[Peetwo]

Sandy on War & Peace -   

Via one or two IOS/PAIN email chains...

Recently I had occasion to make an incident report to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

I rang and spoke to an officer about the procedure which is either an online form or a written report.

Having explained the nature of the incident I was advised not to make my explanation into "War and Peace" (1st. ed. 1225 pages by L. Tolstoy).

If the advice had been given in a light hearted or joking manner then maybe think nothing of it. But no, it was given in a condescending tone in order to display superiority and the classical learning of this clever person compared to an ignorant peasant pilot.

Nothing new here, typical Commonwealth public employee. Years ago we would have said 'public servant' but now the many that are employed by Commonwealth corporate bodies are not in fact public servants. Moreover they eschew the term public servant for that denotes lower status. Status in Canberra is everything, it's not for nothing that remuneration is 42% higher in Canberra (pop. near 400,000) than the average nationwide.

Commonwealth corporations, independent and largely unaccountable bodies were designed to regulate and administer with little or no cost to government or to make money and contribute to general revenue. A unique "user pays" hybrid design experiment off the back of the Thatcher privatisation reforms. Unfortunately the user pays only if there are users, and only if there is real value. Without a free and competitive market there can be no acceptable standard and therefore the model is, and with irrefutable facts in hindsight, a failure.

Unfortunately being monopolies they perpetuate themselves with make work programs, the never ending and outrageously expensive rules rewrite (now unworkable rules of  strict liability criminality) by the Civil Aviation body (CASA) being a perfect example. Monopolistic fee gouging for completely unnecessary permissions or licences along with runaway wages and uncontrolled expenses add to internally bloated budgets.

An interesting exercise would be to make an overall cost benefit analysis of the unique corporate body administration of civil aviation in Australia which began some 29 years ago. Having lived and worked in General Aviation (GA) for more than 50 years it is obvious that the costs to community in lost businesses and jobs far outweigh the sums gained by the fees that are extorted by the regulator. 

A department controlled by a responsible Minister overseeing and administering with a rational, internationally compatible rule set is needed. This would be effective and efficient with tax revenues from a healthy industry much greater than the industry destroying fees and massive ever churning paperwork burdens which are currently imposed.

The bureaucratic War on GA should cease, CASA will resist at every turn, therefore only action by Parliament can bring a new and prosperous Peace.

Sandy Reith 

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To which I replied with:

Excellent post Sandy, will copy & paste to AP in due course...


In the meantime (& very much related) the following CASA letter is from a recent post I made on the airports thread - DFO accident update: A tale of obfuscation and political expediency - 

Reference 16 December 2004 correspondence from CASA to DOTARS: 

Again you can see all the familiar syntax & trademarks (pugmarks) of a government agency that is totally unaccountable and firmly of the belief that they are a law unto themselves - unbelievable! 

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& Sandy responded with:

An open comment to the letter in your link.


One can't help thinking that they are too lazy, careless and bereft of a sense responsibility to provide any considered and potentially valuable opinion.

So much for "safety" or the public good, instead they will fall back onto someone else's inexpert interpretation of "the rules". If built contraventions come to light and impinge into defined operational spaces then narrow or shorten the runway, problem solved and back to planning the next trip to summery Montreal and the annual QLD seminars out of freezing Can'tberra. 

Organising those OS and interstate jollies is a serious business. Many worrisome details to be considered, coordinating flights, hotels, transfers, cocktail meet and greets and extra curricula activities on the resting days. They must have talent, or great travel consultants, probably the latter, never heard a complaint in the last 50 years.

Sandy 

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& from dedicated IOS & PAIN BRB committee member Rudders:

"Safety! thru clarety...I love that .! Nothing like a good red....at

taxpayers expense.
You can say anything when yre half cut

Ha hahha ha ...'Managers will be able to see a coherent 'big picture'
With CAsA the big picture is continuing regulatory chaos.  The
industry sees that...but not the perps !

This sort of verbal crapology has Dr Discrepancy written all over it.
Equals the verbal vomitus of McComick in a Senate hearing where he
claims he'll not tolerate .."false accusations and unwarranted
demagogery against his staff."

Hence CYA 101 for those employees that engage in any criminality and
just  invoke the Code.

Typo there too,...by the end of 2003.  2033 probably if you want to
try a date on it.

Actually its like the universe...without end, so any given figure is a
fail.

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& finally from Tony T:

Call John Cleese – this is “right down his ally”.


Talk about gobbledygook speak – this takes the cake.

This is a typical – “we can’t tell you anything until you go ahead and buy the land and make all the plans, present them to us and we’ll assess it then” -  (meaning we’ll tell you why you can’t do it)  never mind about the massive cost.

Sheesh

Tony

Next a blast from the UP past -

Via Tailwheel:

"It cements and confirms that the Regulator is out of touch, is completely out of control, is arrogance personified and has killed all and any respect in the individuals at the helm and the organization in its totality."


Spoken by an industry new comer? Why the outrage? You think you've discovered something new? The old days of DCA weren't too flash but at least a little sanity prevailed.

From 1988 to the early 1990's, CAA under Leroy Keith was approachable but since Leroy's "departure" all rational sanity has departed. Like a sewage pond, the crap has floated to the top.

What is the problem with CASA dipping into the tax payer's bucket so it's boys (and girls?) can have an undeserved jolly to an air show?

What about the $600 million plus spend on "Regulatory Reform" to produce the worst, most incompetent, atrocious Civil Aviation Regulations in the developed World? And the task is far from finished - as one CASA legend told me "There is many more careers to retirement in that task!!!"

I'm told the Regulatory Review is now "organic", meaning that it is a continual re-write in the name of meeting new technology and requirements, in perpetuity.

Don't forget to celebrate next month - September 2017 marks the 29th Birthday of Regulatory Reform.

Tail Wheel

MTF...P2