Heard another rumor of CAsA "skullduggery" and perhaps a classic example of why the industry will be dragged into oblivion by cr..p regulation.
The story goes:
A company wins a contract and needs "international" added to their AOC, they need things done as quickly as possible and cant afford time to haggle or complain.
FOI doing the approval decides he needs to do a "Proving" flight under some regulation that says "May" not "Must", to assess the international part of the operation.
This in a light jet, over a route around six hours long, most of which will be conducted in Australian airspace the last thirty minutes or so in international airspace. The operation is airwork, not charter.
The crews for this operation have a combined total of around 50,000 hours of international experience in fairly large machinery all over the world.
Our FOI has never operated outside Australia, is not even type rated on the aircraft and has a...shall we say "colorful" background in GA.
This operator is obliged to fork out around thirty grand so this nupty can sit in the back of an empty aircraft and assess what?
Meanwhile NZ and the many who have adopted their regulations power ahead. Looking at the new part 61, wonder how long it will be before virgin is offering licence package tours to NZ, as they did in UK to Florida.
Should be a money spinner, its half the price for a licence in NZ compared to Australia.
Last edited by thorn bird; 8th Jul 2013 at 08:03.