Rules and regs

[boofhead]

Pretty stupid of me to bring this up I know, but there is a chance I might return to Aus and try to fly there. I flew the first 12 years of my careeer in Aus and thought that they had the best procedures, safest etc. However having flown the next 30 years in various other places, I can now see that Aus has one of the most complicated, time wasting and plain stupid systems to regulate aviation in the entire world.
If there was a consequent improvement in safety I would accept it but there is not.
Take a look at the stupid rules for an instrument rating, and to exercise the rights of an instructor rating. Type ratings. Night ratings and the like. Stooopid!! Airspace rules and restrictions are more than stupid. Also oxygen rules and even transition height. Plus I am sure much more.
The cost of compliance must be millions of dollars a year, much of it coming out of the pilots' pockets and reducing employment and progress, yet I am sure those of you who have not flown outside Oz will still object to what I am saying.
A pity we don't all just change to ICAO and stop trying to change for the sake of change.

[TwoTango]

What's your problem with the transition?

TT

[Mr. Hat]

Boofhead, down here making things as complex and difficult as possible makes people feel important and powerful. I've flown with a few of your type (those that have overseas experience) and they all have the same feelings that you do. I suspect it not just aviation either. Unfortunately aviation does seem to be a magnet for it.

Anyway at least the taxes and house prices are really low:ok:


..one thing that is easier in my opinion is getting your licence converted if you compare it to converting to a JAR. A system so expensive and long winded that most of us that could just say "nar f%&k that too hard"

Now thats one thing i wish would change.

[boofhead]

I have abuddy in CASA who helped me restore my old Aus licence (thanks mate!) so I am good to go there, but am horrified at all the things I will need to do to actually use it.
Transition altitudes? Some places are worse, but they should be at least 13,000 like in NZ, so that airplanes flying at 10,000 are not affected. As it is, since you cannot cruise in the layer, the highest VFR altitude for evens is 8500. If it was 13,000 you could cruise 10,500 (10000 IFR). Of course since Aus pilots cannot survive above 10,000 without Oxygen (another stupid rule) this might be moot.

[Capt Fathom]

Don't come back !

[boofhead]

Converting an Aus licence to a US is not hard. They don't give you any credit for ratings and written, but the written tests take only a week or two including study, and the flight test is only a couple of hours, one with an instructor and one with the examiner. If you want a rating, and that is only for airplanes over 5700 Kg or jet (prop jet is not included in this). You can fly a Kingair for example without a rating. Your Aus licence is used to start the process, and they accept your logbook times.
But if you are only here temporarily, doing it will make you resent the bs you are used to doing back home.
And thanks for the welcome, Captain Fathom..

[DUXNUTZ]

Thoroughly agree with you. The whole lapsed instrument rating (even if your current on some other instrument rating) thing really has me peed off. Ditto for fees and charges from everything from medicals, ATPL exams and how bout that bloody english proficiency cr@p? In the US paid 2 bucks and got a license with english proficient on it. Casa should all be burnt on a stake.

[ZEEBEE]

Try flying in India or Mongolia or myriad of other places and our regs look pretty relaxed to me.

For instance in Mongolia, you can't fly to an airport that doesn't have a control tower even if there's only one flight a month into the place.
If that control tower's archaic Russian anemometer stops working you can't go there either or you're grounded if you're already there.
http://ftp.geoz.com.au/zeebee/zdas/controller.jpg
48 hrs Minimum for flight plan lodgement before flight is approved (and yes, EVERY flight has to be approved)
Deviate from the flight plan in any way and you may find yourself driving taxis. :ugh:

And this is a country that has adopted the NZ Airops procedures.

Our system has issues, but generally you can go where you want how you want (providing you have an ASIC, of course)

[boofhead]

I'm not comparing Aus to those countries, just to those that claim to be ICAO and have a fair accident record. In Korea, if you fail to sign the loadsheet prior to a flight you are liable to jail time and a fine of $50K USD. If you negligently crash an airplane and kill everyone on board (except you of course) the fine is only $5K USD. Go figure.

In the US I fly Kingair, Navajo, Twin Cessna, DHC2, most Cessnas, Kitfox, Experimental, floats, skis and most everything with wings, without any need for a rating (just whatever the owner thinks is needed), and sometimes the first time I see an airplane is to hop in the right seat as the instructor. As an instructor I work with a flying school, with my primary employer as Chief Pilot and as a private instructor, and it is all on my own certificate which I renew every two years either by showing my record of student passes (80 percent required) or doing a few hours on a computer watching the renewal course and doing the written test. All very practical and relevant. I keep my IR current by using it. I can fly to 12,500 without oxygen, can fly at night so long as I am current. So too does everyone else, and I can hear you in Aus crying shock horror, but guess what; we have a better accident record here that you do, even though our flying conditions are atrocious sometimes. I am just about to go fly the Kingair on a training flight, at night (it is always dark in Alaska this time of year) with icy runways (and I mean slippery icy), light snow and 5 Km vis but I do my best to be safe through proficiency and I don't need a slew of regulations to make me that way. I can put my effort (and my money) into where it is needed, not where some couch potato thinks I should. I am a better judge of what I need than a bureaucrat.
In the US the regulations do not drive aviation. The emphasis is on proficiency and skill. The results show that this works.
Why not give it a try?

[bushy]

Well said boofhead. In Australia we have to spend so much of our effort on worrying about the ever changing complicated rubbery rules that we are distracted and do not give safety and thinking the priority it requires. We have to think "is it legal" when we really should be thinking "is it safe". Pilots soon get to think that if it is legal then it must be safe, and they don't have to worry about the safety aspect.
Our GA is designed to be a continuous,cheap training system to provide a pool for our major airlines to draw from, if they ever need more pilots. It is not really considered to be the important transport system that it really is. So our accident rate is higher than it should be, and our rules hinder GA.

[grusome]

Boofhead
Check PMs
Gru

[Counter-rotation]

Bushy,

That is a great post mate. Many are thinking that, and you have distilled it perfectly onto the page...

When will the focus return to where it should be? With CASA, I fear it is too late to be saved.

CR.