Dick et el, The largest problem CASA have is the way they are set up and how they interact with industry, not to mentiion their legal department! The different departments within don't talk to each other any more (they used to) and there is no realisation of how CASA worked a decade or more ago. It would be fair to say it seems to have got much worse. There is very little consultation, even with the forums set up for that purpose such as the SCC etc.
Most of the time they consist of presentations at which the industry get very little warning or time to research and then CASA says there was "Consultation" - sorry but that is not what it is about! Even the attendee's at most of the forums are controlled. So what about those that have someting to say and are not let in?
I have an associate that presented a detailed response to a change made by CASA that had significant safety issues, including pointing out that there was no safety case etc. The response from the corporate letter writer basically said we are not going to discuss this any more..... Oh! Is that the way a trusted regulator should work? I don't think so!
To be fair to the new DAS, I believe it may take him a bit of time to sort the wheat from the charf, however I would like to believe he can fix it, and certainly there are few within that should be asked to walk, for the sake of the industry if nothing else. Certainly making officers responsible for their decisions and having their name on the bottom of the letter would assist.
We live in hope..... Otherwise we wont have an industry at all.
