AHIA strengthens regulatory review capability.
President, Peter Crook, has replaced the long running AHIA Part 61 Review Committee with a more robust AHIA Regulatory Review Team to assist CASA integrating CASR Part 61 – Flight Crew Licensing into other draft legislation. At Avalon Airshow 2015, CASA advised the helicopter industry, “there are 12 helicopter relevant Flight Operational Rule - standards development projects underway at the moment?”
The Part 61 Review Committee advised the AHIA Board new legislation now being offered for comment by the regulator often relied on CASR Part 61 as a foundation. It was further stated if Part 61 was allowed to run with unworkable and disputed elements; then the pending more advanced (and expensive) legislation associated with the heavy helicopter fleet would suffer excessive costs for compliance when no safety benefit can be determined by a cost benefit analysis. The latter is a federal government requirement.
Crook told the AHIA Board industry must be encouraged to be aware of the ‘domino effect’ of faulty overlapping rules. For example, the recent release by CASA of their draft fees was welcome and is still open for comment; the industry needs to recheck other draft legislation to see what efficiencies are lost or gained. The recent AHIA Quarterly Report – January to March 2015, indicated grave concerns for the future of the regulatory processes; which if not reviewed and corrected, will cause a retraction in the aviation industry in 2016/2107. The last ATPL being issued in September 2014 and the associated hiccup with Multi Crew Coordination Training are two examples forcing desperate candidates to seek overseas training facilities.
It is anticipated AHIA Regulatory Review Team will take over from the Part 61 committee on Monday 4 May 2015. More info:
[email protected].