Yes, it's Thursday, but with the Australia Day holiday looming for everyone tomorrow we thought we make this a short and sweet week in aviation.
CASA's restructure announced this week makes a reality of the General, Recreational and Sport Aviation Branch (let's call it the GA branch for short). In theory, the GA branch is a box of our own; somewhere that we can be isolated from the intense focus on commercial transport operations that has been boat-anchor regulation for the industry. It was also going to be a must-have if the Part 149 regulation on self-administration is taken up to the extent that CASA expects. But is this just a change in the shingle hanging out the front? Years ago we had the General Aviation Task Force (GATF) that also looked pretty good, but in reality turned out to be a vehicle for CASA to sell regulation to the GA community rather than any form of enabling squad to advance the cause. The ineffectiveness of GATF was well demonstrated when the manager in charge left and no-one ever heard of GATF again, which leads to thinking that GATF had only one desk in it. But according to CASA, GA branch is a completely different beast because it actually has responsibility over regulation and surveillance, whereas GATF did not. Underpinning the effectiveness of GA branch will be, more than anything else, attitude. The boss of the branch hasn't been announced yet, but it will be a bitter pill dissolved in a poisoned chalice for anyone who is not passionate about the general, recreational and sport aviation sector. For GA branch to be effective, it needs to have at its head someone who is determined to make improvements to regulation covering GA, even if it means sword-fighting with Shane Carmody when what's good for the sector and what's good for CASA diverge. That takes courage and belief; anyone who heads up this mission will need that in spades, or indeed we could end up with a GATF by any other name.
And there's something else hidden in the new CASA structure: AVMED. It doesn't appear as a separate entity, but my spider sense tells me that it's part of the Client Services Centre now, which means it reports to Stakeholder Engagement Manager Rob Walker. Although CASA has done a lot in the last few months to introduce the Basic Class 2 medical (BC2), it is still faced with the mammoth task of overhauling the attitude prevalent at AVMED; an attitude which has seen the department cling furiously to self-declared expertise like Gollum to a gold ring. It is notable that under BC2 AVMED will not be challenging the assessment of the GP who does the examination, and that CASA is trying to break down the culture of second-guessing DAMEs for all other classes of medical. Culture change falls now to Walker, who I believe has a great understanding of the issues involved, but even he will need back-up from the highest levels within CASA to straighten out this most wonky of all CASA departments.
OK, the long weekend is upon us. Get out there and flying something, and have much fun doing it.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch