Flight testing and training office - gathering ammunition

[Horatio Leafblower]

G'day Gents

I have been chatting with a few ATOs and CFIs lately and every one of us has a horror story about CASA's Flight Training and Testing Office.

From my own experience: I applied for ATO delegations in August last year and to date I have never had any reply in writing - and I only got a phone call back from them, about 6 months later, after 4 weeks of leaving messages. "Oh we're very busy you know".

I got the go-ahead for my mentoring process but again I am getting the silent treatment.

Another CFI/ATO told me it took 14 weeks for his delegations to be issued from the day his mentoring/training process was COMPLETED :ugh:

Almost all the ATOs in our district are as old as Methusela - one of them I am sure gave Wilbur his test ride - and are all on the verge of retiring, not least because they refuse to deal with this new department of Gestapo. :ugh:

Has this office been created to eradicate the ATO from industry?

When we all seem to have these tales of woe, there seems to be very little visible public outrage.... why :confused:

[11percent]

couldn't agree more with you. Unfortunately ATO's are a small community within the industry so I won't air my laundry as I prefer anonymity, but the office, from below Roger, is a JOKE!:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

People that when in GA were avoided, or have never been in GA and are ex airline

[11percent]

Some are here to help, even one maybe two of the staff within this CASA cell, but some of the dribble, decision, thought processes and lack of practicality is simply amazing. But, when you put bare bones G1's with 1500 hours total in charge of the entire Australian ATO population, I suppose it is not surprising.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

[Chu Mai Huang]

Fella I know applied 18 months ago, paid CASA big $ for the job and got a list of things to complete. Ticks in all boxes, and guess what, goalposts were moved after the siren and now the word "mentoring" has come up.:ugh:

[OpsNormal]

Horatio, I'm waiting for the bloke we spoke of to give me a call back, will let you know...

As to the topic of the thread, from what I understand those hardworking FOI's can have the paperwork out of their office very quickly, to then have the process almost effectively stalled by the OLC getting stuck on the wording... and then the see-saw starts between the offices. We had to eventually get the CASA ombudsman involved to the point of pointing out that the OLC's glacial pace was causing significant financial hardship to the company's continued (RPT AOC) operations and that CASA was leaving their fly undone for us to seek damages if it continued at that pace.

The Ombudsman agreed and within the week we had the approvals on the C+T's licence.