The killer of general aviation in Australia – CASA dishonesty re ADS-B
Looking back over the last few years of the destruction of our general aviation industry, it is obvious that the killer blow came from the early and more expensive ADS-B mandate that was introduced by CASA.
The original plan from Airservices was to have a subsidised ADS-B for GA which would be paid for by the removal of the secondary surveillance radar units. It soon became obvious that removing the radars would not be a sensible thing to do – especially for organisations that had to give primacy to safety. But they went ahead with the mandate anyway.
Note that in the USA, even in 2020 ADS-B is not required for IFR or VFR aircraft below 10,000 feet in Class E and G airspace unless within 30 miles of Class B.
Rather than follow the USA, CASA then produced an aviation regulatory proposal which was one of the most dishonest documents I have ever seen. Imagine working for the place and being part of this!
What they did was to claim there would be about $30 million in expenditure and they implied this would be saved by aircraft getting direct tracking. Possibly there could be some savings for airline aircraft flying at flight levels to get direct tracking, but for general aviation aircraft primarily flying in uncontrolled airspace, where the pilot decides on the tracking, there would be no measurable saving.
Then, instead of going for the least expensive units for general aviation, CASA insisted on a particular more expensive GPS engine.
We had some flying schools closing down, and some owners were taking out a second mortgage on their house to pay for the units. What is probably more serious is that I understand quite a number of aircraft have simply been changed to VFR, and they no longer train for IFR. Wow, what a great way of improving safety!
I wrote numerous letters and had meetings with various Ministers and CASA people in Canberra in relation to the dishonesty of this proposal and I got nowhere.
We are now experiencing the disaster in Australia. CASA is now looking at ADSB for VFR aircraft.
As I have advised before, get out of aviation until someone advises that there is light on the horizon and there is recognition that it is a lie to say that the number one consideration is safety without mentioning cost. That’s what CASA did with ADSB.