[Peetwo]

RAAus Group G approval stalled - Karma a bitch??

Apparently no LMH this week? However I did note an interesting Mark Newton comment in reply to a 2 month old comment in reply, to this nearly 4 month old Oz Flying article...

Group G Approval Imminent: RAAus

15 December 2023



Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus) CEO Matt Bouttell has said that the start of the 760-kg Group G aircraft category is getting "awfully close".
In an communique sent to members yesterday, Bouttell said that a key step in the CASA approval process had been completed, clearing the way for a full approval to administer aircraft up to 760-kg maximum take-off weight (MTOW).

"I’m pleased to say that we are getting awfully close to obtaining our 760 kg MTOW (Group G) approval," Bouttell said in the communique.

"Pleasingly, CASA recently gave in-principle approval of the RAAus Flight Operations and Technical Manual revisions that are necessary to align our manuals to CASA regulations for this new group of aircraft.

"With this, I’m confident that our final approval shouldn’t be too far away.

"With the increased certainty around what will be approved by CASA, our staff are now busy, readying internal business systems, creating new forms, developing education and training programs and implementing a detailed member communication plan, to make this transition as easy as possible for members."

Group G will permit RAAus to administer aircraft with an MTOW in the 601-760-kg range. This is expected to include aeroplanes such as the C150 and many of the RV amateur-built experimental range.

Group G approval will not mean that aircraft with an existing MTOW below that range can automatically start carrying more useful load. The aeroplane's original certification needs to be adhered to. It does mean that GA aircraft that have MTOWs that fall within that range can be taken off the civil registered and registered with RAAus.

RAAus has created a series of FAQ surrounding Group G, which can be found on the RAAus website.

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Matty in reply to Mike Borgelt
2 months ago

I think the question here is if you own an RV you built yourself and lost your PPL or RPL or Class 5 due to diabetes, would you choose to register with RAAus and fly with a pilot certificate, or sell the RV and take up golf?

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Mark Newton in reply to Matty
5 days ago

“Lost your class 5 due to diabetes,” is a very funny what-if.

Three months ago, the hypothetical would have been “lost your class 2 due to [almost anything].” Now that Class 5 is operational, the set of conditions which make RAAus attractive over PPL/RPL is significantly diminished.

If you have diabetes, the CASA and RAAus standards are virtually identical anyway. In both cases, you don’t qualify for self declaration.

If your position is that RAAus is the natural home for pilots who are too dangerously unhealthy to fly safely, then maybe it’s okay for a diabetic to throw caution to the wind and lie on their RAAus MED002 form so they can fly a Group G RV-7 with numbers on the side. If they’ve given up on compliance, they could even fly aerobatics in it!

But it’s all a bit up in the air, isn’t it? It’s April now, nearly five months after this article was published, and RAAus is still “… in the final stages” according to their mail out three days ago, and all their target dates on the implementation plan are “TBC,” and Matt Boutell isn’t the CEO anymore.

But at least RAAus members can get RPLs and Class 5’s, which give them a MTOW increase up to 2000kg and CTA access. Maybe if RAAus should have got behind the medical reform effort a decade ago instead of lobbying against it; the extremely patient members would have been a lot happier if this’d all landed in 2014 instead of 2024.

MTF...P2