The Empire Strikes Back! on Colour Defective Pilots

[Arthur Pape]

brief cvd update

We are appraising the current situation in detail, and here is a précis:

• Current CVDmedical certificate holders, we are asked to believe, will be left alone, at least for now. It would appear that the political fallout that would follow a continuation of the madness that befell AVMED in June of last year would be suicidal for that elite body.
• New CVD candidates for medical certificates are to be dealt with in a manner that can only be described as "pre-historic". Not in living memory have new CVD pilots in Australia been confined to PPL, VFR and daytime only conditions.
• CASA appears hell-bent on pressing on with the use of the CAD test in Australia (as well as the sneaky introduction of the Holmes Wright Lantern) in response to the clear requirements of CASR 67. 150. 6 (c) which demands that "for somebody who does not satisfy paragraph (a) or (b), correctly identifying all relevant coloured lights in a test, determined by CASA, that simulates an operational situation".
• Currently, we are making in-depth inquiries into the possibility of challenging the lawfulness of the CAD test in the Federal Court. So far, it appears that such a challenge would carry a healthy prospect of success, but that the cost is likely to be over $200,000, which to me is not a piffling sum of money. We are exploring several ways of raising the money. The maths are not overwhelming. One thousand pilots with or without CVD make a contribution of $200, and we are in the game. The trick is to get a thousand donors to cough up $200 each.
• Next, we would need a candidate to figurehead the challenge, and without going into much detail, that candidate would need to be a pilot or wanna-be pilot, who needs to refuse to take the CAD test on the grounds that it is an unlawful test, in the terms in which CASR 67. 150.6(c) is written. In other words, that no reasonable person could view the CAD as a test that simulates any operational situation that any pilot will ever find him/herself in.
  
  

I think that will be enough for now to indicate we are actively working on "the way forward", and that once again, progress will be careful and necessarily slow. John O'Brien's recent victory is not the final end point of this project. It is just the stepping stone to the next goal.
Cheers!