I suggest that the professional indemnity insurance now required of ATOs/Flight Examiners will be the end of industry testing officers.
It will start with regional airports, and only the big schools will be able to maintain the insurance.
It has started already - to get an IPC from our base in Scone we have to go to Inverell, Sydney, Coffs or Port Macquarie to get to the "nearest" qualified ATO.
There's nobody in Tamworth that can do it - BAe/CAE keep to themselves and the CASA FOIs don't do it any more.
CASA won't let me upgrade my rating to do IPCs because despite being a Chief Pilot for most of the last 20 years, assessing and grading and coaching instrument flying for the 40+ pilots that I have employed, I haven't had enough experience teaching Bloggs how to do ADF intercepts.
...minimum 500 hours of IFR instructional experience to qualify to be assessed as a IFR testing officer. Tossers.
