Australian Helicopter Industry Association

General stuff that gets thrown about when Helicopter Pilots shoot the Breeze.
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hand in pants
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby hand in pants » Fri Apr 29 2016, 21:58

Rob, had some questions regarding the "privileges and limitations" of my CPL(H). Got onto the casa website. In the search menu I typed privileges and limitations of CPL(H). Hit search and it listed a number of things none of which answered my query. Tried a few other searches but got nothing of any use. I've tried to find different things and never had any luck, so now I just pretty much ignore as much of it as I can.
I did fill out the feedback request, just told them that they are paying their I.T. people way too much for what they are getting.

All of the above are private comments that I'm happy to be public. casa have done a number on us and are getting away with it.

And as Mike has said, where is the safety case to change things to the extent they did. How was CAR 5 so unsafe. I used it for 25 or so years and I'm not dead and so far am accident free. And I'm pretty sure that going to a fatigue management course isn't going to improve my safety, I've never gone to sleep while flying or even come close, I'm not that stupid.
Hand in Pants, I'm thinking, my god, that IS huge!!!!!!!!
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Fri Apr 29 2016, 23:17

We all should be at Tamworthh on Friday, it's time to draw a line in the sand.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Fri Apr 29 2016, 23:41

County wrote:We all should be at Tamworth on Friday, it's time to draw a line in the sand.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby AHIA » Sun May 1 2016, 10:05

Australia should have adopted US aviation rules?

Acknowledgement article by author Byron Bailey published in Aviation Section of the The Australian newspaper on 29 April 2016. Our thanks to The Australian for providing us with a better understanding of some of the issues which may be raised at the aviation industry public meeting on Fri 9 May ’16 at Tamworth, NSW.

Start: Aviation insiders have organised a public meeting in Tamworth next week.

Thirty years ago nearly every country town was serviced by a regular commuter service — typically by 10-seat general aviation aircraft.

My first flying job after leaving the air force was piloting an 11-seat Nomad between Sydney (Mascot) and Maitland on a regular schedule. I also flew a regular scheduled service from Wollongong to Essendon in a Cessna C421 pressurised twin.

These flights were always full and the general aviation scene was booming.

Bankstown was also very busy with all the training and business aviation. I left Australia at the end of 1985 to fly for an overseas airline. I returned 20 years later to a shattered and depleted general aviation scene and Bankstown practically a ghost airport.

So what happened in the meantime?


The year 1988 happened, that’s what. The Aviation Act! The beginning of the modernisation of Australian aviation regulations by CASA, as ordered by the government, to align them with ICAO and other first world countries.

CASA should just have adopted rules from the US Federal Aviation Administration — which has a far better safety record than Australia — but they didn’t. Hubris of the CASA bureaucrats and their attendant legal department decided they were up to the task.

I now quote a senior industry official: “Ask any person participating in aviation today for a single reason why aviation is in such a mess. The answer is always the same: impractical regulations and standards that are unique to Australia.”

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent, resulting in industry confusion and bankruptcies because of massive, unsustainable compliance costs — and there is no end in sight.

Senior management of these semi-autonomous agencies (CASA/ASA/ATSB) have little or no commercial in-house expertise, as evidenced by the present head of CASA, Mark Skidmore — a former fighter pilot with apparently no civil flying experience.

An example of what CASA and ASA have forced on the industry is the mandated installation of ADSB five years ahead of the US, knowing that overseas aircraft manufacturers were not prepared for such required installations. This will saddle Australian owners and operators with massive costs to ensure compliance, being the first in the world, as guinea pigs.

Just when you thought things could not get any worse, then came the attempted revision of Part 61 “Pilot Certification” in September 2014.
We now have, at an alleged cost of $200 million, 3000 pages of what a senior US FAA official described as gobbledygook. In the US, pilot certification runs to 100 pages and the New Zealand rules come in at 89 pages.

New Zealand revamped all their aviation regulations after a royal commission and the result is widely used and admired by other countries. Australia, however, is saddled with a regulatory nightmare that is forcing the industry to collapse.

Industry heavyweights have decided enough is enough. Desperate times call for desperate action. Concerned aviation insiders that care about the future of general aviation have organised a public meeting in Tamworth on Friday, May 6, with the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Transport Minister Darren Chester and that great Australian and aviation expert Dick Smith.

Both these ministerial portfolios were formerly held by Warren Truss, who appears not to have had any leverage over CASA/ATSB/ASA. Also attending for the defence is CASA chairman Jeff Boyd. The aim of the meeting is to prevent the collapse of the industry by requesting government intervention on a range of matters, the most pressing problem being the scrapping of the totally unworkable and ruinous Part 61.

A former chairman of the International Air Transport Association Safety Committee and retired Qantas group general manager of Safety gave the following advice, based on many years dealing with CASA.

“From my experience I can assure you the politicians will send the proposed material to CASA for ‘guidance’. CASA will then defer comment as long as they can, which will be after any coming election. CASA comment to the politicians will be ‘we are analysing the document and while we think it has some merit it is not a document drafted by experienced and proven regulation drafters such that exist within the professional ranks of CASA’.”

END: Article

Byron Bailey, a former RAAF fighter pilot and trainer, was a senior captain with Emirates for 15 years.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby Evil Twin » Sun May 1 2016, 10:11

I am working toward being there this coming Friday and will be spending the week sharpening my teeth in preparation.
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hand in pants
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby hand in pants » Sun May 1 2016, 21:38

Can't be there ET, so kick someone in the groin for me. Smile as you do it and say my name.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby Jabberwocky » Mon May 2 2016, 02:09

What's the likely turn out for this? I'd really like to make it but I don't think I'm going to get the time off work.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Mon May 2 2016, 02:16

I am going to look and listen. I think as many as possible should go. It is our industry and our jobs and it is going to take more than just sitting on the fence watching various associations have their talk feasts to save our livelihood.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby havick » Mon May 2 2016, 02:34

I don't suppose that there would be a way of setting up a conference call or video stream the meeting so those of us not able to make it can listen or watch in real time?
"You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel."
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby Jabberwocky » Mon May 2 2016, 02:54

For sure County, that's where my interest lies too.
Havick, good idea but perhaps not going to be the best way to conveys he meeting to those watching, technology wise. Maybe someone could stick their hand up, easy for me to say given I probably won't be able to get there, and we could list a few points or private message a few key points we'd like brought up?
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Mon May 2 2016, 03:17

Is the AHAI going to attend ?? The president of AAAA is going I believe.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby Evil Twin » Mon May 2 2016, 09:23

Team

Why don't we throw up some questions here that we would like answered if we were all able to attend. I will be making a list myself of things to ask but I doubt very much I will be given a soapbox and carte blanche to go at these guys, as long as I can get there. If we have a number of questions from a broad spectrum of the rotary industry, anyone given the opportunity can dive in. For a start I would like to know, in no particular order:-

1 - In terms of safety, what accidents or incidents has the implementation of CAO 48.1, part61 and the associated suite of rules prevented. Where is the proof, as in a drop in those numbers.
2 - (Mike Becker) -Can you (Government/CASA) please show us the Safety Case that required all of these changes.
3 - Part 61, 141 & 142 implementation was touted to be introduced at "No cost to industry'. The reverse has proven to be true including the demise of GA operators. How are CASA and the government intending to compensate individuals and business owners for this?
4 - Why are CASA delegates in different areas giving different information and guidance to the industry in how to comply with the new regulations.
5 - Why are CASA delegates themselves unable to remain abreast of the latest information and rules or compliance instruments that they put out?


Open to the floor.......

ET
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Mon May 2 2016, 09:38

County wrote:Is the AHIA going to attend ?? The CEO of AAAA is going I believe.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby Evil Twin » Mon May 2 2016, 09:49

Who knows, I'm expecting not, as the best that I've seen here is that AHIA have passed the ball to AOPA, or rather have let AOPA do the leg work. If you want something done, do it yourself I guess.........
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Mon May 2 2016, 13:37

Last BFR before Part 61 cost about $800, recent BFR to get changed over to Part 61 was $800 X 6..... 600% increase. On top of that I have to have an Ag Check every 12 months even though I do Aprox 500 hours of Ag per year and have done for the last 16 years. Airfares + Check Aprox $1500 to $2000. No additional cost to industry the underlying message was and this is just the increase for 1 pilot.
As a small aviation business of 20 years I can't see a viable path forward under the current arrangements. There have never been big margins so I don't know where the extra funds are going to come from. The only way to win a government contract now is to be the cheapest kid on the block and the government regulator is making it all the more expensive to do business. Do government employees see the correlation between business and their wages ? We have to pay tax for them to get a wage and it's like let's kill off the hand that feeds them.
Going to be very interesting to place to be there on Friday.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Mon May 2 2016, 14:40

[quote="County"]Last BFR before Part 61 cost about $800, recent BFR to get changed over to Part 61 was $800 X 6..... 600% increase. On top of that I have to have an Ag Check every 12 months even though I do Aprox 500 hours of Ag per year and have done for the last 16 years. Airfares + Check Aprox $1500 to $2000. No additional cost to industry the underlying message was and this is just the increase for 1 pilot.
As a small aviation business of 20 years I can't see a viable path forward under the current arrangements. There have never been big margins so I don't know where the extra funds are going to come from. The only way to win a government contract now is to be the cheapest kid on the block ( a typical tender process requires half a forest to be cut down to provide the paper work and the assessment is done based on a single page of less than half a page in the whole document...the one with pricing info ) and the government regulations and red tape is making it all the more expensive and restrictive to do business. Do government employees see the correlation between business and their wages ? We have to pay tax for them to get a wage and it's like let's kill off the hand that feeds them.
Going to be very interesting to place to be there on Friday, I would like to see a path of confidence be articulated at that event.
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby County » Mon May 2 2016, 14:51

How do you edit ?
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby hand in pants » Mon May 2 2016, 21:43

6. What was so wrong with CAR 5?
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby The Scarlett Harlot » Tue May 3 2016, 03:09

hand in pants wrote:6. What was so wrong with CAR 5?



The screaming skull wanted to an "achievement" to promote his attempt to become the head of ICAO.

I can only assume car 5 was selected because that's how many fingers he had for eeny miney mo......
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Re: Australian Helicopter Industry Association

Postby Capt Hollywood » Tue May 3 2016, 05:45

I recently completed two BFR's (One for a single engine, one for a twin) as now required under Part 61. So the cost to my company has doubled right there. With the additional annual checks I also now require (sling, fire fighting, etc) they can't deny that there has been additional cost to the industry. And as everyone keeps saying, where is the evidence that any of these changes were required.

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