Two years overdue and thousands of taxpayers dollars later, the RRAT inquiry into airport and aviation security has produced nothing of much value to GA. It does not recommend that pilots be relieved of the burden of ASICs, nor does it recommend that ASICs should be needed only for secure and sensitive areas rather than the whole airside area. It does recommend a lot of fringe stuff relating to scanning, training and infringement reporting, but pretty much nothing that will gladden the hearts of general aviation pilots. There are some hints of recogniton of the plight of GA, but most often are buried deep in convoluted motherhood statements such as: "the Department is conducting comprehensive risk assessments in collaboration with other agencies and industry to determine where current aviation settings can be better tailored to high risks and resources can be redirected from areas of very low or negligible risk." However, with the department recently announcing more stringent rules for ASICs, this motherhood statement becomes even more meaningless. It seems important to the department to tighten the noose around the neck of the innocent in order to demonstrate to the angry villagers that they are at least hanging someone.
Is there hope? Yes, but it's coloured beige at best. Government departments don't have to take notice of inquiry recommendations, so Minister Chester still has it in his power to put his money where his motherhood statements are and determine that the private GA and recreational pilots of Australia are indeed a negligible risk to aviation security, and regulate accordingly.
The minister this week also gave CASA a new Statement of Expectations (SOE). This happens every now and then so that CASA knows what the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development wants them to do. The issue, as it seems to be every time, is that there's a horrible disconnection between what the department expects and what CASA delivers. It almost seems the SOE is necessary only so CASA knows what to ignore. Among the expectations are that CASA will implement the ASRR recommendations, will stick to their own regulatory philosophy and will apply just culture principles. It seems we've heard that somewhere before: in every SOE issued since late 2014! One day maybe our expectations will be met, but it seems it will take much more than just a statement to make that happen.
The good news story for the week is the amendments to the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement between the USA and Australia. To cut through all the red, white and blue tape, the Federal Aviation Administration will now accept CASA approvals for components made in Australia. Previously, Australian companies had to go through two sets of approvals, with the association pain, suffering and financial destruction doing that generally brings. In an ideal world, it means the US market just opened itself up to Australia. Hopefully this will create jobs in Australia as innovative companies can start investing in technology to create better products and attack the lucrative USA market with the confidence that the playing field just became a little less tilted.
Nominations for the 2017 Wings Awards are open! Get on board this now. The awards were instigated three years ago to make sure that the tireless efforts of people in general aviation are recognised. Right now, there is no other award scheme that does this, and the Australian Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Australian Flying are very proud to be able to run the Wings Awards to make sure that people don't go unrecognised. If you know of a person, club, school or instructor that you reckon deserves a Wings Award for their cabinet, go to the Australian Flying website and start your nomination today. A word of advice: no past nomination that did not address the criteria has won an award.
Who wants to save a Boeing 737 or two? White Gum Airpark is involved with a community campaign to rescue two 737-200s that have been stranded at Perth Airport accumulating parking fees for seven long years. They were once the pride of the OzJet fleet, but have been stationary since the company ceased operations. Now, a big effort is underway to find and transport the aircraft to new homes rather than see them broken up for scrap metal. It won't be easy and is going to take some dollars, so the more people who can get behind this the better. Want to help? Check out the Boeing 737-200 website and pitch in where you can.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch