Up until very recently, the 1988 CARs included reg 248 headed “Reporting of defects”. Subreg (1) said:
At the termination of each flight, or in any urgent case, during the currency of the flight, the pilot in command shall report, in the manner and to the persons specified by CASA, all defects in the aircraft, aerodromes, air routes, air route facilities or airway facilities which have come to the pilot’s notice.
That reg (with minor changes) was there from the start of the 1988 regs.
In 36 years of flying so far, I’ve never “reported” an aircraft defect to anyone during or at the termination of a flight. I’ve entered plenty in maintenance releases, but that’s not a “report” to anyone. The maintenance release could sit unread and the aircraft could sit with the defect unrectified, forever, if the aircraft isn’t flown. I’ve certainly contacted colleagues to let them know about the defect, as a matter of courtesy if I think they’ll want to get the defect rectified before an upcoming trip, but that isn’t a “report” either. I’ve declared a ‘PAN’, but the circumstances that resulted in that decision were not caused by any aircraft defect.
Some regs require e.g.
major defects to be reported to CASA (CAR 51A), but those regs are not a “manner” specified by “CASA” - they are a reg made by the G-G. In any event, those regs create their own obligation and penalty for contravention.
AIP does deal with the reporting of defects in navaids and aerodromes. Paragraph 10.00 of ENR (Enroute) 1.1 (currently at pages 78-80 of ENR) says at the start:
10.10 Information by Pilots
10.10.1 A pilot in command becoming aware of any irregularity of operation of any navigational or communications facility or service or other hazard to navigation must report the details as soon as practicable. Reports must be made to the appropriate ATS unit, except that defects, or hazards on a landing area must be reported to the person or authority granting use of the area.
…
I note that there is a "manner" and "person" specified. That seems to me to be a specification by CASA for the purposes of CAR 248.
But there is nothing I can find in the current AIP, and there is nothing in amendment 78, dated 6 April 2014, of AIP (the last paper copy I kept before 'going electronic') specifying persons to whom a PIC must "report"
every aircraft defect of which the PIC became aware during a flight. There are provisions in AIP about reporting defined matters to ATSB (currently ENR 1.14) - which provisions summarise the requirements of the TSI legislation - but those requirements do not apply to every aircraft defect of which a PIC becomes aware and, in any event, are not “specifications” by “CASA”. The TSI legislation is precisely that: TSI legislation.
Is anyone able to tell me to whom and the manner in which CASA specified that I should have been reporting, either during or at the termination of a flight, the following kinds of defects that came to my attention during the flight:
The bulb in the instrument light for the standby AH blew.
The squelch in VHF 2 stopped working.
The front passenger seat recline mechanism jammed.
The lower spark plug on cylinder 6 failed at altitude.
The placard under the Alternator switch fell off the instrument panel.
And what if, while I’m tying the aircraft down, I discovered that there are two screws out of 15 missing from a main wheel spat? The flight’s well and truly over, so CAR 248 wouldn’t have applied. Sure: I’d put that in the maintenance release. But should I have been “reporting” that to someone? And what if I happened to be idly looking out the window during flight and noticed the two screws are missing?
I’m not aware of any action ever having been taken against a pilot for breach of CAR 248 for failure to “report” those kinds of aircraft defects. If you are aware of that action being taken, please post or PM me details.
I started flying before the CARs came into effect. My vague memory is that CAR 248 was ‘transferred’ from the equivalent ANR and, back in the days in which everything was in ANRs/ANOs, the air navigation service provider, the aerodrome provider, the safety regulator and the accident/incident investigator were all just ‘one big happy family’ in whatever the relevant department happened to be called from time to time. But even in the ANR/ANO days, I don’t recall ever reporting “all” aircraft defects of which I became aware during a flight to anyone.
Perhaps I was breaching CAR 248 for the last 30 or so years?