Leftie. I was trying to avoid engaging in this thread as well.....
Personally, I wish Woomera would combine all three CASA bitch threads into one thread......
There is no legal definition of the term
"fixed terminals" within the present legislative framework. However, Creamie would point out that certain judges have ascribed a meaning to the term, based on fallacious advice from CASA Counsel, which I am sure he would now determine are precedents.
I suspect the term, which originated from the pre 1988 ANR's, refers to a designated, substantive passenger terminal, at a designated airport serviced under the previous two airline policy,
which is/was the property of the Commonwealth and leased to the two designated airlines under that policy, Trans Australian Airlines and Ansett Airlines/Ansett-ANA.
If I am correct, then the terminal at, for example, Kubin and "terminals" at Mabuiag and Yorke (and I use the term "terminals" very loosely!) are not "fixed terminals". However, the passenger terminals at Sydney and Melbourne airports would have been "fixed terminals" under the old ANR's.
Similarly, "specified routes" were designated airline routes which were marked and specified on navigational charts, pre 1988. An operator, not being TAA or Ansett, could not conduct a commercial flight (whether ANR 203 exempt or charter) over those "specified routes" more than once in 28 days (later reduced to eight hours prior to, or four hours after the designated time of an approved airline service.)
You made a sweeping generalisation regarding ex military FOI's with which I do not agree. The abominable mess in the Torres Strait was created by FOI's drawn generally from commercial aviation and airlines, one at least being best described as an airline reject. The FOI from Canberra who finally sorted out the mess and was one of the few who displayed any form of common sense, was ex RAF and ex RAAF. Similarly, I know of other FOI's with both military and civil backgrounds who are excellent, and FOI's with both military and civil backgrounds that are worse than useless. I am aware of one ex RAAF Caribou driver (whose Caribou needed very extensive panel beating after one escapade in PNG) whose knowledge of the Act and CARs is abysmal, but who continues to be promoted well above his maximum level of incompetence!
If CASA was required to hold an AOC and perform to the same level of accountability expected of the aviation industry, their AOC would have been suspended or cancelled many years ago.