Rutan:
AOPA and the other associations need to get together and brainstorm a set of tangible proposals and reforms they can push to "someone" - a Senator or McCormack - to support.
That way lies madness, period.
Its the regulators job to handle that impossible task of balancing competing interests, including the public interest. That is what they are paid for.
What is required is a rewrite of the Act to include the prime directive of the fostering of a vibrant, growing, diverse aviation sector.
That makes the test of any regulation: 'Is it consistent with "fostering of a vibrant, growing, diverse aviation sector"? AOPA and other associations then can argue with the regulator over the potential outcomes of regulations instead of getting bogged down in useless detail.
This is the only way forward that prevents the regulator from fulfilling its safety mandate by strangling the industry.
To put that another way; The debate over the FAA regulations then becomes: "Would adopting the FAA suite of regulations do more for fostering a vibrant, growing, diverse aviation sector than the current system?".
Such a rewrite of the Act makes the Board and Department responsible for the state of the industry in terms of not doing anything that kills it.
To try and change anything without making this fundamental alteration is a waste of time.
To put that yet another way, asking AOPA and the other alphabets to come up with a proposal for regulatory reform is impossible. There are too many agendas and that is without CASA inserting itself into the negotiations to divide and rule.