CASA's GA Advisory Group

[Horatio Leafblower]

The General Aviation Advisory Group is supposed to be steering General Aviation policy. This sounds grand, until you realise that CASA has defined General Aviation to exclude all passenger carrying activities:
From the Dept Infrastructure page HERE

The International Civil Aviation Organization classifies general aviation as covering a range of operations that are not commercial air transport services. This includes aerial work (such as agriculture, photography, surveying, search and rescue), instructional flying and pleasure flying.

So, effectively, these people are steering Medical, Private and Aerial Work ops only. Again, an interesting panel of Government appointees:

1 - Mr Martin Laverty (Chair)
CEO, Royal Flying Doctor Service
2 - Ms Catherine Fitzsimons
Owner and Chief Pilot, Ward Air Flight Training
3 - Mr Mike Higgins
CEO, Regional Aviation Association of Australia
4 - Ms Marguerite Morgan
Business Development Manager, GippsAero/Mahindra Aerospace Company
5 - Mr Phil Hurst
CEO, Aerial Application Association of Australia
6 - Mr Michael Monck
President, Recreational Aviation Australia
7 - Mr Peter Gash
Managing Director and Chief Pilot, Seair Pacific
8 - Mr Phillip Reiss
Director, Yowie Bay Pty Ltd
9 - Mr Paul Tyrell
CEO, Australian Helicopter Industry Association
10 - Mr Grahame Hill
President, Air Sport Australia Confederation
11 - Dr Reece Clothier
President, Australian Association for Unmanned Systems
12 - Mr David Bell
CEO, Australian Business Aviation Association Inc.
13 - Mr Marc De Stoop
Managing Director, Climatech. CEO: Falconair

- Why is Mahindra Aero on the board?
- Where is AMROBA or other MRO representation?
- If Charter is not part of General Aviation, why is Peter Gash on the GAAG?
- Who exactly is Mike Higgins of the RAAA representing?
- Why is Marc DeStoop not listed as Vice President of AOPA?

[Horatio Leafblower]

Who is Martin Laverty, and what expertise does he bring to the GA Advisory Group?

[Nulli Secundus]

Horatio regretfully this General Aviation Advisory Group appears to me to have the very high potential of being no more than a side show distraction. Here's why:

• The Group will generally meet twice each year but can meet on other occasions if agreed by the Chair. (but no more than four times a year)
• The Group will review its operations after two years to determine whether it is operating effectively and whether it is appropriate for it to continue its work.
• The members of the Group are to meet their own costs of attendance and participation (Canberra venue! - teleconferencing support offered).
• The chair determines what may be permissible as an agenda item

The depth of discussion needed to re-energise the GA sector is truly enormous and providing members with as little as two weeks notice of an agenda item is hardly likely to lead to any meaningful contributions.

That said, in conjunction with this paragraph's concluding sentence, the advisory group members should be lobbied so they put forward agenda items which industry participants wish to have addressed. The meeting agenda items should be made public before or after each meeting so that a level of accountability and transparency is introduced. The minister should be lobbied to introduce the need for a final or two year report and this should be a public document. For mine, unless the structure of a process such as this is corrected along these lines, I don't feel it is going to be effective and will quite likely drag industry participants away from lobbying in more effective ways or via more proactive public figures.