Pete
Yeah I would say we are almost on the same page, in fact probably more so that it appears on the surface.
I just do believe that if the regulator was doing its job of being a warmly welcome part of proactive safety culture, did not have criminal prosecutions over minor and petty things (this case is not minor OK..we do agree about skiing with helo's is not a good idea) which seems to be the MO of late, that the whole way people view CASA and their work would change. Again refer to my posts on the JQ threads.
Once this has changed you might find the greater number of folk would actually participate.
As an example, have you ever trained a dog or raised children? Probably yes, and this is not much different. Now did I smack our kids.....yep!
It helped remove those sub standard wooden spoons from the kitchen....culinary saftey and all that! So with training a puppy do you flog it from the outset? NO
The educate and reward process works, it is the only one that works. However at times, when naughty puppy goess off and chews your boat trailer wiring you soon find that flogging said puppy with the cable, actually works.
Now a good helicoptor operator will respond better to education and reward, perhaps Mr Jones needs flogging with a R22 rotor blade, but had the education and monitoring process been done properly, the rotor blade floggings would not be needed now.
As for jas24's comments.......ooops I missed them, I must have written them off as some kind of silly gag and not serious commentary.
Maybe that closes the gap a little, and yes, I think Mr Jones should get some severe administrative penalties, but unless Mr Jones wanted to take those to court and risk the cost of losing, CASA should not be chasing criminal charges and wasting millions.
They could have taken the TV tapes and said we have this long list of breaches and fines attached, now show us why you think we are wrong, if you can't here is abunch of fines and an AOC suspension or whatever, and if you really think we are unfair off to court but you pay if you lose. This way if he knows he is screwed, he learns the lessons pays the fines and or suspensions etc, and a big lessoned learned at a fraction of the expense.
If however he is a total pratt about it, well all guns blazing on both sides. But that only lines the pockets of lawyers and empties the taxpayers. This should e avoided if possible.