Mach you make some good points especially in regards to:
But CASA should be aware (and would be if they got out in the field a bit more)
that GA pilots typically go a year with maybe a 45 minute base check at the six month point, then struggle through an instrument rating renewal at the 12 month point.
Which is especially relevant with Hardy given that for at least 6 months of the year in the topend you're lucky to see a cloud let alone shoot an approach in anger. The rest of the time the clouds you do see are ones that you'll do best to avoid.
Most midlevel GA operators margin for loss/profitability is so small that management are reluctant to pay for anything but the bare minimum for crew recurrency training and so you inevitably end up with the status quo that Mach suggests.
Once CASA get an operator in their gunsights, the easist way for them to make life difficult is to home in on the check and training system.
That maybe true but surely if there were compliance issues with the T&C system those issues should have been picked up in the last AOC or spot (surveillance) audit?
Audits are supposedly designed to capture safety cultural shifts within a company's SMS and the operating environment before they become significant safety issues.
So did that happen and subsequently these non-compliances weren't adequately addressed? Or did the previous audit totally miss these issues and are they now only discovering what the previous audit team missed? Or is there some other agenda at play?
