Zapp
I don't think you are quite correct.
CAR 1988 256 is the reg.
256 Intoxicated persons not to act as pilots etc or be
carried on aircraft
(1) A person shall not, while in a state of intoxication, enter any
aircraft.
Penalty: 5 penalty units.
(2) A person acting as a member of the operating crew of an
aircraft, or carried in the aircraft to act as a member of the
operating crew, shall not, while so acting or carried, be in a
state in which, by reason of his or her having consumed, used,
or absorbed any alcoholic liquor, drug, pharmaceutical or
medicinal preparation or other substance, his or her capacity so
to act is impaired.
Penalty: 50 penalty units.
(3) A person shall not act as, or perform any duties or functions
preparatory to acting as, a member of the operating crew of an
aircraft if the person has, during the period of 8 hours
immediately preceding the departure of the aircraft consumed
any alcoholic liquor.
Penalty: 50 penalty units.
(4) A person who is on board an aircraft as a member of the
operating crew, or as a person carried in the aircraft for the
purpose of acting as a member of the operating crew, shall not
consume any alcoholic liquor.
Penalty: 50 penalty units.
Basically this says 2 things.
You as the pilot may not act as a pilot if you have consumed any alcoholic liquor within the 8 hours preceeding the departure of the aircraft. In essence this means that you are not allowed to have any alcoholic liquor even if it is only one light stubby. In this case if you have had only one stubby say 7 hours previous to departure you would have a BAC of 0 but would still not be legal to fly. You may also not consume any alcoholic liquor during the flight.
The second requirement is that you may not have your capacity to act as a crew member impaired by the consumption of alcohol or drugs etc. So you can not have a big night out wait 8 hours and then go flying if you are still impaired.
The big problem with this is that the definition and assesment of impaired is very difficult.
I do not think it is correct to state that the BAC limit is 0.
Having said the above I have to state that I have not bothered to study the DAMP requirements so there may be extra requirements specified there.
As an ex Ambo I have absolutely no time for drink drivers and even less for any pilot who may fly while affected by alcohol or drugs and I have no problem with the concept of pilots cabin crew etc having a zero BAC I just do not think that the regulations as they are written require this. ( Again with the proviso that I am excluding any DAMP requirements).
The concept of CAR 256 has been misunderstood by a lot of pilots for as long as I have been involved in aviation, especially the "8 hours bottle to throttle".