How does the regulator regulate third party data providers?
I've been resisting the rant on regulation of aeronautical data but you guys have got to me at last.
It is an issue we faced when the AERU was first established and one I've seen several times recently, most recently here in paradise. After we beat up the recalcitrant (then) AIP Manager and got him to understand that his part of AirServices WAS going to be subject to regulation we looked the third party providers.
The assumption was (incorrectly) that they took the official data from an AIP and faithfully reproduced it in their "for sale" documents. Not so, we discovered very early in the checking: reformatting, word changes that changed the intent, missing information, additional information and so on.
The "official" and (hopefully*) fully regulated source of aeronautical data is the State AIP.
The regulator has the devil's own task in trying to bring those third party providers to task in providing only correct data in the form and meaning intended in the AIP.
My advice and practical application to several national regulators have been the best way to ensure the accuracy and integrity of third party providers is through the users. Sorry chaps and chapesses, that means a ramp check of documents to make sure they faithfully reproduce the regulated aeronautical data for a particular flight. Easily targeted when the regulator finds an incorrect data set in a commercially provided document or electronic package. Then commercial regulation takes over as the operator blows a fuse!! Ask Nigerian Airways about the ramp check on the flight about to leave for Port Harcourt in 2003. And wait for the eruption in the Pacific when one of the operators finds that the GNSS procedures they are using from a very popular third party provider are not certified.
Now, back to my weekend chores and monthly report.
MJG
*Remember, I work internationally and not much in Australia these days so my recent CAsA experience is limited.