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More on the story - Ombudsman says CASA needs to be more transparent - this time from the PSnews online.. :

Ombudsman calls on CASA to open up


The Commonwealth Ombudsman has called for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to be more transparent and accountable in dealing with matters of public safety.

In his report on CASA, Responding to coronial investigations, Ombudsman, Colin Neave said as the national regulator of the general aviation industry, "it is vital that CASA is alert to events and public commentary relevant to that role".

"Aviation fatalities and the coronial inquests that often follow provide CASA with important information about areas where changes to regulation and compliance activities may be warranted," he said.

Aviation Authority not accountable enough

The Ombudsman said his office was aware of "a number of instances" in which coroners investigating aviation deaths had made findings and recommendations to CASA.

Between 2009 and 2013, 153 people in Australia died in 120 general aviation aircraft accidents.

"Many of these accidents were the subject of coronial inquests, which perform an important function in publicly examining questions around public safety and making recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future," Mr Neave said.

"However, it appeared to us that the lack of public response or visible action by CASA made it difficult for the public (including other coroners considering similar matters) to establish whether CASA had considered or acted on those comments."

The report made eight recommendations and the Ombudsman will soon release a fact sheet outlining the administrative principles for responding to coronial recommendations.

"In particular, we recommended that CASA respond publicly to all coronial recommendations directed to it, to outline its reasons for accepting or refusing recommendations, and what it has done or will do to implement an accepted recommendation," the Ombudsman said.
"We also recommended it review its internal record-keeping arrangements to track its assessment and implementation of coronial recommendations."

CASA has agreed to all six recommendations in full and two either in principle or with minor qualifications.

"CASA was very responsive to our requests for information in relation to this investigation and we are confident of the steps it will take and is already taking to implement our suggestions," Mr Neave said.

The full report can be found at this PS News link.

Also a follow up to the Hitchen Oz Flying AHIA story -  Helicopter Growth Rate slows to almost Zero  - this time from Steve Creedy from the Oz:

Helicopter growth caught in the crossfire  

• by: STEVE CREEDY
  
• From: The Australian
  
• April 17, 2015 12:00AM
  

Aviation Editor
Sydney




The local heli­copter industry could be headed for a slowdown in the next financial year. Source: News Limited
 
Growth in the Australian heli­copter industry appears to have stalled as it is caught in a crossfire of factors, including the fall in the dollar and the end of the mining boom.  

Research by the Australian Helicopter Industry Association showed the growth rate for rotary-wing aircraft slumped from 7.8 per cent in mid-2014 to less than 1 per cent for the nine months ending March. It warned the industry could be headed for a contraction in the next financial year.

The latest figure equated to the addition of just 10 helicopters over the nine months to bring the ­rotary-wing fleet to 2114 machines.
This included 1304 single-­engine piston machines, 563 powered by single-engine turbines and 247 multi-engine helicopters.

Queensland hosted 36 per cent of the fleet followed by NSW (21 per cent), Western Australia (16 per cent), Victoria (13 per cent), Northern Territory (9 per cent), South Australia (2 per cent). The Australian Capital Territory had eight helicopters.

The association said sales of new machines had “declined substantially’’, although it expected medical transport and military training contracts to push deliv­eries of bigger helicopters next ­financial year, while pre-owned sales were steady.

Takeovers, mergers and the dramatic fall in the oil price had de­flated the offshore helicopter industry, while harder to track onshore exploration had fallen as the mineral and gas exploration boom had settled into the production phase.

Scenic operators, who had ­initially been confronted with a high dollar, were expected to see some benefits from the lower ­exchange rate.
AHIA secretary Rob Rich said the steady growth in the helicopter fleet over the past decade had averaged 7-8 per cent.

But the fleet’s rate of growth had stagnated in the past three quarters.

Mr Rich said many factors were responsible for the setback, including the end of the mineral boom and long-running droughts in Northern Australia combined with general global financial difficulties.

He also blamed the federal government’s financial problems and the low dollar.

“The collapse of the Australian dollar has made … aviation assets more expensive to buy and operate,’’ Mr Rich said in a letter to members. “The slight increase in aviation tourism activities has only provided token compensation.’’

The AHIA is also keen to work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority on sorting out problems with Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 61 on flight crew licensing.

AHIA president Peter Crook announced this week that the association was beefing up its regulatory reform team to monitor and work on the integration of Part 61 into other draft legislation.

The regulator has told the ­association it has 12 flight operations rule standards development projects under way and it is seeking comment on the new rules.

Mr Crook said the association had recently been involved in fruitful talks with senior CASA ­officials about the problems it saw with Part 61. “We’re here to help,’’ he said. “We want to make sure this industry works.’’

Aviation groups at the smaller end of town have expressed concern about the way Part 61 was introduced and more recently about new fees associated with the changes.

The Australian Aviation Associations forum called on CASA to “tighten its belt’’ rather than introduce the new Part 61 charges as part of a proposed cost recovery policy, even though CASA is not proposing to increase the overall amount it seeks from the industry.
The regulator promised to review all comments on the proposed fee changes and seriously consider all suggestions.

MTF...P2