There is magic
There is some magic emerging here. Instead of the all too common sport of dickbashing, regardless of what he says, we have some logical discussion and informative posts. There are intelligent, knowledgeable people posting here, and until recently some of their wisdon has been sadly wasted. Many of these latest posts are informative, and sensible. Unfortunately not all.
Scurvy
Your post no 186 was brilliant. I must comment on a couple of things. All days are diamonds sometimes we do not see the brilliance.
You obviously live in a coastal city as you forgot to mention he Cessna 340 that carries the cattle buyers halfway across the country where they buy eight million dollars worth of cattle, and fly home the following day,right across the country. Or the cherokee six that takes the architect and two engineers 150 nm out of town to a site where they are supervising construction of a small community, or the piper lance that goes 350 nm out of town to pick up a man who has serious dental problems, and has taken a file to his own teeth. The Lance flies him 700 km to the nearest dentist. Or the C210 that flies the mail and fresh bread and toyota parts out to many cattle stations. Or the Chieftain and Baron that flies teachers, medical staff community residents and freight to cummunities up to 700 nm away, and come back the following day. Or the Lance that flies electricians 300nm out to a community, where they fix lots of electrical problems and shut off power to a steel framed house that was live,(240 volts) and arcing to the fence. (they would have to fly back another day to fix that one) And all the while the RFDS PC 12's are busy dealing with the really urgent life threatening problems despite being uderstaffed and having to raise money from the general public to keep going.
Or the many flights out to the gold mines 300 nm away.Or the C172R that flies all day, most of the time below 500 ft agl inspecting a pipeline, and keeping oil company's insurance premiums down. And many many other flights.
There are a few 737's, mostly in the middle of the day, and some night freighters
When you talk of commercial flights, or GA flights this is confusing, as most of the flying out here IS GA, and nearly all of it IS commercial GA. Nearly all in class G airspace, and in some areas we cannot even use VHF radio as our authorities have not bothered to put in the equipment needed to talk to us They do not seem to care. They live in coastal cities..
Most city people (and that means nearly all Australians) think that aviation consists of big airlines and small aeroplanes that are used by silvertails or weekenders for fun. And within the J curve that is mostly the case. although there are a few flying schools doing useful work training pilots for overseas airlines, and a lot of small aeroplanes owned by people who are not silvertails.
But in the other 90% of the country there are lots of small COMMERCIAL aeroplanes doing all sorts of essential work. Most of them are piston powered, (and obviously not good enough for the flood of city trained airline wannabies who are flooding out bush to get a job)
The outback has been insultingly labelled the GAFA (great Australian F--- all) by some, and this attitude is all too common both within the aviation community and the regulator.(the regulators live on the coast) The gold and diamonds, uranium, zinc and lots of other things the city slickers use comes from the GAFA, and there is lots more out there still to be found and developed. It really is the great Australian wealth generator. And the people who fly around in the little aeroplanes are doing it. Our small charter operators and CPL's are an essential part of this development, providing the essential transport necessary for normal (and not so normal) things.
GA (that's a stupid term, which originated from sales people) includes much needed COMMERCIAL air services to people in 90% of Australia where the airlines cannot operate safely or economically. It is a major part of Australi's transport system which is almost invisible to city people.
All days are diamondsAnd most of the gold and diamonds the city people see comes from the Great Australian Wealth Generator