Kharon, basically CASA is capricious and it likes to that way because it affords more power to its staff without adding any responsibility for outcomes.
Hence its use of "Accepted" rather than "Approved", "a method of compliance, but not the only method", "Appropriate" , "Fit and Proper" "safety" and half a dozen other nominatives that can mean anything you like with the aid of a complaisant Administrative Appeals Tribunal and an expensive lawyer.
If CASA were a genuine aviation regulator instead of a sham, the wording of regulations would remove all reference to nominatives; they would exclusively use "Approved", "required", and "Recommended". "Fit and proper" would be gone.
"Safety" would be replaced by the words "risk analysis has demonstrated".
If you follow "Approved" or "recommended" procedures and satisfy "requirements" then you are immune from prosecution. Conversely, deviate from "recommended" and the onus is now on you to make the safety case.
To put that another way; I challenge CASA to produce a simple one sided A4 page checklist, written in plain English, set in Twelve point type, that specifies the requirements a Cessna 172 Pilot and aircraft must meet in order to automatically pass a ramp check (roadworthy to non pilots) without a single weasel word nominative in it, or reference to any other publications or regulation. I know at least one pilot who asked for this and was told it was "too hard".
The above is the essence of Weberian bureaucracy, designed at least a century ago to stamp out corruption - rigid requirements, rigid authorities and rigid procedures and rigid decision criteria, all of which are transparent, logically arranged and subject to public scrutiny . If CASA cannot do this, and I don't think it can, for a generic training aircraft like a C172 then their entire regulatory construct is a complete and utter sham.
As an aside,, when I first visited Germany I ran straight into a Webers handiwork: I was surprised and frustrated to be told by customs officials that they were prohibited by law from helping me with filling out some paperwork. I was to learn much later in my MBA that "helping someone fill out the forms", presumably with a small gift at the end, was one of the earliest types of corruption targeted by Weber and similar Prussian reformers.
Last edited by Sunfish; 8th Nov 2014 at 20:52.