Why is Aus Different?

[Duke16]

Has anyone seen the letter to Bruce Byron of CASA on Dick Smith's web site reference Flight Data Recorders on private and corporate aircraft?
I didn't even know that CASA mandated FDR s on some non RPT aircraft. I am not aware of this requirement in Canada or the US and with all the recent threads about our old tired GA aircraft, one might think it smart to spend the FDR money on equipment to prevent accidents/CFIT rather than the box to tell the ATSB after the fact what went wrong.

[Bob Murphie]

THE AMBULANCE IN THE VALLEY

"T'was a dangerous cliff, as they clearly confessed,
But the walk near it's crest was so pleasant;
But over it's terrible edge there had slipped
A Duke and many a peasant.

The people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally,
Some said, 'put a fence round the edge of the cliff',
Some, 'an ambulance down in the valley'.

The lament of the crowd was frofound and was loud,
As their tears overflowed with their pity;
But the cry for the ambulance carried the day
As it spread through the neighbouring City.
A collection was made to accumulate aid,
And the dwellers in highway and alley
Gave dollars or cents, not to furnish a fence,
But an ambulance down in the valley.

For the cliff is alright if your careful, they said;
And if folks ever slip and are dropping.
It isn't the slipping that hurts them so much
As the shock down below, when they're stopping.
So for years (we have heard), all these mishaps occurred
Quick forth would the rescuers sally,
To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,
With the ambulance down in the valley.

Said one, to his pleas, it's a marvel to me
That you'd give so much greater attention
To repairing results than to curing the cause;
You had much better aim at prevention.
For the mischief of course, should be stopped at it's source;
Come, neighbours and friends, let us rally.
It is far better sense to rely on a fence
Than an ambulance down in the valley.

He is wrong in his head, the majority said;
He would end all our earnest endeavour.
He's a man who would shirk this responsible work
But we will support it forever,
Aren't we picking up all, just as fast as they fall,
And giving them care liberally?
A superflous fence is of no consequence,
If the ambulance works in the valley.

The story looks queer as we've written it here,
But things oft occur that are stranger.
More humane we assert, than to succour the hurt
Is the plan of removing the danger.
The best possible course is to safeguard the source
By attending to things rationally.

Yes build up the fence and let us dispense with the ambulance down in the valley.

[gaunty]

Go to the US FAA site and do some research for yourself, you will find it interesting.

And I for one will fight tooth and nail against any retrograde differences that Oz may advocate or accept against the US standard.

Some really dumb people both in industry and regulation managed to conmvince themselves that you could safely operate high performance GA aircraft without a serviceable radar :{ And that gave the others the courage and professional :rolleyes: justification to not do so either. We have seen the tragic results of that dumb poverty style thinking.

If you can't afford FDR and CVR in your corporate or business aircraft or radar or autopilot for that matter you can't afford to own one. Period.

[Bob Murphie]

Your red slip is showing gaunty.

[PLovett]

Duke16

One of the problems is that, for the most part, the reasons people are having "accidents" and CFIT cannot be determined as there is no flight data or cockpit voice recorders in the aircraft having them.

The Lockhart River Metro did have a FDR but no CVR (operating) and the lack of that information is going to leave a black hole in any findings. The B58 at McArthur River is going to be entirely speculative unless any mechanical gremlins emerge from the wreck.

I am not suggesting FDR and/or CVR should be in every aircraft but they are appropriate, at least for aircraft above 5700 kg.