Steam – On.
You may read the latest Hitch article – HERE – in Australian Flying without my rudely inserted comments. Sorry Hitch, and no disrespect, or offense intended but, I couldn’t just let the article pass by without comment, there’s too much at stake to sit idly by with a coffee and let it all float past. So, with your indulgence – Steam On GD, pile it on mate…….
Hitch – “In general aviation, pessimism is robust but optimism is fragile. As much as we'd like to reverse that, things keep happening that justify the pessimism.”
I am mildly surprised to see even Hitch mentioning ‘optimism’ in the same sentence as GA. Wishful thinking I could understand, but history and cold hard facts preclude, in no uncertain manner, any optimism. Until the aviation industry as a whole body says enough and backs that statement with determination to reform the Act, the regulations and the regulator, the endless rounds of meaningless discussion will continue. CASA and the DoIT and many ministers have ridden out past mild storms of protest with consummate ease and why not. They have nothing else to do – industry must earn it's living, pay the bills, meet compliance and run the business; they need to generate the revenue to this. CASA on the other hand have all the toys needed to continue on their merry way – money, time, power and access to ministerial support - all provided by those who must work with the system given. Imagine a flying operation gifted those big guns, with no responsibility for the money or the unholy mess left in the wake. No boys, you’ve taken a blunt, rusty corkscrew to a fight against big artillery. Until all the big guns of the industry get together and challenge this monstrosity, head on, no holds barred and slug it out to the end, optimism is a false, bitter disappointment, a promise, as empty as a politicians promise to be truthful.
Hitch – “We all applauded Minister McCormack at Wagga Wagga”
Not all did – in fact there was a marked, general whisper of ‘we’re ducked’ the minute he opened his mealy mouth. It was made clear right there, right then, that there is no intention to change any damn thing. Read his ‘speech’ – all there - or watch the video, which even more clearly defines the murder of optimism and crucifies hope with a stake in its heart. Placebo – hells bells the man was only there for 20 minutes at the start, couldn’t get out of Dodge fast enough. A cynical con job – he can say he came, he listened, he consulted and threw it back to the very same people who created the current untenable situation.
Applause? Dream on. Hitch - [he] announced that CASA would craft a new set of maintenance regulations specifically for GA, but our ovation may have been premature given that we didn't have the full story. With the release of the initial discussion paper this week, we find that the new regs will apply to only a very small segment of what we call "GA", because CASA has deemed to re-define the term so that charter operations and joyflights are no longer part of GA. Although the proposed new regs seem like a great idea, they will benefit only a few small segments of GA: flying academies, ag operators, aeromedical (except patient transfer), SAR and dedicated airwork aircraft. Private flying schools and aero clubs won't benefit because their aircraft are also used in joyflights, which means the aeroplanes will have to be maintained to the passenger-carrying rules, even though their main purpose is training. Flying academies won't have this problem because they don't offer their fleets for joyflights. Once again, the operators who need the most relief from the regulatory burden are being offered none.
Would you applaud that – would that fill you with ‘optimism’? I don’t think so. If it does then perhaps its time to visit an ‘alienist’ or hold an exorcism, for you have ‘wandered’.
Hitch – "I see three options for the flying schools and aero clubs:
GA is more than Flight school and ‘Joy-flights’ – the big charter outfits and regionals (those left standing) are going to be seriously hurt by the new 135 and the maintenance regulations. Where will all the new chums from the flight schools, those which manage to survive, go to get those vital first multi engine hours, gain real life experience and develop command skills then? Rest assured, the government agency may be happy with fluffy, feel good, ultra safe (on paper) qualifications, but insurance companies will not share in that pipe dream. They have an iron clad ‘cash and no bullshit’ approach to pay outs and are not easy to fool. You may baffle a disinterested minister, but not those boys..........
Hitch - [maintain] one aircraft to the higher standards and use only that one for joyflights, maintain the entire fleet to the higher standard or start refusing joyflights. A dedicated aircraft will add complexity and kill flexibility; running the entire fleet to the passenger-carrying regs will add cost. If the new GA regs are really going to provide the cost and burden relief that CASA says they will, flying schools and aero clubs may have to move to the new regs simply to stay alive. As training forms the larger part of their business, sacrificing joyflights may be the only choice they really have, denying GA one of its greatest promotional tools. The old caper of re-branding a joyflight as a Trial Instructional Flight will have limited ability to assuage the problem because TIFs are training and therefore passengers can't be carried; they're good for only one person. From my desk, the only answer I can see is to reclassify joyflights out of passenger-carrying and back into GA. Perhaps submissions from the industry might reflect that.
Well Hitch, from my desk I can look past the small world you see, to the wider landscape where charter and cargo services become priced and regulated out of business; have a chat with young Master Wyndam up there in Scone, get his views – take a wider view; and, be afraid, be very afraid, for the Bogey man indeed cometh.
Hitch - On the optimistic side, the consultation documents for these new regs do hint at a new attitude. Take, for instance, this statement. Adopting a regulatory structure based on an established and appropriate international standard that is tried, tested and proven to be working effectively, is an efficient approach to delivering tangible improvements to Australia’s GA community. That is an absolutely inarguable position for them to take, after all, we've been telling CASA that for decades! The amount breath and tears spent trying to get this over to CASA seems to have born fruit, but it must be very frustrating to proponents of the FARs that CASA has come back like it was all their idea. All we need now is for that now-acknowledged philosophy to be applied to Part 61 ... Part 66, Part 141, Part 142, Part 135 and every other appropriate regulation.
Amen to that – but mate, history, history and history again – as FAR back as the late Eighties – same rhetoric, same result, same tragic long faces when the realization that they’d been snowed dawned on their enthusiastic, optimism. That mark you, with a minister who actually wanted the changes made. Even then – the dream turned into a nightmarish pile of platitude, excuses and more rubbish masquerading as reformed regulation. Guess who paid for all that?
Hitch – “Concurrent with the above, CASA has also started the consultation process for Part 135, which is the set of rules that cover small aeroplanes in passenger-carrying ops; in other words, low-capacity RPT, charter and joy-flight.
Hitch, mate, do some research – we’ve heard it all before and before that again. The simple fact that ‘consultation is in progress spells out, clearly, that CASA have no idea how to set about the task; and, signifies, clearly their intention to ignore world class rules which work. If there ever was any intention to embrace the FAR (and upset the AFAP) then they would simply do so and save this country a small fortune. They have taken a stand, backed it with our money and they cannot gracefully back down and admit the made a pigs ear of the regulatory reform process. They dare not admit that hundreds of millions have been flushed into a sewer of their own creation. Change the Act. Reform the regulator, adopt world standard rules and all will be well – provided industry can make it through the process. The rest is flatulence, they know it, we know it, the wool blind minister knows it, the bloody Senate committee know it for crying out loud. Dinner is over, the dancing has stopped now it’s time to get to the business end of this long, slow dance.
Hitch – This is another conundrum for smaller operators: do they keep their charter AOC or opt out? For some companies, they will have to bite the bullet because their charter income is a larger proportion of their business, and for others it's their reason for existence. The new Part 135 proposals do present a large increase in costs (e.g. you will have to fit TAWS-B if you have more than six seats), and as charter is not a high-margin business, there is unlikely to be room to absorb the extra drag on cash flow. CASA says the new regs are designed to combine the flexibility of charter with the safety benefits it says exist in structured training and checking, but, not being an "economic regulator", they have ignored the extra costs. I also have to ask why, when they admit they were told in 1999 to apply RPT-style regs to charter, it has taken 19 years to get around to it? The answer might lie in the statement that CASA "was told ..." So who told them? I suspect the "telling" was political, meaning that CASA probably didn't even believe there was a safety issue to be addressed and so didn't give it priority. You have to wonder if there really is a safety issue that Part 135 will fix.
Enough; time this industry grew a backbone. Time to put aside the cozy relationships, the exemptions, the permissions, hand outs , self interest and privilege’s doled out. Those are rights, not favours, under real law. Don’t ask ‘em – tell ‘em. This is a complete and utter balls up – fix it or fuck off and let someone who knows what needs to be done, get it done.
There, I feel better now. Not that it will do the slightest bit of good, but WTD. Aye, steam off GD, steady as she goes mate.
Toot - toot.
You may read the latest Hitch article – HERE – in Australian Flying without my rudely inserted comments. Sorry Hitch, and no disrespect, or offense intended but, I couldn’t just let the article pass by without comment, there’s too much at stake to sit idly by with a coffee and let it all float past. So, with your indulgence – Steam On GD, pile it on mate…….
Hitch – “In general aviation, pessimism is robust but optimism is fragile. As much as we'd like to reverse that, things keep happening that justify the pessimism.”
I am mildly surprised to see even Hitch mentioning ‘optimism’ in the same sentence as GA. Wishful thinking I could understand, but history and cold hard facts preclude, in no uncertain manner, any optimism. Until the aviation industry as a whole body says enough and backs that statement with determination to reform the Act, the regulations and the regulator, the endless rounds of meaningless discussion will continue. CASA and the DoIT and many ministers have ridden out past mild storms of protest with consummate ease and why not. They have nothing else to do – industry must earn it's living, pay the bills, meet compliance and run the business; they need to generate the revenue to this. CASA on the other hand have all the toys needed to continue on their merry way – money, time, power and access to ministerial support - all provided by those who must work with the system given. Imagine a flying operation gifted those big guns, with no responsibility for the money or the unholy mess left in the wake. No boys, you’ve taken a blunt, rusty corkscrew to a fight against big artillery. Until all the big guns of the industry get together and challenge this monstrosity, head on, no holds barred and slug it out to the end, optimism is a false, bitter disappointment, a promise, as empty as a politicians promise to be truthful.
Hitch – “We all applauded Minister McCormack at Wagga Wagga”
Not all did – in fact there was a marked, general whisper of ‘we’re ducked’ the minute he opened his mealy mouth. It was made clear right there, right then, that there is no intention to change any damn thing. Read his ‘speech’ – all there - or watch the video, which even more clearly defines the murder of optimism and crucifies hope with a stake in its heart. Placebo – hells bells the man was only there for 20 minutes at the start, couldn’t get out of Dodge fast enough. A cynical con job – he can say he came, he listened, he consulted and threw it back to the very same people who created the current untenable situation.
Applause? Dream on. Hitch - [he] announced that CASA would craft a new set of maintenance regulations specifically for GA, but our ovation may have been premature given that we didn't have the full story. With the release of the initial discussion paper this week, we find that the new regs will apply to only a very small segment of what we call "GA", because CASA has deemed to re-define the term so that charter operations and joyflights are no longer part of GA. Although the proposed new regs seem like a great idea, they will benefit only a few small segments of GA: flying academies, ag operators, aeromedical (except patient transfer), SAR and dedicated airwork aircraft. Private flying schools and aero clubs won't benefit because their aircraft are also used in joyflights, which means the aeroplanes will have to be maintained to the passenger-carrying rules, even though their main purpose is training. Flying academies won't have this problem because they don't offer their fleets for joyflights. Once again, the operators who need the most relief from the regulatory burden are being offered none.
Would you applaud that – would that fill you with ‘optimism’? I don’t think so. If it does then perhaps its time to visit an ‘alienist’ or hold an exorcism, for you have ‘wandered’.
Hitch – "I see three options for the flying schools and aero clubs:
GA is more than Flight school and ‘Joy-flights’ – the big charter outfits and regionals (those left standing) are going to be seriously hurt by the new 135 and the maintenance regulations. Where will all the new chums from the flight schools, those which manage to survive, go to get those vital first multi engine hours, gain real life experience and develop command skills then? Rest assured, the government agency may be happy with fluffy, feel good, ultra safe (on paper) qualifications, but insurance companies will not share in that pipe dream. They have an iron clad ‘cash and no bullshit’ approach to pay outs and are not easy to fool. You may baffle a disinterested minister, but not those boys..........
Hitch - [maintain] one aircraft to the higher standards and use only that one for joyflights, maintain the entire fleet to the higher standard or start refusing joyflights. A dedicated aircraft will add complexity and kill flexibility; running the entire fleet to the passenger-carrying regs will add cost. If the new GA regs are really going to provide the cost and burden relief that CASA says they will, flying schools and aero clubs may have to move to the new regs simply to stay alive. As training forms the larger part of their business, sacrificing joyflights may be the only choice they really have, denying GA one of its greatest promotional tools. The old caper of re-branding a joyflight as a Trial Instructional Flight will have limited ability to assuage the problem because TIFs are training and therefore passengers can't be carried; they're good for only one person. From my desk, the only answer I can see is to reclassify joyflights out of passenger-carrying and back into GA. Perhaps submissions from the industry might reflect that.
Well Hitch, from my desk I can look past the small world you see, to the wider landscape where charter and cargo services become priced and regulated out of business; have a chat with young Master Wyndam up there in Scone, get his views – take a wider view; and, be afraid, be very afraid, for the Bogey man indeed cometh.
Hitch - On the optimistic side, the consultation documents for these new regs do hint at a new attitude. Take, for instance, this statement. Adopting a regulatory structure based on an established and appropriate international standard that is tried, tested and proven to be working effectively, is an efficient approach to delivering tangible improvements to Australia’s GA community. That is an absolutely inarguable position for them to take, after all, we've been telling CASA that for decades! The amount breath and tears spent trying to get this over to CASA seems to have born fruit, but it must be very frustrating to proponents of the FARs that CASA has come back like it was all their idea. All we need now is for that now-acknowledged philosophy to be applied to Part 61 ... Part 66, Part 141, Part 142, Part 135 and every other appropriate regulation.
Amen to that – but mate, history, history and history again – as FAR back as the late Eighties – same rhetoric, same result, same tragic long faces when the realization that they’d been snowed dawned on their enthusiastic, optimism. That mark you, with a minister who actually wanted the changes made. Even then – the dream turned into a nightmarish pile of platitude, excuses and more rubbish masquerading as reformed regulation. Guess who paid for all that?
Hitch – “Concurrent with the above, CASA has also started the consultation process for Part 135, which is the set of rules that cover small aeroplanes in passenger-carrying ops; in other words, low-capacity RPT, charter and joy-flight.
Hitch, mate, do some research – we’ve heard it all before and before that again. The simple fact that ‘consultation is in progress spells out, clearly, that CASA have no idea how to set about the task; and, signifies, clearly their intention to ignore world class rules which work. If there ever was any intention to embrace the FAR (and upset the AFAP) then they would simply do so and save this country a small fortune. They have taken a stand, backed it with our money and they cannot gracefully back down and admit the made a pigs ear of the regulatory reform process. They dare not admit that hundreds of millions have been flushed into a sewer of their own creation. Change the Act. Reform the regulator, adopt world standard rules and all will be well – provided industry can make it through the process. The rest is flatulence, they know it, we know it, the wool blind minister knows it, the bloody Senate committee know it for crying out loud. Dinner is over, the dancing has stopped now it’s time to get to the business end of this long, slow dance.
Hitch – This is another conundrum for smaller operators: do they keep their charter AOC or opt out? For some companies, they will have to bite the bullet because their charter income is a larger proportion of their business, and for others it's their reason for existence. The new Part 135 proposals do present a large increase in costs (e.g. you will have to fit TAWS-B if you have more than six seats), and as charter is not a high-margin business, there is unlikely to be room to absorb the extra drag on cash flow. CASA says the new regs are designed to combine the flexibility of charter with the safety benefits it says exist in structured training and checking, but, not being an "economic regulator", they have ignored the extra costs. I also have to ask why, when they admit they were told in 1999 to apply RPT-style regs to charter, it has taken 19 years to get around to it? The answer might lie in the statement that CASA "was told ..." So who told them? I suspect the "telling" was political, meaning that CASA probably didn't even believe there was a safety issue to be addressed and so didn't give it priority. You have to wonder if there really is a safety issue that Part 135 will fix.
Enough; time this industry grew a backbone. Time to put aside the cozy relationships, the exemptions, the permissions, hand outs , self interest and privilege’s doled out. Those are rights, not favours, under real law. Don’t ask ‘em – tell ‘em. This is a complete and utter balls up – fix it or fuck off and let someone who knows what needs to be done, get it done.
There, I feel better now. Not that it will do the slightest bit of good, but WTD. Aye, steam off GD, steady as she goes mate.
Toot - toot.