This has to be said.
Moderators, please do not remove this observation of mine as I am speaking on a number of my peers in the GA space.
A bit about myself, I have just turned 30 and hold an instructor rating and have flown non-stop for the last 10 years. Like many of you, I live for the sky. I am a strong advocate for safety for all of us that share the sky.
There are a number of different forms of GA as well as civil aviation that all have to share the same airspace and admittedly, we do have to priorities civil over the hobbyists whilst also empowering flying schools to produce safety minded pilots. Recreational flight is a luxury just like if you where to go yachting, and I would rather that than cowboys flying around in dodgy aircraft playing dodgems up there! Flying schools have a HUGE responsibility to engrain safety and best practice in their teachings and I've been witness to many clubs just copy and paste regulation, well after they have began operating and have never aligned their operations with P&Ps they have copied and pasted. Many GA operators think that much of the regulation is a money grab but you would be deluded to think GA contributes more than 1% of what the civil aviation sector contributes.
GA is financially insignificant, much of the cost is directly linked to making sure you all aren't filling your papers with BS as way too many of them do. I know, I have worked for a number of flying schools and found that many find it easier to act like there is some sort of tyranny going on in CASA then to implement a legitimate operational framework. Hell, some of them you didn't even need CASA for a non-conformance , SafeWork would have been enough!
I've followed this thread for a long time now just out of curiosity/entertainment and it reminds me of some of the 'flying schools' that are really just over 50's flying club where you sit around sipping coffee crying about rules you cant keep up with. Being able to read all this has been incredibly entertaining but It has gotten to the stage that I cannot watch a group of old men hating life and spreading hate just because they struggle to interpret regulation. Read any of Glens emails to officials and they are embarrassingly obvious to be a manifestation of tension and anger. Look at the times they've been sent too! People notice that mate.
All this energy acting hard done too when you could have maybe just rectified your non-conformances. Many of us know you where 'shut down overnight' because your model was immoral. You cannot sell plug and play policy just so schools don't have to care about it! There is a responsibility each school has to embrace and teach and swear by! Sick of hearing pilots telling young aspiring pilots all these preconceived ideas of regulation when you are the problem.
I think for the reputation of the majority of us GA pilots, you chill out on trying to represent us. It is no longer entertaining but I am genuinely concerned for the level of emotion and hate that I have read here. 99% of what is written in this thread is an emotional opinion with 0 supporting evidence. All of the "proof" Glen has provided isn't proof at all? It is so odd how you all interoperate it and the personal attacks at some individuals are incredibly misleading and I pray someone files a defamation of character case against Glen just to reset his perspective.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but this whole thread is a deluded manifestation of harshness.
Rgds,
Jake (ARN 799286)