[thorn bird]

There are mini Oshkosh's happening every weekend all around the US Wombat the sheer scale of participation in private aviation is staggering. Costs are a big driver in aviations decline in Australia. In the US maintenance costs are considerably less than here. It's almost half the cost to gain a licence in the US than here. When you consider New Zealand and it's small population, aviation contributes a large percentage to their GDP, the reason I imagine is they have sensible, useable regulation.

Funnily enough the much maligned nomad is a sort after aircraft in Alaska, the locals swear by it on floats.

I just can't fathom why Australia's mandarins are so relentless in their endeavours to kill off any Australian innovation's manufacture in this country, be it aviation related or anything else, what's so bad about making stuff here? Or are we just content to just dig up red or black dirt, sooner or later we'll run out of that, what then?

To me it just seems crazy that we have all the raw materials to make stuff here, except cheap energy, but thats another story.

Australia is drowning in rules, as they say everything is fine in Australia, there's a fine for everything.