Such a sad safety model, I guess its part of the Australian character - the convict component, always ready to look at the hole instead of the donut.
Some observations:
(1) Very large chunks of RAA pilots are perfectly competent former commercial pilots or experienced PPL's who have effectively banished themselves out of fear of CASA Avmed whose punitive approach to air safety is utterly counter productive,
(2) A second cohort of RAA members are experienced but were driven out of GA by costs thanks to CASA massive over regulation.
(3) There is a cohort of very experienced ex commercial pilots in GA - an acquaintance of mine has 20,000 hrs jet experience including checking to line and training. They are prevented from sharing their experience by misconceived instruction regulations, starting with the prohibition against even giving a grandchild a feel of the controls.
(4) There are enthusiastic amateurs - who are competent, but sometimes sneered at. They are eager to learn until the sorry extent of CASAs mismanagement hits them, then they take up golf.
Yet all these people are lumped together and stereotyped as ignorant, unsafe, unhealthy, untrustworthy uncaught criminals who are not permitted to breath, let alone fly, nor land in the same airspace as RPT????
Conrast that situation with KLAX. Last time i arrived by RPT, we crossed tracks with at least four GA pipers and Cessnas below 10000 ft. An acquaintance has taken some very nice photos of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan - from his rotax powered 600kg home made aircraft.
So "somehow" its possible for amateurs and dilettantes to co exist with RPT in the USA safely and to generate a thriving industry full of investment, jobs, economic growth and just plain fun.
Whats the difference here? Anal retentive medical killjoys? Certainly. Power hungry, frustrated lawyers? Of course. Snobbish military and RPT professionals? Perhaps. Hhhhhhhhowever or oldest enemy is the convict / jailer mindset which assumes that Australians need a touch of the lash lest they get too big for their boots.
We have now reached the state of learned helplessness* - epitomised by Clintons well meaning attempts to make sense of CASA's incomprehensible regulation, when the correct solution to our problems is to throw CASA s regulations on the bonfire, jettison the people who wrote and administered them and replace them with the FAA regs and some :can do" American imports to show us how its done.
*
Learned helplessness is the behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated
aversive stimuli beyond their control. It was initially thought to be caused by the subject's acceptance of their powerlessness, by way of their discontinuing attempts to escape or avoid the aversive stimulus, even when such alternatives are unambiguously presented.
see also
Stockholm syndrome is a coping mechanism to a captive or abusive situation. People develop positive feelings toward their captors or abusers over time. This condition applies to situations including torture, mental abuse, sexual abuse or considering what they allegedly did to Glen Buckley, engagement with CASA.