Jonkster,
I agree with most of your sentiments, there are many impediments that have contributed to the decline of general aviation.
It does not however alter the fact that the cost of compliance measured as a percentage of operating costs has dramatically increased over the past thirty years since the bureaucrats decided to subvert a direction to align with FAA rules and go their own way with regulatory reform, leading to the prescriptive, convoluted, rubbish masquerading as safety related regulation we enjoy today.
In truth, we are no safer here than the USA, the biggest aviation market on the planet. Technology has contributed for sure, to better safety outcomes. Over regulation on the other hand has contributed nothing except an ever increasing cost burden. Our regulator is supposed to be a profit centre for the government,and as such I believe our home grown regulations are more focused on make work and therefore provide more opportunities to derive income, rather than focusing on improving safety. As a safety regulator I believe CAsA is a complete and utter failure. They have squandered hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer's money on a folly and achieved nothing, in real terms I don't believe it is any safer today than it was fifty years ago, just a hell of a lot more complicated and expensive.
Compare the US "AIM" booklet against the plethora of Australian reg's, the AIM is an A5 booklet you can hold in your hand, you'd need a very large table to stack up Australia's regs.
Last edited by thorn bird; 4th Apr 2017 at 00:01.