CASA Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore has reached out to the Australian aviation community for constructive feedback on regulatory reform, in particular on CASR Part 61 - licensing.
In a letter sent out to all pilots last week, Skidmore outlined some of the actions the regulator had taken on industry issues with Part 61 and reinforced his desire for the aviation community to provide constructive feedback.
At the time of writing, some submissions from the industry had already reached CASA, covering many issues from endorsements and flight reviews to medicals and the format of the new licence itself. A CASA spokesperson said the feedback was largely constructive and valuable.
During a media conference on Tuesday. Skidmore detailed the sort of relationship he believes needs to exist between the industry and the regulator.
"I want to be able to engage with the aviation community to understand and have good discussion on regs into the future," he said. "What do we need to establish, how can we best achieve that? I'd like to think we can have the opportunity to talk to people and say 'we think there's a bit of an issue there, what do you think?' and have a bit of a discussion to see if there's a reg reform required, or if it's education, training or some other non-regulatory process that we can implement. That's the type of future we need to have.
"Part of it is ensuring that we all understand that the regulations we put in place are trying to achieve a safe outcome for aviation and that we're working together to achieve that. I've said it before, and I'll continue say, we're partners in safety and we need to work together.
"I can't correct the past. What I can do is try and correct the future and learn from it and hopefully make sure we don't do it again. What we're trying to do now is get the information in; hence, my letter to people saying 'tell us what you think'."
Flying schools and holders of Air Operator's Certificates (AOCs) who have spoken to Australian Flying continue to view the push for co-operation with some skepticism, citing a fear of reprisals from CASA for speaking out. Skidmore admitted there is still work to be done on building trust to get the desired connection with the aviation community.
"We're going to have to demonstrate that trust within the community more than anything else," he said. "I'm very disappointed by that as an attitude. I've been trying to say that if they provide us with some information, we will not take punitive action unless it's something that is deserving of it, which to me would be some negligent act.
"Unfortunately, I think it's going to take time, but I'm hoping that the people will come with me on this and we can work together to achieve that."
Part of the change agenda is to implement a "just culture" enviroment as recommended in the Forsyth Report and directed in Warren Truss' Statement of Expectations released last month. Skidmore expects that culture change will take between five and seven years although signs of change should start appearing within one to two years.
Skidmore cited the fallout from the recent Germanwings tragedy as an example of how he believes CASA and the aviation community can work together. The airlines proposed their own solutions through operational procedures rather than having CASA regulate to force the airlines to implement changes.
"That's where I'd like to be able to have the conversation with the industry and actually be able to give them some idea and say 'I think this is a problem' and they come back and say 'no, it's not, we can fix it this way.' That's exactly what I'd like. That's the type of discussion we've got to be able to get to."