ahead with their aviation white paper rather than take the immediate action needed to revitalise sectors of the industry. That fear was put into words this week by the Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA), which released a plan of seven recommendations to do something about the engineer shortage now rather than wait two years or so for the outcomes of a white paper. Angst about the ALP's determination to push ahead with their white paper is two-pronged: the time it will take to complete and the outcomes themselves. One of the basic precepts of flying aircraft is to correct a deviation as soon as possible and not wait for it to get worse, so the industry's nervousness that government policy is to let the engineer shortage worsen is a fair reaction. When things get worse, the remedial action needed is always larger. The second prong worries that the white paper will only deliver the same lack-lustre and ineffective actions that it did last time. If that happens, the industry will be left with a band-aid that is supplied to heal a broken leg. Most aggravating is that if the white paper has any integrity at all it will only produce outcomes that are already known and have been articulated many times in submissions, consultation and so, so many studies.

"..Transparency is not putting up the ramparts to protect yourself even though you know you are wrong.."

Respect and trust are values that almost every company or organisation in the world has adopted as aims or part of corporate philosophy. The problem is that they can't be asked for, bought, demanded or regulated; they can be only earned, and even then only after they are proven to be deserved. CASA Chair Mark Binskin has talked up four things as his weapons for earning respect and trust for CASA: transparency, collaboration, focus on the aviation community and a determination to make a difference. The second two are somewhat vague sentiments, but the first two have some real substance to them. Transparency and collaboration. These two are so strongly interconnected that they might actually be the same thing. But what is transparency? If I may be able to thrust forward some personal philosophy, transparency is explaining issues before sending out the Show Cause Notice. Transparency is not redacting pretty much everything requested under Freedom of Information just because the laws allow you to. Transparency is speaking in plain English rather than some language that sounds like a Biblical tongue. Transparency is not putting up the ramparts to protect yourself even though you know you are wrong. CASA has been characterised by a lack of transparency in the past, and calling for transparency will remain nothing but motherhood should none of this change. And collaboration? Collaboration  comes only after transparency is achieved. People will engage if they think CASA deserves their time and effort, and that the time and effort will be respected and do some good. Secrecy is the enemy of co-operation, and it's also the enemy of respect and trust.

The Australian International Airshow was launched last Monday with promises of being the biggest ever and sentiments of being happy to be back together after 2021 was canceled thanks to COVID. Tickets went on sale yesterday with free entry for under 15s and free parking for everyone. This is a great initiative by AMDA to try to encourage young people to be inflicted with a passion for aviation. But for some reason, unlike just about every other year, there will be no public viewing area in front of the chalets; the land is planned to have nothing on it. According to AMDA, the decision was necessary "to provide a larger buffer between the crowd line and the runway, which is now an aviation safety requirement." Avalon has for years operated with an exemption to the rule that the crowd must be 150 or 200 m away from the display runway. So why has CASA denied that now? In fact, they haven't. According to CASA, AMDA has applied for an exemption to bring the safety buffer down to 120 m, the same exemption they were granted in 2017 and 2019. A decision on the exemption hasn't yet been made, but it seems AMDA is planning for the worst case. This may appear trivial, but when the people swarm through the gates in March they will be expecting to be able to see the show from the centre of the display line like they always have, and will be confused and disappointed by the bare paddock in front of the chalets. Here's hoping this gets sorted with a positive outcome soon.

This is your 12-day warning. The 2022 CASA Wings Awards are closing on 26 October. We have had a healthy number of responses already with some good strength in many submissions, so it's very unlikely that we'll be offering an extension of time like we have done in past years. What that means is that for your nominee to have a chance you have to get it done by Wednesday week. The time for mucking around is gone; the time for action is near. Make sure you tidy up your submission and get it into the online nomination system before close of business Wednesday 26 October.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

[Kharon]

Bravo Hitch! - Well said that man.

But what is transparency?  Hitch asks the question and provides a powerful answer; in fact one that should it ever be adopted as 'policy' much would change almost overnight. Hitch is dreaming of course, but that at least is still legal (or it was).

If I may be able to thrust forward some personal philosophy,



transparency is explaining issues before sending out the Show Cause Notice.



Transparency is not redacting pretty much everything requested under Freedom of Information just because the laws allow you to.



Transparency is speaking in plain English rather than some language that sounds like a Biblical tongue.



Transparency is not putting up the ramparts to protect yourself even though you know you are wrong.



CASA has been characterised by a lack of transparency in the past, and calling for transparency will remain nothing but motherhood should none of this change.



And collaboration? Collaboration  comes only after transparency is achieved. People will engage if they think CASA deserves their time and effort, and that the time and effort will be respected and do some good. Secrecy is the enemy of co-operation, and it's also the enemy of respect and trust.


Aye; well said that man, indeed.  {{ However}}..........

I have trouble imagining the power behind the Spence throne ever allowing that dream to come to fruition; Too deeply entrenched is the resident evil; too comfortable behind the unbreakable walls of self preservation; too many secrets to keep hidden; too much incompetence, bias and animosity to protect and far too many cock-ups, too much money wasted, too many dark connections to keep hidden. The never ending need to justify a 99% 'safe conviction rate and the 'engineered' cases used to justify the expense and keep the mystique of 'safety' through law alive.. All that before the overt stand over tactics and threats used to keep the myth that only CASA knows what is operationally correct, righteous and legally safe are revealed. Transparency cannot happen; there's just too much power, money, incompetence and secrets to protect. Put simply, the CASA top table simply dare not allow their dirty washing to be put out in public. Binskin is either spinning like a top – or the Kook-Aid has addled his brains: whatever, he now needs to watch the dark corners and his back, for that will be often patted, in order to find a soft spot for the knife. Lets see if he will discuss the Andy Pascoe case or even the Buckley matter transparently; that would be a blast. CASA – Transparent?  that is real dreaming.

Toot – toot.

[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 21 October 2022

21 October 2022

– Steve Hitchen

Like a thespian afraid to say the name "Macbeth" in a theatre, I too am finding myself reluctant to utter the name of an upcoming air show should it too be cursed with cancelation. After the Jamestown Air Spectacular and Warbirds Downunder were both canceled because of inclement weather, the aviation community is wondering what it has to do to get an air show up and running. First COVID, now the rain. But an air show is a hundred things all coming together in one place, and each one of those things has the potential to go awry, resulting in the show organisers having to call the whole thing off. As a rule, it is never the things you can control that are the show-stoppers, it's the ones you just have to trust in that generally break the deal. Trust in weather is perhaps the biggest, and the one that show organisers fear the most. That's right, they're more afraid of inclement weather than they are of CASA not issuing the approval. Speaking broadly, every year there will be one or two air shows that downpours kill, but not usually the majority of them! With that in mind, we find ourselves on tenterhooks looking forward to that air show in November, because it is our last chance for the year to party on this scale.

"..one of the first things they ask is 'who trained this person?.."

The Soar Aviation/Box Hill Institute saga has been a sad and sorry affair, one that hopefully this class action settlement will finally put to rest. It has meant a lot of pain for a lot of people and if the system was working properly, shouldn't have happened in the first place. Although some hailed that business model as "innovative" and "game-changing", many people in the flight training industry just couldn't see how it was going to work. Were students trained on Bristells, Tecnams and Foxbats really going to be attractive propositions to upstream employers? None of those types are being used on charters or air transport work much around Australia; they weren't designed for that anyway. And employers are not mugs: they have registers where they enter the names of flying schools in either black or red ink. When a CV crosses their desks, one of the first things they ask is "who trained this person?" If the poor soul came from a school etched with red ink, then their chances of getting a job reduced to almost zero. A canny CPL candidate should ask around first to find out which schools are on the good side of the ledger and spend their time, effort and money there. There's nothing new in this; advice to choose your flying school well has been around for decades and it has the same amount of validity today as it did when the Wright Flyer was still a bicycle. The Soar model seemed innovative, but probably too good to be true, and you know what they say about that.

CASA this week released a re-vamped version of their Out-n-Back video series. If you've never seen this before, it's a number of videos that follow a flight through the outback detailing all the smart things needed to head out over the Never Never and get back safely. The new series has been re-edited into shorter 3-4 minute sections rather than the 10-minute+ episodes of the original. This makes specific material easier to find rather than having to wade through a lot of other stuff to find what is critical to you. Featuring 2021 CASA Wings Awards FTO of the Year Ward Air, this series contains all the good advice that you just won't find in CASA's nav training syllabus. If you're thinking about heading out there for the first time soon, you'd do well to give this a look over first.

And speaking of the CASA Wings Awards, nominations for the 2022 awards close on Wednesday, which means you have five days left to get your submission sorted out and lodged through the online nomination system. One last check before you push the button is always a good idea. Read the criteria; read your submission. Then ask yourself how well you have matched the two. One characteristic common to most of the winners over the years has been the quality of the nomination and much as the quality of the person nominated.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch