Not just costs, but to comply with a set of rules, first one needs to comprehend those rules.
I recall attending a CASA briefing for testing officers in which we were told that instrument proficiency tests on aircraft over 5700 kg were type specific, ie an IPC issued for one type did not entitle the pilot to fly IFR on another type. Now I am told that is not so.
All that is required is that a Flight Review is completed every two years on whichever type I wish to fly, plus to fly IFR, an annual IPC on one of the types. So...I have a need to fly three types in a non airline environment. That is one IPC a year on any of them, and a review on each of them every two years. Or is it? My brain hurts trying to work out whether I would be setting myself up for prosecution.
When CASA officers don't know themselves, what hope have the rest of us?
Then the issue of examiner liability, now that we are no longer Delegates. Recently I had a very unpleasant encounter with a lesser official in CASA because he interpreted a rule differently to the way I did. He was half right, but a good lawyer would have equally said that I was too. I may have only avoided prosecution because at the time I was actually representing CASA, which is what a Delegate does. Under the new system, an Examiner enjoys no such protection.
This recent nastiness gives me good enough reason alone to drop out of the whole examiner scene (to cheering from some, no doubt). But I know others in the same mind, and they will be a loss to the industry. Perhaps industry should jack up and leave it to CASA to provide all testing. On second thoughts, maybe that's what they really want. To completely cripple aviation so that they can all collect their redundancy packages.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 7th May 2015 at 09:47.