At display briefing there were bitter complaints by numerous display pilots regarding the immediate pre show AOD testing of the main GA display acts..
Several of the OS acts thought it was a joke in very bad taste and they found it difficult to comprehend that this could happen during pre display preflight inspection and preparations. Astounded would not be too strong a word.
The CASA rep, that is the ONLY casa attendee that day went very quiet when the ringmaster, or deputy ringmaster i think, in any case one of the persons actually addressing safety, asked him why he had authorized/approved/directed this testing and when pressed he muttered references to CASRs as if that justified such outrageous behaviour.
The GA10 pilot, that is test pilot, helmet parachute and all, was at holding point Charlie about to push the start button to meet his departure slot time when he got a tap on the window and an AOD test lobbed on him. Tricky with the special door pins removed, so crew had to re-insert door pins to enable the intrusive 'safety measure' to be conducted and delay the proceedings right in the middle of start checks.
It is almost as if they were trying to cause an incident/accident by distracting pilots at such a critical time. Which would not be their fault of course.
I can only hope that this was all done to illustrate the utter futility and complete stupidity of this BS to those further up the food chain at the so called Safety authority. Otherwise it was a demonstration of how to lose friends and intimidate people.
HD