I have been in GA for nearly 21 years now and the end of the world has come and gone several times.
We have had AMATS, TAAAAAAAATS, Affordable safety, unaffordable safety, operators shut down, operators allowed to operate.
Airspace reform has come and gone and come again and the circus goes round and round and round.
More serious has been the recent progress (or at least, push forward) in re-writing the CASRs.
In 1992 AOPA had a massive memebrship and would have been all over this. They would have:
1/. Reviewed the proposed changes;
2/. Digested the changes and educated the masses;
3/. Facilitated consultation;
4/. taken up the cudgel for the industry's interests; and
5/. helped the introduction of the improved, better-consulted regulations.
Now every time you raise a problem with the new regs, CASA's first line of defence is "This has all gone to consultation!"
CASA themselves have scheduled 2 whole days to teach ATOs how Part 61 works. How the hell is a small business owner (which most of us are) supposed to take out sufficient time to read, interpret, and digest 511 pages of draft legislation?
...let alone then doing the same for Parts 141 & 142.
Can anyone else remember how long we had to comment? Yes thats right 21 days.
This is an unreasonable expectation on the part of CASA.
Parts 91 and 135 are coming and WILL have a major impact on the way we do GA in this country. Who is acting on our behalf? Who is accepting this on our behalf?
Who is reading it, digesting it and discussing the implications with industry?
As I have suggested in other threads, the ATO insurance issue could be neatly handled by a decent professional association that can be trusted to act in the interests of GA, but who would that be?
AAFI?
AOPA?
RAAA?
