CAStApo vs Anarchy
As much as I believe that the CAStApo and their political masters are out of control, there a lot of people in this thread throwing out the baby with the bath water. The great majority of GA aircraft are tooling around the sky with primitive out of date technology that in my view is highly unreliable.
I have little to no sympathy for the uber rich whining about their operating costs on multi million dollar helicopters which by the way Eddy Dean I have never signed for a compass swing on and don't intend to. Only the foolish operate a machine with so many critical moving parts. Live in that world and pay the price. On a fixed wing aircraft (read sensible practical and RELATIVELY economical) I can achieve a compass swing within .5 of an hour with two mechanics or about $100 bucks, which in the big picture is small change. What the pilot does with that after he/she leaves is of zero interest to me.
The instruments should be calibrated just like a torque wrench or any other tool that we ask for a constant and predictable measure. This is a basic foundation in the science that has evolved into the ability to defy gravity safely. The ASI, Altimeter and VSI provide information far more critical than the compass. I am firmly with Hasherufc and Arnold E on this one and I am somewhat bemused that the more learned among us are effectively promoting anarchy on the instrument panel as a method of questioning the CAStApo's regulatory shortcomings.
Gentleman, your effort would be better spent questioning why the whole country is going down the gurgler or why aviation is an ever increasing extortion racket. The CAStApo are a symptom not the cause. Unless the battle is fought on a political level you will continue to suffer from bizzare regulatory conditions, far removed from and infinitely more toxic than a simple instrument calibration.