Well done AHIA. Now fixed wing has to step up

[glenb]

Not only do you helicopter guys and gals have better hand eye co-ordination than us Fixed Wing Guys but you are also, better Co-ordinated. Sensational work you have done, and as long as you can continue to resource it, hats off to you.

On the Fixed Wing Side, I urge you fellas to have a look at the RAAA. I met with their CEO and another Manager only a few days ago. We need to provide a unified voice. At the moment we all having individual tantrums (mine probably one of the biggest) and it just aint gunna work. My eyes are red, my cheeks are puffy, and im gasping for breath but I fear Mum and Dad have gone out to Dinner. They just don't love me anymore.

The kind neighbour the RAAA has popped in and calmed me down. Without saying too much, a significant request for assistance has been met already. I am convinced that this is the Organisation for my Business.

We've talked and talked about setting up our own Organisation. We are already ready resource stretched (as the Helicopter guys and gals were). It just aint gunna happen.

Im a City Business, and I know they've got REGIONAL in their name. Im certainly not going to try and build my Business on stealing Regional Business. None of us have any interest in seeing any school go under. The issues are the same.

What we need is a Voice. If the Country folk get a bit of a louder voice, its probably about time it happened in this Country anyway.

I will state it here and back it up in any Court in the land with irrefutable evidence. CASA costs my Business well in excess of $4000 a week and has done for well over a year. My Super is decimated and ive redrawn on my Home loan. Enough is enough.

It cost my Business about 1 week of my CASA costs, for a years membership. No doubt substantially less for most Organisations. If we all get together and get behind these guys so they can have a crack at communicating with the Regulator, our Industry might just survive.

If you think the membership is expensive, you lose the right to bitch and moan in my opinion. Put your money where your mouth is, join up, hold the RAAA accountable and get involved.

By the way, everyone warns me to be wary of CASA. In actual fact, despite my constant bitching. I actually have that much confidence in every CASA INDIVIDUAL I engage with, I actually have ZERO fear.

[Frank Arouet]

You never lose the right to bitch and moan. It's the last resort of a struggling industry. This and other forums give you a theatre to express your emotions. Trouble is mate, I'm done with representative bodies. The copybook is blotted. The die is cast. Too many become servants of the people we are fighting against. Money will eventually speak louder than words and when the assassin pays the rescuer all is lost.


A wise man once said it had to get worse before it gets better. I believe we need a dead carcass before we can think about any resurrection by any savior.


But I like your feelings and will always support efforts to torment the antagonists.

[Aussie Bob]

Glen, I know exactly what you are saying. My recent experience as a CP convinced me that CASA either takes or causes the waste of the lions share of small aviation business income. I just talked to another CP today who is suffering just like you and is somewhat gobsmacked at his relatively recent foray into aviation business and the CASA induced costs.

I have scant knowledge of the RAAA but will look into them. However, as Frank alludes, if their copybook is blotted by any dealings with CASA, you can rule me out. This includes accepting any sponsorship, advertising or being party to promoting CASA activities. This dealing with the enemy is the rot that destroyed AOPA. Sadly a cursory glance at their web site has already brought up a direct link to a CASA policy statement so my suspicions are already raised.

[Nulli Secundus]

Money will eventually speak louder than words

O contraire Frank.

The industry I work in has seen very significant merger and acquisition activity in the last 2 years. A Belgium private equity company owns now about 70% of my industry in Australia. They have now increased their customers' prices by 2 -3 times.

We could also, but we won't.

If we are profitable now, without raising our prices say 2-3 times more, why would it be just to do so. What's possible is not always ethical or in fact what everyone wants.

You can't change the world on your own, but don't miss your chance to play your part!

Glenb,

Take care mate........ its very challenging to be objective when one's in a position of need. Seek good counsel!

[Frank Arouet]

Nulli Secundus;


I worked in the gas industry and either owned or had a majority shareholding in three company's with my family. It came to pass that our accountant organized a merger/takeover to inject funds for expansion and we subsequently owned some 25%. The assets were stripped from two company's to bolster the most profitable and then sold to a holding company to repay the funds that were injected by a cheque swapping on that settlement day. A crooked deal done within regulatory guidelines and I was now too poor to fight back. Sound familiar?


You say: "What's possible is not always ethical". I can attest to that. But like accountants, aviation industry representative body's sometimes fail to identify the real client and the enemy they are supposed to be fighting against until it's too late. Working with CAsA is akin to negotiating with ISIS. Nobody in their right mind trusts either and I doubt CAsA can reverse that fact.


CAsA DON'T;


Value the industry they regulate.


Believe in two-way, frequent effective communication and listening.


Want to create an environment in which people can work effectively.


Hold their own people people accountable.


Regulate without punitive measures.


Believe in unambiguous simple clear direction


Believe in teamwork despite claims of "working with industry"



Put achievable, affordable safety/education and common sense at the center of their reason for existence.




Regard peer review or criticism as relevant. Indeed they take it very badly.


Have a sense of purpose with a review that is now into its third decade. The waste is enormous and logarithmic. Those responsible should be sacked and possibly prosecuted for being in concert in a conspiracy.


CAsA live in a time warp in which they have no desire to leave. Their whole notion of safety is a myth perpetuated to convey to the flying public their lives would be at risk if not for them and they have a steady stream of "responsible persons" to blame for any indiscretion which must, by way of reinforcement, be harsh.





The CAsA must be disbanded and a new authority formed. A good start thereafter would be to omit the word "safety" from their name. The DCA/ CAA was hard to deal with in their day, but it became a different animal after that word was added.

[Lead Balloon]

If anyone from industry is going to meetings with CASA about the regulatory reform program, and saying anything other than: "Please stop, shred the lot, go home and don't come back", they are merely encouraging more busy work to make an even bigger bugger's muddle.

[LeadSled]

"Please stop, shred the lot, go home and don't come back", they are merely encouraging more busy work to make an even bigger bugger's muddle.

Folks,
Which, of course, is not being said, and the "busy work" is in full swing.
It all fits Einstein's definition of insanity.
Tootle pip!!

[Sunfish]

Frank, sorry to hear about your business experience. If its any consolation, your family fell for the oldest trick in the book. Did the investors ask for their money back at 24 hours notice? That is how it usually ends.

Note to anyone: Never, ever, allow yourself to own a minority stake in a private company.

[Frank Arouet]

Sunfish;


My losses happened 30 years ago and my counsel to friends similarly in business has saved them from bad things happening. One can only hope they have passed on the cautions and something positive has come out of it. The regulatory authority, while being impotent, "dithered" the matter to death. There are always new "old tricks".


The aviation industry is something different. No matter how hard you try to advise people of pitfalls you have suffered, they are reluctant to carry through with the means of defense. I'm often asked for advice by people who not only fail to take it, they do the opposite with predictable consequences.


The regulatory authority appears to take a stick to the victim, not the crook. Threats are not uncommon and some crooks appear to have special "untouchable" status.


But I repeat myself once again...