AOPA Australia slams CASA over caveats in ADSB 2020 extension
Reported by the Australian, Mitchell Bingemann
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has attacked a recent ruling by the aviation regulator to delay the mandatory installation of expensive air navigation systems, saying the decision will have little impact on aircraft operators and is
little more than political subterfuge.
In a withering letter sent to Civil Aviation Safety Authority acting chief executive Shane Carmody, AOPA executive director Ben Morgan describes the deadline delay (from next year to 2020) as meaningless and calls on the regulator to urgently convene a meeting in Canberra next week to discuss the ADS-B issue.
ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) is an advanced air navigation system that uses satellite GPS data to determine the position, direction, speed and altitude of aircraft. That information is relayed in real time to air traffic controllers via ground stations.
AOPA had lobbied for the introduction of ADS-B to be pushed back from 2017 to 2020, when the US brings it into play, saying the costly system would destroy Australia’s already struggling general aviation sector.
But Mr Morgan said conditions attached to the decision to push back the deadline would render it meaningless to the pilots and aircraft operators most affected by the mandate.
He said the recently announced deadline delay did not go far enough and failed to provide financial relief to aircraft operators, as it would affect only a small number of pilots.
Those conditions mean aircraft conducting private operations under instrument flight rules without ADS-B will be required to operate below 10,000 feet in uncontrolled class G airspace and in class D airspace they will be subject to air traffic control clearance.
It also means they can operate in class C and E airspace only to facilitate arrival or departure from a class D aerodrome, with prior clearance from ATC and only if fitted with a secondary surveillance radar transponder.
“This is just completely unworkable. The restrictions mean that the extension will only apply to very, very limited number of pilots,” Mr Morgan told The Australian.
“ADS-B doesn’t service below 10,000 feet so what’s the point? We want all airspace limitations removed.
“We feel this extension was deliberately and deceptively put out and we demand that CASA come to the negotiation table and review this ridiculous decision.”
Mr Morgan says in his letter to Mr Carmody: “The ADS-B 2020 announcement is a calculated and deceptive political sleight of hand that is designed to make it appear as if CASA are working to assist industry, when in fact CASA are doing nothing and giving nothing.
“The announcement does nothing towards bridging the deep divide that exists between the regulator and industry, a trust vacuum which has been earned by CASA through decades of inappropriate general aviation management and regulatory neglect.”
A CASA spokesman hit back at Mr Morgan’s claims, saying the regulator consulted comprehensively with the aviation community on the introduction of ADS-B over more than nine years, including with AOPA.
“It was agreed by aviation industry representatives, including AOPA, that ADS-B would be phased in over a three-year period commencing in December 2013,” the spokesman said.
“AOPA wrote to CASA in 2012 and congratulated CASA on its consultation process for ADS-B implementation, including the mandate for all IFR aircraft to be fitted by February 2017.
“This initiative provides relief to private operators and will allow for the orderly fitment of the remaining IFR aircraft.’’
CASA is considering whether it will meet with AOPA.
Full article here - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/pilots-slam-casa-over-caveats-in-safety-delay/news-story/9efda8f057df50014179e489c995caff