Dan Kelly
That's about the way I see it.
It's fairly typical of the polyanna and just straight BS that gets passed around at this level of operation, that working a 10 hour shift at Maccas to pay for the rent and food and going flying afterwards to get the hours is either legal or OK.
Why bother writing Para 1.4 otherwise.
If Skippers, Schmikkers or Bill Bloggs Acme We Aint Fancy But We're Cheap Aviation want to play it that way, then they will one day reap the consequences.
Part time FO's or any type of pilot is just not on.
It is not a question of whether they can afford to have full time FO's, it is question of them
not charging enough to be able to do so.
To say that they can't afford it because they have to be competitive is a circular argument, simply doesn't play and will have me back in the Coroners court saying why.
Their clients will not thank them for it either.
It is a mystery to me that the miners who use FIFO services have MUCH higher safety standards and "Duty of Care" protocols than are required by most of the organisations that provide aviation services to them, yet think that it is actually the other way around.
I am further surprised that the evidence that I led in the Central Air case, subsequently recommended by the coroner, an as yet unactioned recommendation by the ATSB and really is just plain old fashioned "Duty of Care" is apparently still not understood by the miners who use and those who provide FIFO services.
Now I'll see how long it takes for someone to tell me that the so called "Ghost flight" doesn't have anything to do with the part time FO bit.