At 11:48 AM 4/22/2016, you wrote:
GFA were left with 2 simple choices - fix the documentation (and
requirements) to meet with CASA audit approval in a very short time
frame or lose all airworthiness delegation with no prospect of CASA
being able to pick up, with the end result, grounding all
Australian registered gliders.
Really?
CASA is required by Parliament to administer the safety of civil
aviation in Australia. All of it. Gliders are VH registered
Australian aircraft, ICAO recognised. If the GFA doesn't do it CASA
can delegate to some other individual delegate or do it itself. CASA
Sport Aviation
did in fact issue Experimental certificates when GFA lost that
ability due to failing an audit.
In the last couple of years I've heard from many long term glider
pilots (30+ years in the activity). I've heard offers of substantial
sums of money to get rid of Denis Stacy, the bloke who introduced him
to gliding spontaneously apologised for doing it and a suggestion that
Australian glider pilots need a Glider Pilots and Owners Association
to protect them from the GFA and represent them politically,
something the GFA is clearly incapable of doing while it is a CASA
sycophant in order to fulfill its insane desire to be the SOLE controller of
all gliding in Australia. They are also appalled at the information
they are required to sign off on that is held by the GFA as they have
no confidence how this might be used by GFA or anyone else who demands it.
So if Matt Gage is right the GFA has cleverly manoeuvred itself into
a situation where its members can be grounded because of incompetence
or omissions by the GFA control group ("Leadership Group" seems to be
inappropriate for what they do).
Maybe it is time that Australian gliding reconsidered its
structure. Is the current setup actually achieving what was
intended? Are costs really lower than simply taking your glider to a
country maintenance organisation and having them do the annual
inspection. Seems
easier if all GFA is going to do is mirror the CASA Maintenance regs.
Maybe we should have a glider endorsement on the RPL or PPL or higher
license? Let CASA deal with 2500 individuals and 1200 gliders and
motorless gliders instead of ONE organisation, which is meant to
represent its members, being a convenient target for a
predatory bureaucracy.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of quality soaring
instrumentation since 1978
www.borgeltinstruments.com
tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784
mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784
P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia
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