Originally Posted by
Arm out the window
I believe we have all been bogged down in a "can't see the woods for the trees" mindset for most of this saga. The real, aviation-critical issue at stake is whether what Glen was doing was good for flying training, and therefore the future of aviation in this country, or not.
CASA's involvement in this, as far as I can tell, has been a narrow application of so-called franchised AOC provisions, with the whole argument hinging on legal interpretation. But was the business plan going to work effectively and safely? I say yes, as a concept, so CASA should've been supportive, not the opposite.
I don't know anything about the inner workings of Glen's business dealings or his ambitions, but a multi-tiered flying training enterprise with sound standardisation, shared documentation and effective oversight procedures (as the plan definitely appears to have been) sounds bloody good! Whoever in CASA has roadblocked this idea should be publicly shamed, unless they have real, concrete, verifiable evidence of wrongdoing.
All valid and sensible points, AOTW.
CASA was, in fact, supportive. Until it wasn’t. That’s the travesty.
Glen was encouraged
by CASA to believe APTA could continue to obtain AOC variations to cover operations
in which people who weren’t APTA’s employees would be engaged, utilising premises of which APTA was not owner or lessee and aircraft of which APTA was not the registered operator. CASA did that by
approving the variations. If CASA did not know those specific details of the structure, CASA was on notice of them because that is very purpose of CASA’s assessment of the application for the variation.
And if the 2019 demand by CASA for evidence of the way in which APTA would exercise legal and effective control of all of these moving parts was valid in 2019, that demand should have been made
on each and every occasion on which APTA applied for a variation to cover more operations in which people who weren’t APTA’s employees would be engaged, utilising premises of which APTA was not owner or lessee and aircraft of which APTA was not the registered operator. On each and every occasion. That way, Glen would have been in a position to address that demand or discontinue the plan
before he literally committed his (and much of his family’s) wealth and blood sweat and tears into building what was subsequently destroyed when CASA drove Glen to despair.