[Sandy Reith]

Interesting to glean from posts to this thread about the plethora of approvals and the excruciating pain of obtaining or maintaining these permits that allow various General Aviation activities these days compared to previous times. There was plenty of silliness and patronising behaviour on the part of CASA of yesteryear but it worked in a clunky fashion due to degrees of commonsense and latitude that’s mostly gone missing today. The greater part of the problem being intransigence, and the control mindset of CASA coupled with the whole fee grabbing nature of CASA’s regulatory nightmare. Unfortunately, but predictably, introducing fees for permits is a powerful incentive to create more and more permissions.

In May of 1970 I obtained a “C” grade instructor rating, no fees or charges. The next grades progressed through “B” and to the highest “A” grade, no fees or charges. Various rules still apply about what is allowed, but for some obscure, bureaucratic baffling and completely unnecessary reason, around 1980 the classifications were changed to Classes 3, 2, and 1. Little did we know that in the USA no such gradings exist, except for Instrument Flight Training, and an instructor can teach without a flying school permit from the first day of qualification.

Mid 1970s;  now with Instructor Class B rating, obtained by virtue of having the requisite instructional hours, in other words it was a matter of course. I applied for a flying school licence which was granted after a CASA inspector visit to my airport premises, again no fees, licence in the mail a couple of days later. And yes I automatically became the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI).  To achieve twin training approval, flew an extra half hour in my Baron from the right hand seat with my Examiner after a routine Instrument flight check. No fees or charges.

After putting up a couple of Private Pilot applicants to CASA ‘Examiner of Airman’ personnel (now another mindless title change ‘Flight Operations Inspector’? ..or has it changed yet again?) I received Approved Testing Officer status for the testing of Private Pilot Licence and Night Visual Flight Rules Rating. I don’t recall applying for those approvals and was certainly never interviewed nor paid any fees for same. My Grade One Instructor Rating (previously the ’A’ grade) similarly was written at a routine instructor renewal on the basis of my hours flown, no fee. Yes I had passed the annual review but not anything special for the upgrade. 

Practically all flying schools also did charter work and word got around we should be doing proficiency checks as well as our instructor rating renewals so we CFIs used to sign out each other. 

Silly things used to happen, one Saturday morning I telephoned in a charter flight plan for one passenger from Phillip Island to Colac. The officer asked if I had an HF radio? I replied negative, have flown there on charters before so why now? Answer:-  a new interpretation of the carriage of radio rules. So it had to be made a private flight. I did fit an HF radio to that Cessna, it cost in the order of $1500 each per the three calls I was required to make with it for those odd flights where VHF was not covered at ground level. In spite of such inappropriate and expensive administrative and policy defects we could still operate.

Late eighties and the rot really starts in earnest, paper war and fees creeping in. Barriers at every turn with the much bureaucratically loved slogan of ‘user pays.’  No thought to the logical and obvious definition of ‘the user’ which is the Nation as a whole which makes, and demands, the standards for the benefit of the general public. Why else is government involved? 

The concept of an independent regulator has proven to be a disastrous failure. Removing responsibility away from the Minister and Parliament goes against the concept and practice of democratic control via our representatives.