CASA claim to be concerned about ageing aircraft, and so they should be. Messrs Cessna, Piper and Beech never anticipated that their aircraft would be in service for 40 years and 30,000 hours.
But until CASA gets off its collective arse and puts experienced airworthiness people out in the field, armed with flashlights and inspection mirrors and the will to crawl into confined spaces and look at structures, part numbers etc we sit on a ticking time-bomb. One day very soon there will be a fatal accident due to an old worn-out or improperly maintained aircraft. Unless it kills a dozen high-profile mining executives, nothing much will happen for another couple of years while ATSB investigates and recommends. All this time we will still be exposed to this risk.
Ditto with flight operations. Instead of ramping pilots to make sure their charts are the latest amendment and their licence is in their pocket with a signature on the right page (whoop-de-doo) how about weighing the pax and cargo, dipping the fuel tanks, doing some calculations, testing the navigation systems and instruments? Oh, and sitting in on checkrides on very short notice.
Desk-top audits are a cop-out.