The AsA charge out rate for navaid certification is unconscionable. If it were a private company it would be subject to ACCC scrutiny. Why is there no impulsion for AsA to benchmark its costs with other agencies. Surely they are one of the most expoensive agencies in the world. Australia has less ILS equipped runways than most 3rd world countries. And it seems to me that the key reason is (thanks to AsA & CASA) it costs about 7 times that of America to install one. Can't we get a bunch of yanks on 457 visa's to do it???
Akro,
probably for the same reason we don't have LVP in Australia.
Back in the late sixties our RAAF dominated regulator considered Low Vis procedures were dangerous and not for Australia.
For the same reason they employed a team of surveyors to travel the world surveying airports to set the minima that Quaintass were permitted to operate to.
For the same reason the current RAAF dominated regulator is prepared to piss a half billion dollars up against the wall to foster and promote Australian regulations and probably a billion dollars by the time they have actually finished THEIR reform, by which time there will be no industry left for them to apply to.
For the same reason our primary airports were delivered into the hands of big banks, and our secondaries into the hands of development sharks.
Tax free profits being the imperative, not the public good. The user must pay, and they do, plus the profit. Those who control our airports don't give a fig for the public good or safety, their only interest is profit, which is why our aviation infrastructure has descended to third world status.
Our airport owners say we cannot do anything unless the user pays. Well, the user is and has paid, they are hardly going to contribute more to the airport owners infrastructure to be charged for its use.
It has always been thus, we are right, all the rest of the world is wrong, and man don't we pay for it.
I have spent 50 years in aviation, the rule was always have a backup. Now with the relentless pursuit of PROFIT, safety gets thrown out the window.
Call me a stupid old fart if you like, but I have a very uneasy feeling that CAsA and ASA collusion will come back to bite us one day.