Sqwawk7700, it may never be registered the way things are playing now. It has cost me about $85,000 so far, and probably another $10,000 for radios, transponder, paint and incidentals to come, but it has been worth it for the Three years of therapy building it has given me while my partner was dying of cancer.
I can afford to put a chainsaw through the airframe if I have to.
My recent experience of flying schools, flying clubs, etc. is that they are
far from happy places these days either and the stress levels of the RAA and SAAA are way up in my opinion thanks to deliberate CASA destabilisation.
The Jabiru event is as far as I can tell the opening shot in the final battle to destroy private and GA in favour of property development and jobs for life for former RAAF pilots.
My own personal question is "is it worthwhile to persist in aviation when it is clear that every mans hand is raised against it?" Anyway I'm having a few weeks off in Thailand at present, tomorrow I'm chartering a forty foot yacht for a week.
As for the SAAA, it now exists at CASA's pleasure if the Jabiru extinction is allowed to stand because it sets a precedent that any asset can be targeted anytime, anywhere and for any reason with only a little file stacking required to convince the Lilly livered AAT.
The SAAA is vulnerable because it exists thanks to a series of exemptions to regulations that must be renewed by CASA every Two years. The most important currently is the exemption permitting owner/builder maintenance. CASA had a "trial run" last year(?). And let the exemption expire without renewal for a few weeks - causing massive heartburn and probably a few heart attacks among grounded owners.
To put that another way, CASA can kill that sector by doing absolutely nothing- just decline to issue new exemptions.
Last edited by Sunfish; 23rd Nov 2014 at 13:20.