AOPA this week wrote to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asking him to reconsider Badgerys Creek so as not to disrupt general aviation training in the Sydney basin. Nice try, but I can't see the federal government calling off the bulldozers over it. Badgerys Creek is one of the largest aviation infrastructure investments this or any other government has ever made in Australia, and the juggernaut has well and truly been set in motion. For AOPA to try to stop it now is a bit like trying to block a freight train with a rubber chicken. AOPA, and especially Executive Director Ben Morgan, know that already, which leads me to ask why the letter was written. I suspect this is all about groundwork; putting out there now the problems Badgerys Creek is going to cause to both Bankstown and Camden with a major airport right in the middle of their training area. Whilst I have no expert background to verify claims of a 40% increase in costs, it doesn't take much understanding to know that if you have to travel further to your training area its going to cost you more. In that, flying schools at these two airports have a valid claim to compensation, which should rightly be paid by the operator of the new airport. They'll have a fight on their hands, though, and I suspect the AOPA letter to the PM is the bell to start Round One.
But clearly Morgan is a man who believe credits goes where credit belongs, and this week penned another letter, this time to CASA Acting Director of Aviation Safety Shane Carmody telling him what a great job CASA has done by slashing medical certificate response times. This sort of stunned some people in the industry because AOPA (and most other associations) don't have a spectacular track record when it comes to acknowledging positive developments from the regulator (perhaps because of a scarcity of those?). Full kudos to Morgan and AOPA for this one; general aviation needs to be an environment of honesty and transparency on behalf of everyone or else our general direction will be one of backwards more than forwards. Let's hope CASA gives AOPA reasons to write more glowing letters in the next year or so.
And maybe some of those reasons might come from a complete revamp of the AVMED division? CASA this week published the responses to the medical discussion paper, which almost overwhelmingly said that AVMED was very broken and might just be beyond repair, to the point where CASA would be best to give up and adopt the driver's licence medical for PPLs. If CASA, for some off-planet reason, was not aware of the problems within AVMED or the current industry attitudes before, they certainly are now. But there is much more to this battle than the apparent front lines. Behind it all we are facing a stand-off between an industry that desperately needs reform and an aviation medical community that wants the status quo maintained, if not a tightening of regulations over what they currently are. Who wins? The industry case is compelling, urgent and supported by measured fact, but the other team is recognised as the experts and are very good at hiding self-interest behind blinding science and veiled hints at liability issues.
You can't blame the Australian Airports Association for being "disappointed" with the federal government over the lack of regional airport funding in the budget. AAA spent a bit having a comprehensive economic study done that showed quite emphatically that money is needed right now or several regional airports may have to close. Minister Darren Chester replied with a litany of examples of how much the government was already spending. It may as well have been crickets for all the succour the AAA will get from it, given that the AAA had already pointed out the government funds were trickling down a narrow pipe when what was needed was a flood. It also ignores some practicalities, such as the Regional Aviation Access Program shutting out nearly every airport in Victoria and that the lion's share of the money went to airports with elevated movements of heavy jets, when it's the regionals serviced with 30-seat turbo-props that are in need of funding. Whilst we can acknowledge the money given to Mildura, Kangaroo Island and Bendigo, the lack of more instances makes it hard to see how the minister's response addresses adequately the concerns of the AAA.
Airservices Australia this week opened their weathercam portal. At this stage there are only six locations up there, but Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, Archerfield and the Kilmore Gap are amongst them. Really, there is absolutely no negative here: Dick Smith made the suggestion and put up $160,000 to kick-start it, Airservices saw the merit and launched the project in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology and got it started ASAP. This is the sort of reaction general aviation needs to progress and develop in a positive direction. I for one will make good use of the Kilmore Gap camera, and remember one day a few years back crossing Backstairs Passage when I would have given a copy of The Beatles' white album for a camera at Kingscote! But the network will cost maintenance dollars once it is established, as I suspect that could be done on a "use 'em or lose 'em" basis, so everybody ... let's use 'em.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch