Lead balloon
Lead Balloon, please be assured, I am listening to you, I really am. Your posts are highly valued and respected and do attend to the legal aspect informatively, there is no doubt. Your response to what I write below would be appreciated.
Regarding CASAs position. Correct. They will probably argue the point that you raise. My response.
APTA did demonstrate that it had full operational control. There was one AOC, and the Key Personnel specified and required by the legislation. In fact, we significantly exceeded the Key Personnel requirements. We had two CASA approved Group CEOs, two CASA approved Group Head of Operations (with a third undergoing a 12-month induction after transferring from the Airline Industry). We also had two CASA approved Group Safety Managers. The Safety Department was the largest funded safety department of any school in the Country.
This was supported by the industries most advanced IT system supporting that and providing CASA with 24/7 remote access to every aspect of the business. This included scheduling, safety department, flight and duty, minutes of all management meetings, real time info on who was flying and where, student training records, bookings, predictive maintenance etc etc.
Ten CASA personnel designed it over a two-year period, assessing more than 600 revised procedures. One they were satisfied they sent our entire Exposition within CASA for Peer Review and fully approved it in April 2017. They came back and did a level one audit 6 months later in November 2017, with no concerns raised. Then 18 months after approval, say that "CASA didn’t know our structure" and shut the whole thing down.
Importantly, and this is crucial I believe. CASA make no allegations at all that we did not have full operational control. You will note that they lead you to believe that, but never actually go so far as to say that.
CASA was fully satisfied at the approval stage in April 2017. They were fully satisfied at audit in November 2017. They approved bases under the system, and even recommended APTA to aero clubs. CASA never raised and concerns about operational control. Never. To this date, they still haven’t. There are no noncompliance notices (NCNs), no safety concerns, no regulatory breaches. Absolutely nothing. CASA is not arguing that we did not have full operational control. They say that “we must have full operational control”. I agree. We must, and we did. Otherwise, CASA would not have approved the systems and procedures that we followed exactly.
It’s a cunning use of phraseology they use, that leads people to believe that we did not have full operational control. CASA never state which rule was breached or what we did to raise concerns, because there is nothing.
I have asked CASA to identify which procedure they were not satisfied with. There is none. It is just a change of opinion, that was not well intentioned.
CASA is unable to even provide a scenario in which they thought we could lose full operational control. Its typical CASA tactics of trying to mask something in what appears to be a supporting safety argument.
Regarding the energy that I put into writing. It is therapeutic, it really is. Pprune got me through my darkest hours 18 months ago, it really did.
It’s a place to try and protect my reputation. Most people in the industry, my neighbourhood, and my friends and workmates in my new industry only know that CASA closed my business down, and in the process, I was bankrupted. I don’t have the mental capacity to retell the story again and again. Its too traumatic. If I can get away with a simple story, I simply tell people I was a victim of fraud. It tends to make people less judgemental, and allows me to hold my head just that little bit higher. Even my family must have some doubt. They must query how our family ended up in this situation at the hands of CASA. Surely, Glen must have done something wrong?
Its also the method that I use to communicate with the businesses, staff, suppliers, students and customers that have been impacted by the result of CASA shutting me down. Rather than traumatise myself by defending myself on a daily basis, I can deflect some of the stress by pointing people to Pprune for updates.
Belting this out before I say goodbye to my wife who is heading off to work. Apologies for the poor editing, and any typos. Will try and get back later.
Cheers. Glen