Silence isn't always golden. I can think of at least two situations when it's a very deep shade of blue: when you're over tiger country and there's suddenly silence in the cockpit is one, and the other one is when you're waiting for Canberra to give the GA community some feedback on reforms. It was four months ago in May that AOPA held their Tamworth rally and the department hosted meeting with both AOPA and TAAAF to discuss what amounts to proposals, ideas and–in some cases–demands. Even if we take into account the federal election and the uncertainty in the weeks after as to whether anyone was going to be able to form a government, it has still been a long time. This week I chased some contacts in Canberra and used my official journalist's voice to ask when feedback to the industry might be forthcoming (read: begged). What I have been able to glean is that something is coming in October; a package for the general aviation industry that I believe will outline what the federal government believes it is prepared to do. Ah, but what will be in the package? On one hand it could be initiatives that kick-start general aviation; on the other hand it could be something resembling the Labor Party's Aviation White Paper. Let's hope for the sakes of us and our future flying generations that it's not the latter. In the meantime, we just have to wait out the dark blue silence coming from Canberra.
The death of Hannes Arch in a night helicopter crash is just gut-wrenching. A pilot of supreme talent, the last thing you would expect is that he would perish on a simple transport flight. It mostly seems that people like Arch are destined to meet their end finding the outer edge of some envelope or the other. For me this is particularly poignant. Only three weeks ago I was up on the Sunshine Coast exploring the dangers of flying helicopters visually at night, and came away understanding how skilled you have to be to do it safely. It will be some time before we can say with certainty what happened that night in Austria, except that it highlights that even the best aircraft drivers around are not exempt from one tragic moment.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch