Looks like the bolding doesn't go through so I've re-done with inverted commas.
So everybody knows the background:
The CASA regulatory change program began in 1995. The aim was to
align the Australian regs with US FAA regulations as far as Part
numbers etc went.
Somehow this became a source of employment for the people involved so
there was no incentive to finish.
About 5 years ago the present CASA CEO took the job and shortly
thereafter decided to align Australia with the European regs.
Fine for airliners as FAA and Euro regs are much the same and
airliners get leased, cross leased, bought, sold etc right around the
world and many overseas airlines fly into Australia so it is good
that the rules at that level are internationally aligned.
However this has been extended into General and Sports Aviation which
will cause great difficulty. Gliding in Europe is suffering and even
the UK was forced into going along with EASA rules in the UK.
One long time UK instructor friend said to me a while ago that he
doubted there would be any gliding in the UK in 5 years as a result.
Now the UK is part of the EU so those people are going to have to
fight their own fight. We can only provide moral support.
Australia is not part of the EU although we are a signatory to ICAO
(International Civil Aviation Organisation - an agency of the UN)
ICAO has a set of desired rules or standards which most countries
will try to use as a basis for their own, however in most cases they make
local rules which differ from ICAO rules. The only obligation is to
notify ICAO of these differences. There is no compulsion to actually
slavishly follow ICAO rules in every way.
Any CASA desire to do so or align with ICAO, EASA etc is merely a
CASA policy. It can be changed by CASA at any time or CASA can be
told to change by the Minister. Australia is an island continent and
there is little international GA and sporting aviation going on with
the exception of participation in international competition in the
soaring sports and parachuting.
Much of sporting aviation in Australia is already not recognised by
ICAO. RAAus and Amateur built Experimental are two examples. There
are others. Both of these have had strong growth in the last 10
years, in contrast to gliding.
It is just historical fact that gliding was around already after WW2
when various civil aviation regulators around the world increased
regulation and oversight of civil aviation and gliding was caught up
in this. If it was invented right now I doubt that any regulators
would be much
interested apart from preventing conflicts with other airspace users,
much like the treatment of hang and para gliding. Unfortunately,
having been recognised historically by the regulators, gliding gets
caught up in mainstream aviation regulation. A bit like a mouse being
caught in an elephant stampede.
"What needs to be changed here is the CASA policy of aligning sport
aviation and particularly gliding, with EASA regulations. This is
probably best done by getting the Minister to give direction to CASA
on this matter to the effect that regulations
governing gliding and the rest of sport aviation in Australia are a
matter for Australians, not Europeans and that CASA should negotiate
with the interested parties to arrive at suitable Australian regulations."
This does not mean that overseas regulations should not be looked at,
in particular Canadian and US. The Canadian regs are sensibly based
on those of the FAA as they share common borders and are vastly
shorter and simpler than the CASA ones. Canada shares a
common cultural and political heritage with Australia and even to a
greater extent than Australia, general aviation is not optional,
unlike the case in Europe.
I recommend looking at the Canadian regs, start here :
http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/regserv/Affairs/cars/menu.htm
Sports aviation is not alone here. The CASA attempt to align with
EASA with maintenance for light aircraft has the entire light
aircraft maintenance industry up in arms and was one of the factors
leading to this enquiry.
The issue here is in inverted commas above. What exactly the local
regulations should be is another issue.
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
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
