AOTW
We can have it both ways. Precisely the same flexibility is available if the only options available to CASA are:
- education
- counselling
- prove a breach in court.
Counselling is equivalent to the police officer flashing his or her lights, rather than taking court action for the offence of speeding.
Let's keep it simple. Focus on a hypothetical, hard and fast, "don't take off downwind" rule.
If you think it's easy to gather admissible evidence to prove that a pilot took off downwind, I'd urge you to think again. Bob glancing up from the other side of the airfield when he heard Fred say that the windsock was pointing in the wrong direction doesn't count. The TAF doesn't count. The passenger who thought they were all gonna die doesn't count.)
In circumstances in which there are witnesses who are able to give convincing, first-hand evidence as to the actual wind conditions in which the aircraft actually took off, the pilot probably deserves to be dealt with by a court anyway, if the regulator doesn't consider education or counselling to be an appropriate way to deal with the pilot's incompetence or deliberate flouting of the rules.