This is why the Messiah trick works so well on the aviation industry.
If we just find a ‘Chief Pilot’ with the ‘right stuff’ to ‘lead’ CASA, the kinds of problems exposed by the AAI inquiry and the ASR review will finally be resolved. Nobody else, either singly or collectively, could possibly address and resolve those problems, without the wisdom and guidance of some hero in the ‘cockpit’, providing a unique insight into and perspective on the recommendations of the AAI inquiry and the ASR panel review. An insight and perspective that only someone of his calibre can provide.
So, the only option is to wait and give the new (new) (new) Messiah a chance.
This time for sure….
Just another year or two …
The point I have made on numerous occasions is that the DAS is not in a position to kill the regulatory Frankenstein, no matter how steely his or her resolve, no matter how experienced as a pilot or leader he or she is, no matter how much integrity he or she has, and no matter how much of a ‘chance’ he or she is given by ‘the industry’.
Saying that Skidmore hasn’t a chance is not, and is certainly not intended to be, a comment on his integrity or experience. It is merely a statement of the practical reality of the position in which he will find himself.
Can he resume Commonwealth ownership of airports and turn them back into pieces of public infrastructure rather than playthings for leaches on the body politic? Nup. Can he get rid of the fees for monopoly regulatory “services”? Nup. Can he reduce the incentive for CASA to be as inefficient as practicable when performing “services” for which it charges? Nup. Can he reduce the incentive for CASA to build a regulatory regime that requires the industry to obtain ever-more “services” from CASA for a fee? Nup. Can he get the FOI and AWI population to agree a consistent interpretation and application of the rules? Nup. Can he get all those strict liability offences taken out of the regulations? Nup. Can he adopt the equivalent of the NZ rules? Nup. Can he adopt the equivalent of the FARs? Nup. Can he build an airspace system that runs the same way as in the USA? Nup. Can he sack the zealots on a medical mission in AVMED? Nup. Will he be able to identify the person who decided that a rule requiring a pilot, on pain of criminal conviction, to maintain a logbook, unaltered, for seven years after the last entry is made in it, is practically enforceable and has any practical nexus with safety? Nup. Would he be able to sack that person anyway? Nup.
CASA doesn’t kill people, but the regulatory Frankenstein does kill businesses, aviation activities and careers (including those of DASs).