The rules and prosecutions
Reminds me of the late Billy Vincent of Smithton Tassie who had in excess of 20,000 hrs as a private pilot, flying mostly single engine Cessnas.
His charter business included fish spotting, flying between the nearby islands and mostly around Tassie. He was always available to help those in need, landing on a west coast beach on one occasion to rescue a half drowned fisherman. Being so highly regarded by his community he was awarded an AO.
He used to say to me he must come to my school on Phillip Island and get his commercial licence but it was always put off, he was pretty busy. And of course from a practical standpoint it would have been a complete waste of time and money.
CASA caught up with him and made him employ a CPL who soon crashed Billy’s plane on one of the Bass Strait islands.
CASA eventually went for him again in court with a long list of illegal charter flights, the list was shortened to a minimum when the Judge was appraised of certain facts. Namely CASA had employed Billy to fly their investigators to a couple of other plane crash sites and were happy with his service.
He was fined the absolute minimum but I think the experience soured Billy’s interest in flying for a living.
Billy Vincent was a shining example of commonsense and skilful flying that was appreciated by his community. The people of North West Tassie didn’t need him to have licences of any sort, and his life and work in flying demonstrate that bits of paper and miles of complex regulations don’t make the public safe.
CASA should have invented a method of making him legal but of course that might have brought down the house of cards.
I am privileged to have known him as a friend.