I listen to the debate occuring back and forth across this thread and I really have to wonder if the "Reason model" so despised by our safety investigator and perhaps our regulator has some substance after all.
Unlike the country with the largest aviation industry in the world whose regulator rose from the civilian world, ours rose from the military where you do as your told. No problem, because way back then the "expertise" lay with the military. Unfortunately that "Attitude" infected the regulator and as time went by and civilian expertise rapidly outstripped the military. Our regulator was forced to recuit from ever lower levels of the expertise pool, the attitude remained, "Do as your told" "we are the experts" and so the layers of swiss cheese began to line up as the regulator began scraping the bottom of the barrel.
We as an industry were too busy trying to stay afloat to challenge the regulator as increasingly incompetent clowns filled the shoes of competent ex military experts and the rule of the regulator was born. Using clever manipulation of politics they gave themselves ever increasing powers, divested themselves of accountability, and endowed themselves with the mystical mantra as the custodians of "Safety".
To better control the masses a clever shift of the regulations into the criminal code, a tinker here and there with administrative sancions and they became unassailable.
Trouble is they set out to modernise our regulations, unfortunately you need expertise to do that so they relied on the lawyers.
Therefore we ended up, after 25 years and a quarter of a BILLION dollars or so,with around 1500 regulations that are impossible to comply with.
Can someone tell me WHY a manual submitted and accepted in Queensland is non compliant in NSW, or WHY one compliant in VIC is unacceptable in WA. WHY can we have five different operators of the same aircraft operating it differently, and contrary to the manufacturers procedures placing themselves in legal limbo at the whim of an expert FOI.
WHY are our regulations so out of step with the rest of the world that we have become a laughing stock. WHY does it cost three times as much to operate the same aircraft in this country than anywhere else?
Why is our regulator at WAR with the industry it purports to regulate?
Why are young pilots so terrified of making a "Command" decision and following the safest course of action for fear of retribution.? WHY are experienced individuals in the industry reluctant to accept administrative positions. WHY can an audit by the regulator be accepted as compliant one month and non compliant the next with a different set of auditors trawling up issues that were acceptable then but not now.
I have no idea how compliant barrier were or were not, but they were "Safe" for a lot of years. Knowing just how "Corrupt" our regulator is I have no idea if Barrier is being treated fairly or not. What I do know is that with the best will in the world it is impossible to be in Compliance in this country because compliance rests within the "Opinions" of the individual of the day, not the LAW as written, because nobody understands the LAW. Until a Judge, in a court, rules one way or the other the opinion wins and a lot of us know that opinion can change from one day to the next.
Last edited by thorn bird; 26th Feb 2013 at 11:12.