Flight, in a toxic environment.
The truly despicable part of the “fuel reserve” imbroglio is it does sweet fanny Adams toward improving “safety”; not a single, solitary thing. It does however give the CASA a perfect ‘out’ under strict liability – if they can prove that the claimed 45 minutes was only 44 minutes and 55 seconds, then you are indeed guilty of a strict liability criminal act. The blame shifts to you as the pilot in command for being reckless and negligent.
So, when the next fog or weather related ‘minor’ incident occurs the finger of blame cannot be pointed at CASA who cannot work out a simple effective rule set for alternate requirements, or even approve low visibility operations; an ASA who failed to deliver a timely message; the BoM for lazy, inaccurate forecasts; or, the ATSB who will happily gloss over the real issues. Let’s not mention the two decades out of date infrastructure.
Companies will continue to love the current system, which allows them to quite legally question a pilots inalienable right to throw on more fuel as and when best pleases. They cannot stop a bloke from throwing on the extra ‘gas for Mum’ but they can, based on the forecast, question the decision. Mostly the ‘minimum fuel’ policies work, except we now have at least four separate weather/fuel related ‘incidents’
We happily throw countless millions at developing ‘new’ rules and having happy-clappy job titles like ‘Stakeholder Engagement’ or tiger teams (ffs), which soak up the allocated budget, we do lots of that. But sitting down and developing a safer, more effective way of providing modern operating tenets and practices with joint responsibility for safety is just pushed aside in the rush to make sure everyone, bar the potential criminal, in command of your next flight, gets well and truly flogged for daring to be a few drops of fuel short after safely landing you at your destination.
The policy of strictly no liability applies to everyone, except the pilot. We could reduce the rules to one safe paragraph; Pilot, anything that can, or does go wrong is strictly your fault; from a splinter in a passengers arse from a rough toilet seat through you not being psychic and realising that the real, actual weather had changed. Read it and weep.
Safe bolt holes for all.
Toot toot.
The truly despicable part of the “fuel reserve” imbroglio is it does sweet fanny Adams toward improving “safety”; not a single, solitary thing. It does however give the CASA a perfect ‘out’ under strict liability – if they can prove that the claimed 45 minutes was only 44 minutes and 55 seconds, then you are indeed guilty of a strict liability criminal act. The blame shifts to you as the pilot in command for being reckless and negligent.
So, when the next fog or weather related ‘minor’ incident occurs the finger of blame cannot be pointed at CASA who cannot work out a simple effective rule set for alternate requirements, or even approve low visibility operations; an ASA who failed to deliver a timely message; the BoM for lazy, inaccurate forecasts; or, the ATSB who will happily gloss over the real issues. Let’s not mention the two decades out of date infrastructure.
Companies will continue to love the current system, which allows them to quite legally question a pilots inalienable right to throw on more fuel as and when best pleases. They cannot stop a bloke from throwing on the extra ‘gas for Mum’ but they can, based on the forecast, question the decision. Mostly the ‘minimum fuel’ policies work, except we now have at least four separate weather/fuel related ‘incidents’
We happily throw countless millions at developing ‘new’ rules and having happy-clappy job titles like ‘Stakeholder Engagement’ or tiger teams (ffs), which soak up the allocated budget, we do lots of that. But sitting down and developing a safer, more effective way of providing modern operating tenets and practices with joint responsibility for safety is just pushed aside in the rush to make sure everyone, bar the potential criminal, in command of your next flight, gets well and truly flogged for daring to be a few drops of fuel short after safely landing you at your destination.
The policy of strictly no liability applies to everyone, except the pilot. We could reduce the rules to one safe paragraph; Pilot, anything that can, or does go wrong is strictly your fault; from a splinter in a passengers arse from a rough toilet seat through you not being psychic and realising that the real, actual weather had changed. Read it and weep.
Safe bolt holes for all.
Toot toot.