[Peetwo]

 FER-balls & ADS-Bollocks -

Supp QON cont/-

18.

Corporate Services Division

Sterle

Functional and Efficiency Review
At the previous Estimates in May the Secretary outlined some of the recommendations of the Functional & Efficiency Review conducted into the Department by KPMG:

Can you update on what has happened with that review since May?

Are you able to indicate if Cabinet has concluded its consideration of the report?

Have any of the 18 recommendations referred to last time been accepted by Government?

If yes,

which ones?

do any recommend outsourcing of existing Departmental functions? Details?

do any recommend insourcing of existing outsourced functions?

What has happened with the Airservices recommendations?

Are there any recommendations that relate to the Australian Rail Track Corporation?

If yes, do any relate to changed ownership structures? Details?

Are there any recommendations that relate to Infrastructure Australia?

If yes, does that relate to the governance structure of IA?

What other recommendations are there?

What is the expected timeframe around decisions by Government from this review?

&.. CASA QON 143-145 - ADS-B:

Senator XENOPHON: I am. I am very close. Can I just say that if aircraft fly below cloud cover, visually—if aircraft do not have ADS-B, they have to fly visually—correct?

Mr Carmody: Yes, they have to fly visually. That is correct.

Senator XENOPHON: The point that Dick Smith has made to me just again today is that that poses a risk to pilots. There has never been a case of a mid-air collision in this country involving aircraft in clouds—is that right?

Mr Carmody: I did see a quote to that effect. I assume it is correct; I have heard that.

Senator XENOPHON: He has expressed a concern previously and again today that requiring pilots who cannot afford to install ADS-B to fly visually below clouds itself is problematic from a safety point of view. Is that something you have assessed?

Mr Carmody: Not to my knowledge. I can take that on notice and see whether we have. I do not know the answer to that, I am sorry.

---

Senator XENOPHON: My final question is a follow-up. The base of your assertion is that it might be more expensive in a few years time, and that did not work for flat screen TVs or other technology.

Mr Carmody: Different technology. But that is just an assertion in the same way as it is an assertion that it will get cheaper, if I may, by AOPA.

Senator XENOPHON: And that generally happens with new technology?
Mr Carmody: It might.

Senator XENOPHON: Could you get back to me on that. Thank you, Chair, for your patience.

---

NX Written - 28/10/16: What empirical or other data does CASA have to ground the claim that that ADS-B prices will go up as a function of time? Please table this data.

ASA QON 159 - ADS-B:

Senator XENOPHON: How many general aviation aircraft have complied with the ADS-B to date?

Mr Harfield: I cannot tell you exactly. What I can give you is the statistic that for all IFR flights 87 per cent have been equipped and, for those that are operating below 10,000 feet, 60 per cent or 6 out of 10 aircraft have already equipped. VFR aircraft do not have to comply with the mandate—380 of those have actually self-equipped because of the benefits associated with it. As we approach the mandate, we have talked to the 70 top GA fleet that have not equipped and by that stage we are expecting to have 92 per cent equipped. Out of 931 airframes that are yet to equipped with ADS-B 50 per cent of those airframes do less than two IFR flights per month. If the 200 most active of those equip we will have 99 per cent of all flights ADS-B equipped by February.

Senator XENOPHON: That does not take into account all of the GA IFR aircraft at all, does it?

Mr Harfield: No, it is not saying that is all of them. I am saying they are the statistics that include GA IFR aircraft.

Senator XENOPHON: We do not know at this stage what percentage of GA aircraft have got ADS-B?

Mr Harfield: We do. I can provide that to you.

Of making DAS's great again?

He of large ears said;

"Senator XENOPHON: He has expressed a concern previously and again today that requiring pilots who cannot afford to install ADS-B to fly visually below clouds itself is problematic from a safety point of view. Is that something you have assessed?
Mr Carmody: Not to my knowledge. I can take that on notice and see whether we have. I do not know the answer to that, I am sorry".

Ok, slow it down a fraction folks. Did the DAS just say 'he doesn't know'? He needs to 'take it on notice'? What exactly then does a DAS do? Ok, so I understand he wouldn't be across everything in the organisation, you know - have the pot plants in Sydney been watered, who is the person not securing their bicycle compliantly in the bike cage at The Circuit, what is the S.O.P is for emptying the dishwasher in the lunch room in Townsville....you know, that sort of crap.

But to not be fully across the process or potential risks outlined by Sen X is children's stuff. A pimply 16 year old Ranga taking his first joy flight with fantasies of flying A380's in his eyes and blinded by the motion of a spinning prop knows the answer to that! Wingnut should NOT have to take such a basic question on notice. WTF?

Can you imagine asking the Commissioner of Police in QLD; 'what colour are police car flashing lights', or 'is it legal to sodomise a goat'?  And he says 'I will need to take that on notice'??  

Oh Lordy and heaven help us boys and girls, we are all ducked.


TICK TOCK

Well said Gobbles... In the meantime while Wingnut fluffs around working out the best way to obfuscate the QON, Boyd & the Board have finally taken the initiative and answered the QON for him...

Via Binger & 'that man' off the Oz:

CASA backflip on navigation system
12:00amMITCHELL BINGEMANN, EAN HIGGINS
CASA will push back the deadline for implementing new air navigation systems in private aircraft by three years.

The aviation regulator is set to announce a massive backdown on the mandate to implement cripplingly expensive new air navigation systems in private aircraft, pushing the deadline back three years to 2020.

The Australian has learned that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority will soon announce that the ­implementation of Automatic ­Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) for private aircraft operators will be delayed from 2017 to 2020, in line with US regulations. Charter services and commercial, regular passenger aircraft will still be required to comply with the February 2017 deadline.

It is understood the CASA board has approved the deadline delay but is awaiting government sign-off before publicly announcing the changes. A spokesman for CASA said the regulator continued to “closely monitor the fitment rates for ADS-B” but that “no decisions have been made”.

ADS-B is an advanced air navigation system that uses sophisticated satellite GPS to determine the position, direction, speed and altitude of aircraft, with that information relayed in real time to air traffic controllers via ground ­stations.

Airservices and CASA had mandated that all required aircraft carry the new system by February 2017, three years before its full introduction in the US.

But private aircraft operators represented by industry groups such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association had passionately argued against its introduction, saying the costly system would destroy Australia’s already struggling general aviation sector.

They had argued that any implementation should wait until 2020 when similar regulations come into force in the US. Synching the regulations with US would result in economies of scale and reduce the costs of installing the expensive equipment. The high cost of installing the new equipment made businessman and aviator Dick Smith urge operators and pilots to leave general aviation before they lost large amounts of money trying to comply with the sector’s red tape.

Yesterday, Mr Smith welcomed the deadline delay saying it would be a reprieve for the nation’s general aviation sector which was suffocating under red tape and the cost of compliance.

“It looks like someone has ­finally made a sensible decision about this. ADS-B was offering no safety improvement for general aviation. It was just sheer bastardry,” Mr Smith told The Australian.

“It’s just a pity for all the aircraft owners out there who have had to take second mortgages on their homes to buy this useless equipment.”

CASA’s acting director of aviation safety, Shane Carmody, told a Senate estimates hearing last month that there were no plans to delay implementation and that there was no evidence to suggest prices for the equipment would decrease as installations increased in the US and elsewhere.

“In fact there might be more competition for equipment and the prices may not decrease, making it more difficult to get equipment closer to the time,” he said.

Mr Carmody said he did not favour delaying the mandate as “many, many operators, individuals and organisations, had over the last five years made a commitment to fit ADS-B — and they fitted it on the basis that the mandate was in place and coming in.

“There are a number of operators that would therefore not thank me, and would come back at us as a regulator and say, ‘You are making it less safe by deferring fitment when we’ve already made our investment in accordance with your direction,” he said.

The backdown on ADS-B follows a campaign by The Australian last year exposing the disproportionately high cost being imposed by government regulators on Australian aircraft owners as early adopters of the technology.

While many owners could see an eventual benefit in ADS-B, they wanted it delayed until after its compulsory adoption in the US.

Australian aircraft owners were sometimes put in the position of having to pay huge sums for “first installs” on their particular make of aircraft, which involved engineering costs of up to $120,000 per plane.

One of the champions of ADS-B who pushed for its early adoption is Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston.

“Australia is a world leader in the implementation of satellite-based technology because it provides enormous safety and service benefit,” Sir Angus said in June. He and Mr Smith engaged in a public war of words over regulation.

Finally a win for sanity...



MTF...