The organisers of OzKosh 2016 rolled the dice when they re-formatted the event to resemble an exhibition rather than an air show. They could easily have cut the heart out of the show by not staging the rollicking air displays that had come to be a trademark of Ausfly. Would ground displays, an exhibition and an exhausting seminar program be enough to draw people to Narromine. The answer so far has been "yes"; OzKosh was an outstanding success by Ausfly standards. Although the Friday was a bit quiet, the Saturday was as busy as a bull ant, and at many of the seminars latecomers were forced to stand up the back through a lack of chairs. The Unicom reported around 470 movements for the weekend, more than Ausfly ever recorded. Consequently, the OzKosh team has gone into preparations for the 2017 event (yes, already) in a bouyant mood, determined to make the next one even better. There are kinks that need to be straightened out, but that's par for any new flying event. Congrats to the team of hard workers at OzKosh.
The value of Class 2 medical in a safety context has been contentious for years, and even with the blessing of three consecutive Directors of Aviation Safety, nothing has been done to shed aviation of this burden. Now, it seems, there is real potential for progress. Moves by the SAAA and AOPA have painted CASA into a bit of a corner, resulting in a discussion paper (DP) to be released before this year is out. Both associations have pointed out, however, that Class 2 reform is not a Monty, and that real pressure needs to be kept on CASA to maintain momentum. We'll know more about where we stand when the DP is released. If convention is followed, it will contain a series of options for discussion. One of those is likely to be "Do Nothing" and one option will be labelled as CASA's Preferred Option. There is nothing to say those two options won't be the same thing. Already there are vibes from Aviation House that they aren't happy with the number of passengers (five) that the AOPA policy would allow under the self-certification regime they have put forward, so there'll be a battle royal needed just to get that on the ballot paper. Still, medical reform is back on the agenda, and all noise right now is good noise.
Flightplan 2030 was Mark Skidmore's pet project; an attempt to get CASA to look well into the future and start preparing early for the challenges ahead. According to CASA, the project outcome will be released next year after further work. I will be genuinely surprised if Flightplan 2030 actually brings anything concrete and valuable. The regulator doesn't have a reputation for being forward-looking (which, admittedly, Skidmore was trying to change) and it is also strapped for resources to drag itself out of the regulatory reform quagmire that it plunged itself into. So who's going to make Flightplan 2030 a priority? Add to that the uncomfortable truth that right now no-one at CASA has the expertise to deal with many of the challenges identified by the aviation community and we are left wondering what level of integrity the outcome could possibly have. Under Skidmore, the plan would have been prioritised and championed; right now it is really a poor cousin who someone dumped on CASA and ran away. I hope I'm wrong about this. Like many others in the aviation community, I traveled many nautical miles and sacrificed time out of my life to contribute because I thought it was a step forward in aviation regulation in Australia. Should it meet its fate in the bottom drawer, I will be annoyed at best.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch