M Coates, Well very interesting that you’re pretending to know about several rules which you clearly have no idea about in reality. Firstly, CAO 95.55 had been superseded by RA AUS becoming a part 149 organisation, hence why if you look it up on the com law website it will show as repealed in January this year. So any reference you make to that is now irrelevant. So I guess you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Despite what many in RA AUS think, they are not exempt from all CARS/CAOS, only certain ones which relate to things like licences, aircraft certification etc. All other regulations still apply, and in this case that would include CAO 20.16, which will become relevant in a minute. Under part 141 RA AUS aircraft are still limited to a maximum of 2 seats. However under CAO 20.16 2 seats doesn’t mean a maximum of 2 people. An infant can, under the provisions of CAO 20.16, fly without needing a seat, as appears to have occurred in this situation. Now as you validly pointed out the CASR state that you must operate under the governing bodies operations manual. And given you clearly know all the rules so well, I’m guessing you know that the RA AUS ops manual states under section 2.01 (4) “that in order to carry passengers the pilot must have a passenger carrying endorsement”. Given it is referring to passengers in the plural I think it’s reasonable to assume they are allowing for the provisions of CAO 20.16.
So as wombat watcher said, get back in your box.