Thought provoking article by Peter Cromarty

[Dick Smith]

Peter Cromarty, the former CASA Executive Manager Airspace and Aerodromes, has written an interesting opinion piece in today’s Australian (https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/competition-not-casa-is-to-blame-for-general-demise/news-story/b62608789a3a6c7e64559986847f3b11).

I believe he makes some important points, but I also note the statement:

“CASA may be a contributory factor to the gradual demise of general aviation but GA must look to the changing world around it for the main reasons people no longer choose to fly in light aircraft.”

[LeadSled]

Dick,,
Having read the article, my comment is: If that is the case, why have we had so many inquiries, up to and including Royal Commissions, into CASA or its predecessors.

In my opinion, the bureaucratic hands clamped around the throat of Australian aviation (not just GA) is the major reason aviation as an industrial sector has never achieved its potential.

Indeed, this is bureaucratic obstruction is true of many industries in Australia, but the bureaucratic exploitation of "The Mystique of Air Safety" as a weapon has been particularly disastrous for Australian aviation.

Tootle pip!!

[Start4]

Reading Peter Cromarty’s opinion piece gave me a headache, such was it’s effect on my blood pressure. I suspect a defensive reaction to accusations about a situation that he has had direct influence upon. In my opinion he displays a complete disregard of the realities of what has been put upon general aviation in Australia. The only organisations that do OK with the CASA/Airservices bureaucratic duo are the major airlines and sometimes even they struggle.

[LeadSled]

The only organisations that do OK with the CASA/Airservices bureaucratic duo are the major airlines and sometimes even they struggle.
Start4,
Actually, what is happening is airlines keep a very tight lid on what they really think of CASA, because of CASA's ability to do immense damage with the greatest of ease.
Tiger is a prime example.
The airline submissions to the Forsyth Inquiry were never public, just for another example.
In the end , the travelling public pay ---- in the case of regional, Oh!! Boy!! --- Do they pay.
Tootle pip!!

[roundsounds]

GA needed to have an organisation to represent them during the various consultation processes during the development of regs. This involvement needed to be a well planned approach and would have required considerable resources to succeed. The divide and conquer tactic used by various bureaucrats has led GA to the point it is on its knees.

[SIUYA]

LeadSled…

CASA's ability to do immense damage with the greatest of ease.

That perhaps is the most accurate statement I've ever seen that so accurately describes the fundamental problem with CASA. :ok:

[Sunfish]

Nothing in that newspaper is worth reading.

[Torres]

Cromarty missed the bus entirely.

He failed to address the ludicrous, often not safety related costs imposed on general aviation, both regulatory (CASA) costs and operating (ASA and airport owner) costs.

And whilst he mentioned interstate competition from road vehicles - I don't remember too many GA operations between capital cities, prohibited then by the ANOs - he totally ignored rural and remote aviation services. The flying vet, flying mechanic, flying padre, postal and parcel services etc to small rural communities and remote pastoralists are all memories of a bygone era, as was the small aircraft maintenance organisations in many rural towns.

And having held a senior position in CASA, I wonder if he thinks northward of $500 million is good value for the never ending story of the Regulatory rewrite, this month celebrating it's 31st Anniversary? That "job to retirement" will be a further very large cost impost on and further depress general aviation.

[LeadSled]

Nothing in that newspaper is worth reading.
Sunfish,
A bit narrow minded --- what other national or even large newspaper even has a weekly aviation page?
Personally, I prefer to read from the left to the right, (giving the ratbag extremes a miss) and make my own judgements.
Tootle pip!!
It reminds me that I have had a sub to the Australian since it was made up in Canberra, and printing plates were flown to Sydney and Melbourne every night by Jim Wilson's EAS in Aero Commanders --- even a fax was rare, teletypes ruled the world.

[Vag277]

Never let a few facts get in the way of whining and blaming someone else
https://www.casa.gov.au/publications-and-resources/publication/annual-report-2017-2018
Aircraft registrations, 2013–14 to 2017–18Aircraft registered as at 30 June
15,259
15,287
15,347
15,413
15,529
https://members.raa.asn.au/storage/annual-report-2017-18-spreads-for-web.pdf
Flying hours Part 2018: 262, 2017; 2017: 313,990; 2016: 207,893; 2015: 267,154; 2014: 211,762
Total aircraft: 2017–2018 3329; 2016–2017 3255; 2015–2016 3267; 2014–2015 3283
https://www.bitre.gov.au/statistics/aviation/general_aviation.aspx
General aviation hours flown by VH-registered aircraft increased by 2.1 per cent to 1.23 million hours. Instructional flying increased by 8.7 per cent to 390 thousand hours, and Sport and pleasure flying increased by 8.7 per cent to 235 thousand hours. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in Aerial Work (down 4.5 per cent to 439 thousand hours), and Own use business flying (down 2.0 per cent to 134 thousand hours).

Sport aviation (ultralights, gliders, hang gliders and gyrocopters) activity generally experience large swings in activity from year to year. In 2018, sport aviation activity increased 0.6 per cent to 348 thousand hours.

Just maybe, the commercial application of GA has been overtaken by technology (internet &drones) and competition.

[Lead Balloon]

Stats are “facts”?

I suppose it is a fact that the stats are what the stats are.

What inferences may validly be drawn from stats is an entirely different question. That’s called “opinion”.

I suppose it is a fact that a person has an opinion. But that does not make the expression of an opinion a statement of fact.

Why only 4 or 5 years, BTW?

[Vag277]

4 or 5 years were what I could find quickly. The aircraft registration numbers show the same trend over many years.
I suppose it is a fact that a person has an opinion.But that does not make the expression of an opinion a statement of fact.
One could assume that this applies to your widely disseminated opinions on the state of aviation.

[Lead Balloon]

Absolutely correct. My opinions are just that. Others can decide whether they are well-founded or not. Just like your opinions.

So what inferences do you draw from aircraft registered being 15,259 in the first year you cited and 15,529 five years later? Do you know what the population growth and economic growth were over the same period?

[OZBUSDRIVER]

Mr Cromarty, you have no idea what is killing GA. The joys of a 15yo hangar rat, washing planes, helping the LAMEs in the hangar, washing more planes in kind for training hours, bumbing rides on positioning flights, hanging around the tarmac airside for literally hours waiting for return flight, getting invited up to the tower for no other reason than being there, bumbing flights in B200s on cargo flights and paper runs, before that those same pilots at a younger age doing the same thing themselves, refueling, taxiing aircraft back to the hangar from the flight line, Mate, Ive got the logbook to prove it over a hundred different aircraft and more than thirty models of everything out of the US....all this is now FORBIDDEN by the fun police. There is way more, like banner towing launches, skud running at zot feet to avoid weather to get the job done without risking life and limb, how to make a plan on the back of a cigi packet and try and learn mental arithmetic tricks...all this made me a better pilot before I even allied.for my licence, soloed in under 7hrs gliders in less than 5, dollars and fractured AC joint stopped me more than anything...that and the advent of the sausage factory in Cessnock...everything that was fun and free now has a reg specifically to stop it. That is what killed GA...forgive me if Im out of line but ****hot, I bad a bloody fun childhood...thats why there are no kids on the fence anymore.

[Godknows]

Iwould so love to deconstruct this paper and offer my opinion but...grrrrrrrrr

[neville_nobody]

What a misleading article. Mr Comarty fails to recognise that all the so-called competition is government subsidised whilst in aviation the end user pays the full economic cost of its use.

Who paid for the nice dual lane carriage way? Was it the end user? Would people still drive if it was a giant toll road like aviation is? What would happen to cars if the government dropped the petrol excise and stopped building infrastructure just like they did to aviation?

Why doesn't anyone innovate and build new design aircraft anymore? What is stopping that innovation?

Would road freight really be cheaper than air freight if the end user was paying the full economic cost of its transport?

How much dispensation are CASA going to give a new autonomous drone technology vis a vis a new aircraft design? How many more hurdles have to be jumped by the aircraft or are they the same?

Why is it that it costs $280 to drive on 386km of road yet over $1000 to fly in the air, which cost nothing, and take-off/land on say 3KM total of runway? How is that road actually a reflection on the true cost of building it? Or hasn't he actually factored the cost of the road at all??

[Sunfish]

A simple comparison with US figures would show he’s wrong.

[Duck Pilot]

With no disrespect to Peter, he has completely missed the boat if that's his opinion. Having come through GA both as an apprentice, then a pilot in Australia and then getting totally frustrated with CASA, I decided to jump the fence and get into CASA to try and change the world (how dumb was I!!!). After 3 years, 2 of which were spent on the same floor in Canberra with Peter when he was in the chair as well, I become totally frustrated and disillusioned as to what I was doing as nothing was progressing. The projects that I was working on were just going around and around in circles - I was working on Part 91 and 135. How much has progressed on Part 91 and 135 (in my opinion) since I left Canberra in 2016 - Zero. The bureaucratic system doesn't allow things to progress quickly. The problem isn't actually caused by CASA in my opinion, it's actually above CASA right through to the big haus down the road with the flag on it.

Lots of good people in CASA, however most of them eventually become disillusioned and frustrated and end up leaving.

The government must make General Aviation conducive for it to be vibrant. Too noose it up with complicated regulations, high associated costs with compliance and then to blame other infrastructures such as roads and budget airlines, I believe the decision makers in Canberra have totally got it wrong.

[Sunfish]

The tale of what has happened to Glen Buckley, Gippsland Aeronautics, Polair and many others detailed in the Forsyth review, as well as the scandalous use by CASA of time limited exemptions, are enough to send any potential investor in Australian aviation running away as fast as possible, perhaps occasionally stopping long enough to vomit.

I don’t know if Cromarty is a fool or an idiot for not understanding that no investor, for business or pleasure, is going to place their capital at risk from the actions of a capricious regulator like CASA.

The demise of GA is a simple function of the risk and return available compared to competing investment choices. And the major risk to aviation in Australia is the regulator. I know of no other regulator in ANY sector of industry that actively tries to destroy its clients like CASA does, except perhaps for the tobacco industry. Even alcohol and gambling industries get better treatment.

[aroa]

Well he would say that, wouldnt he. Ex CAA UK and CAsA and all that.
Start4 got a headache. I reached for the bucket for a quick upchuck.
The reality of his "experiences" within CAsA have NO connection that of Oz aviators that have been seriously f***ked over by CAsA, and GA that has been bled to death by 10,000 ratty regulations.
His disconnect is just another symptom of the Cantberra 'bubble'.
Reality lies outside (non) Aviation House, NOT within.

[bonez]

Although the article may have touched a nerve or two, my faith in the author's ability to comment on anything was well and truly trashed when as the Manager of the OAR he utilised his own ideas about what was appropriate consultation with the industry he was paid to serve. Now, say again, why did he leave CASA?

[Horatio Leafblower]

His view is perhaps commonly held within CASA. Another CASA manager, Keith Thompson, basically told me exactly the same thing in 2016-17.

A great many of his points are perfectly valid; however, he ignores the fact that
1/. GA serves regional communities in ways that bigger operators won't (without subsidies); and
2/. A strong GA industry is a desirable thing; and
3/. the government, through policy and effective sensible regulation, is in a position to facilitate a strong, safe and growing GA industry.

The fact that despite many enquiries and delegations and much lobbying they refuse to do anything leads me to conclude that is is a deliberate strategy on the part of Government.

[Sunfish]

...Which brings me around to my conclusion that only political action will change things. There is no point negotiating. Plan NOW to bring down the “liberal” government by negative campaigning in marginal seats.

[SOPS]

Mr Cromarty, you have no idea what is killing GA. The joys of a 15yo hangar rat, washing planes, helping the LAMEs in the hangar, washing more planes in kind for training hours, bumbing rides on positioning flights, hanging around the tarmac airside for literally hours waiting for return flight, getting invited up to the tower for no other reason than being there, bumbing flights in B200s on cargo flights and paper runs, before that those same pilots at a younger age doing the same thing themselves, refueling, taxiing aircraft back to the hangar from the flight line, Mate, Ive got the logbook to prove it over a hundred different aircraft and more than thirty models of everything out of the US....all this is now FORBIDDEN by the fun police. There is way more, like banner towing launches, skud running at zot feet to avoid weather to get the job done without risking life and limb, how to make a plan on the back of a cigi packet and try and learn mental arithmetic tricks...all this made me a better pilot before I even allied.for my licence, soloed in under 7hrs gliders in less than 5, dollars and fractured AC joint stopped me more than anything...that and the advent of the sausage factory in Cessnock...everything that was fun and free now has a reg specifically to stop it. That is what killed GA...forgive me if Im out of line but ****hot, I bad a bloody fun childhood...thats why there are no kids on the fence anymore.


I could not agree more. My vote for post of the year. Reminds me of how I started out.. used to spend hours in the tower.. just to be there and in the hangar and just hanging out to be near aircraft.

[Chronic Snoozer]

Regulations kill competition. It's pretty simple. Good on this lad though.

https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/designing-websites-to-stuffing-pillows-how-our-youngest-pilot-reached-sky-high-dream-20191006-p52y15.html

[industry insider]

Can you fly a Cessna150 on an RPL as in the picture?

[LeadSled]

...Which brings me around to my conclusion that only political action will change things. There is no point negotiating. Plan NOW to bring down the “liberal” government by negative campaigning in marginal seats.

Sunny,
...Which brings me around to my conclusion that only political action will change things. ------ That I agree with.
...There is no point negotiating ........ Certainly not with CASA.
...Plan NOW to bring down the “liberal” government by negative campaigning in marginal seats. ...... Then you spoil it. Seriously, do you think you are going to get progress with a union dominated rather far left Labor government --- where the party platform at the next federal conference is likely to re-adopt broad scale nationalisation of industry as policy Indeed back to before 1949???
Tootle pip!!
.
PS: Due to the defamation laws, I find it very difficult to say what I would really like to say.

[Stickshift3000]

Can you fly a Cessna150 on an RPL as in the picture?

Yes, max aircraft weight for RPL holders is 1500 kg - max weight for RAAus pilot certificates holders is 600 kg.

[Sunfish]

leadsled, the way negative campaigning works, the party and their policies are immaterial. You are saying that you will oppose anyone who is not FOR you. What that means is that any party with brains will support your agenda. The Israel and Christianity lobbies work both sides. of the aisle to achieve the same objectives.

[Lead Balloon]

The fact that despite many enquiries and delegations and much lobbying they refuse to do anything leads me to conclude that is is a deliberate strategy on the part of Government.If only that were true, HL.

The only “deliberate strategies” governments have these days are about their own self-interest. The regulation of aviation was abdicated to CASA decades ago. The issues are big and complex and long-term, and there’s no political benefit in engaging with them.

The tragedy is that the fabric of government is now so weakened that no government of any of the ‘traditional’ political flavours would know what to do to change things, even if they wanted to. The ‘policy’ department is a hollow shell and the minister responsible and their hangers-on change so frequently that their usual biggest achievement is changing the decor in the office.

Thus it’s left to the complicators and the scaremongers and the well-meaning (they’re the most dangerous ones) in CASA to carry on, year after year, decade after decade (on 6 figure salaries) building an ever-growing dog’s breakfast, all in the name of “safety”.

The rhetoric around the Angel Flight knee jerk is Orwellian:If we were to wait for sufficiently robust data to support an evidence based decision for every individual decision we took in this space, we would have to wait for a dozen or more accidents to occur...And there you have it.

That’s the ‘new normal’ in CASA.

[Icarus2001]

GA needed to have an organisation to represent them during the various consultation processes during the development of regs. Oh CASA do plenty of consultation but what does that word really mean...

"This is what we are planning to do any questions or feedback? .......Thanks we will carry on doing what we were planning to do anyway, so long as Qantas say it is okay."

There you go, you have been consulted.

[INTERESTED BYSTANDER]

Couldn't agree more, you are spot on Duck Pilot.

[Lookleft]

leadsled, the way negative campaigning works, the party and their policies are immaterial. You are saying that you will oppose anyone who is not FOR you. What that means is that any party with brains will support your agenda.

As always Sunfish the fundamental flaw in your argument is who is the "you" that you are constantly referring to? Unless you are prepared to put the time and effort in then it is just a useless idea.

[Alistair]

The fact is if CASA was invented before Wilbur and Orville strapped an engine in their 'death' machine we'd all still be riding horses, or have a man with a flag walking in front of our horseless carriage. They would never have negotiated today's quagmire of "simplified" rules to get off the ground.

Overwhelming bureaucracy in Australia is stifling constructive life here, readily apparent as an expat who returns after extended periods away. Great if you are a lawyer but lawyers aren't doers they are don'ters. Unfortunately they are running the joint.

#boiledfrogs

[LeadSled]

The fact is if CASA was invented before Wilbur and Orville strapped an engine in their 'death' machine we'd all still be riding horses, or have a man with a flag walking in front of our horseless carriage. They would never have negotiated today's quagmire of "simplified" rules to get off the ground.

Overwhelming bureaucracy in Australia is stifling constructive life here, readily apparent as an expat who returns after extended periods away. Great if you are a lawyer but lawyers aren't doers they are don'ters. Unfortunately they are running the joint.

#boiledfrogs
Folks,
Sadly, all too true.
Tootle pip!!