[Peetwo]

DW1 29 August 2017 - D-Day: Battle of the three stooges -  

A week today is slated for the Drone Wars Inquiry to take evidence from the three stooges:

29 Aug 2017 Canberra, ACT: Program -   Submissions - 

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So morning tea and scones with Sterlo & Barry O taking on the aviation safety 'shiny bum' bureaucrats, at the RRAT Committee OK corral -

Senator STERLE: Let me help you out, Mr Carmody. This is my take on it: CASA was going to water down the regulations to make it easier. If it had not been for this committee, it would have just sailed through nice and quietly. I reckon this is just a yank on the chain—oh, my goodness me, the minister has come to you guys. CASA has an incredible power over ministers. You must have some fairy dust that you sprinkle on them, because they all believe every word that you say. The minister was put under the pump and so you say, 'Okay, minister, will do an inquiry. She'll be right. Go and announce it.' You have not even done the terms of reference and you are trying to tell us that it is going to be done in a couple of months. I have no faith in you.

Mr Carmody : The inquiry will be undertaken. We said it would be undertaken, and it will be undertaken.

Senator STERLE: You said that on 10 October, too.

Mr Carmody : I did not say that then.

Senator STERLE: No, you didn't, but CASA did. You got the minister to say it.

Mr Carmody : The minister announced the inquiry on the 10th.

Senator STERLE: The fairy dust was working well; it is still working well. Let me put this to you very quickly. I have got an article here from the New Zealand Herald from 23 May—fancy that, today. This is a good segue because Senator Fawcett would know this mob, I assume. The New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association are really concerned. They said:

Our current methods—the CAA and Airshare websites and brochures which come with RPAS bought at New Zealand retail outlets—are not reaching enough RPAS users.

They are obviously in front of us. They have done this. I do not know how long they have been doing it. It goes on to say:

The New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association says urgent action is needed.

That is the pilots, not shiny-bums sitting in committee hearings being senators or bureaucrats. But then it goes down here to a paragraph. This is what the pilots' association said:

CHAIR:They have the RPS encounters—108 occurrences.

Mr Carmody : So 108 were reported over a period of—?

CHAIR: One year.

Mr Carmody : But, again, it is a question of how many of those were confirmed. Without the context—

CHAIR: Oh, Mr Carmody!

Senator STERLE:  Help me out. My nephew is at 11,000 feet south of Perth. Zappo! One goes flying in front of him. He straightaway puts in a complaint to the ATSB. I am not blaming the ATSB. There is no registration plate. What do you mean confirmation? My nephew is not bullshitting.

Mr Carmody : I mean confirmation that what the pilot saw was a drone, or a glider or a bird. Obviously if it zips past the windscreen, as you say, then the pilot has seen what he has seen.

Senator STERLE:  So is that a confirmation?

Mr Carmody : If it was some distance away, is my point. How far away was it?

Senator STERLE:  You are starting to annoy me now, Mr Carmody. You are really starting to annoy me now. What a load of crap!
 
Mr Carmody: Was it two kilometres away? Was it—

CHAIR: That does not matter. They have reported occurrences from 2012 to 2016. They have referred to them as an 'occurrence', not a report—occurrences which involved proximity encounters with manned aircraft. There were 108 of them last year, in the year 2016. Since then their same report says that the number of drones will double by the end of 2017. We can assume that 108 occurrences could go to 216. That is an acceptable level? Let's assume that for a minute. Is that an acceptable level, Mr Carmody?

Mr Carmody: I do not believe it is an acceptable level. I do not know what an acceptable level is. But I said that this is a question of people reporting that they have seen something versus something being close enough to cause damage or cause a problem to an aircraft.

CHAIR: Senator Fawcett. I do not want to hear from you anymore, Mr Carmody.

MTF...P2