– Steve Hitchen
The weather looks like doing it to Narromine again! There's rain predicted for much of today, but tapering off towards the evening, so if you're not already on the ground at Airventure Australia, you might have a chance to squeak in after the rain and before last light. But once again, it looks like the weather could cut-off Sydney, making for a very challenging flight to get to the Western Plains. If you're planning to get out today or even tomorrow morning, make good decisions in the air. As it is, the deluge that has hit Queensland over the past week has already played a part in Airventure, forcing Bundaberg's Jabiru to cancel their plans for Narromine.
And now I'm going to start throwing brickbats around like they are frisbees. In the lead-up to Oshkosh, Sun 'n' Fun, NBAA, Aero or just about any other aviation show in the USA or Europe, my Inbox is flooded with press releases from exhibitors trumpeting what they are going to have on their stand, new or old. Most of it gets junked unless its very new or of specific interest to Australia. But upwind of of Airventure Australia, I got virtually nothing except regular updates from RAAus. In the time where we should be getting the country excited about Airventure Australia, there has been little said, and therefore very little for Australian Flying to talk about. It may be an example of a problem in GA in Australia that we just don't understand how to market ourselves, or perhaps that Australians are just not trumpet-blowers by nature. Next year, I hope to be annoyed by e-mails from exhibitors at Airventure Australia just as much as I am by their American and European counterparts.
Tecnam has launched a vigorous campaign to penetrate the Australian market with their general aviation aeroplanes. The Italian manufacturer has a good foothold with their LSA and recreational models, but the twin-engined P2006T, the four-seat P2010 and the new P2012 charter aircraft have had very little presence. This is, I believe, a good move, because these three aircraft are particularly suited to Australian conditions, and the lack of exposure to the market has not done us any favours. In particular, I will be watching the progress of the P2010 and the P2012 with interest. The P2012 (yet to be certified) is a replacement for the legacy twins like the PA-31s and Cessna 400s. So far, Australia has a declared love for single-engined turbo-props (SETPs) in the twin-replacement role, so will operators be keen to reverse that trend and again embrace a large piston twin? Tecnam is backing their product in, and it does seem a neat fit for charter ops in this country. Tecnam's new GA team of Allan Bligh and Spencer Ferrier have work ahead of them, but they are blessed with products that already have great appeal to operators.
Last week we reported that Airservices was threatening to delete up to 2000 airfields from the AIP system unless they could confirm details by 4 January. I did my block a bit about that because it seemed to me that they hadn't really tried very hard to contact the operators. Well, the buzz on the streets is that AIC H29/17 is about to be withdrawn after CASA gave it a very severe frowning. What I am told is that CASA believes the AIC doesn't reflect the intent of CASR 175, which is all about managing aeronautical data information. As much as I would like to herald this as a great win for commonsense and the hard work of a group of GA stalwarts in the background, I will be keeping the clarions in their cases until we see what actually comes out by way of replacement.
I'm off to the Regional Aviation Association conference next week, which will disrupt our newsletter schedule a bit, so look for your weekly aviation news and views next Thursday instead of Friday. The speakers on the Friday include the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Darren Chester; Rob Walker from CASA and Jason Harfield from Airservices. Consequently I expect the newsletter the week after to be a bumper edition.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch