The world of aviation politics is quiet at the moment, sitting as it does in a trough between the Tamworth rally and Canberra meetings with Minister Darren Chester. Those meeting are scheduled for mid next week, and it's not until after than can we expect the Coalition or the Nationals to release some form of aviation policy or position statement. Of course, that presumes they are going to release something prior to the 2 July election. Should nothing be forthcoming after all the work by general aviation lobby groups, we can presume the current government is not really interested in creating a strong GA industry. Given that the other team has shown in the past that they also care not one iota (remember the White Paper?), we are clearly now on the precipice.
Ausfly is now OzKosh. The Sport Aircraft Association of Australia (SAAA) has seen fit to change the name of the national GA fly-in to better reflect the other associations that are involved as well. As such, I don't have an issue with this, but "OzKosh"? Firstly, I'm not sure naming it after an American event stands to gain us anything, and secondly the name has been used before for a couple of shows at Ballarat in the early 2000s. My preference leans towards something original and purely Australian, which better reflects its status as a national fly-in. Feedback on the Australian Flying Facebook page is also not so complimentary of the change. What do I think it should be called? As most of us thought the associations whose logos appeared on the website were involved anyway, I would have left it as Ausfly.
Sometime between now and the 30 June deadline for privately-operated Cessna 100 series SIDs, CASA is expected to extend that deadline by one or two years. I am told that at the moment they are working on a proposal. Engineers have met, and I suppose now the bureaucrats are trying to clean up all the rats and mice to allow the deadline to be pushed out. This is good news for the owners, and LAMEs who were no doubt under pressure with the workload. My suspicious mind sees more to this. Does it really need an engineers' meeting to push out a deadline? Does CASA have data that indicates these aeroplanes are all about to suffer catastrophic failure in the air, and engineers are needed to assess if they are still safe beyond 30 June? To me this suggests a major change to the SIDs themselves, which I am going to stubbornly consider means relief for private owners in more that just a deadline extension.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch