PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Dick Smith Autobiography
View Single Post
Old 5th Dec 2021, 18:08
  #22 (permalink)  
Dick Smith
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Australia
Posts: 4,603
Likes: 0
Received 70 Likes on 29 Posts
Ha ha. That was in January 1982 and was my first day of a successful aviation regulatory change.

I went to Nareen to have lunch with the then Prime Minster of Australia Malcolm Fraser. He had agreed to be patron of my world solo flight.

I wanted to change the registration VH-DIK from a Volksplane I had purchased to my new Jetranger that was being built in Fort Worth.

"No way" I was told by the Aviation bureaucracy in Canberra. Not even Reg Ansett was allowed to change a registration from one aircraft to another. Safety would suffer if this happened !

When I told Mr Fraser of this story over lunch he jumped on the phone to Transport Minister Ralph Hunt and demanded a change.

Sure enough I was informed on the following Monday that the rego change was approved.

And from then on anyone could do a change if they wanted to !

Dick Smith is online now