I'm trying to look at all positions here but can't come up with an acceptable reason/ excuse/ lack of intent.
Holbrook is 875' AMSL so even if he had QFE set, the Dam at say 550' (Albury is 547'),he can't even use this as a mitigation.
However given CASA's usual response in only prosecuting innocent party's, I can't see this bloke copping anything except non renewal of his RA-Aus membership which is the De-facto administrative action open to them and this effectively grounds him.
On the subject of intent, I thought this was the first test to ascertain if a criminal offence had taken place. All aviation strict liability offence's are criminal offence's, it would be pretty hard for him to prove otherwise.
But again that doesn't bother CASA as they are not model litagents.
