Dick Smith: Legal Action against CASA re. CTAFs
 

http://rosiereunion.com/file/skidmore.pdf

Folks,
The above link will take you to a letter that is the opening of a legal action by Dick Smith against CASA.

As you would expect, Dick has taken legal advice from leading Senior Counsel.

Mark O'Brien, the instructing Solicitor is one of the top solicitors in Sydney. O'Brien was, for many years, Kerry Packer's solicitor of choice and a formidable lawyer.

With these sort of people behind the action, it must be a very strong case, and fully supports the views of the RAPACs and others on VHF frequency usage.

See for yourself.

Tootle pip!!

Gee, it MUST be... :cool:

Bloggsie,
If you actually bothered to read it and understand, you would see what a compelling narrative and legally strong case it actually is.
Tootle pip!!

I'd reckon 100% of lawyers in a court room would think they have that, but only 50% of them are right :ok:

All lawyers have an 'unloseable' case until they do, and then they send you the bill, so they don't....

Does that make sense...?

Must be the 1st of.....

Cheeerrrssss :confused:

I wish it could be worked out without the solicitors. While 126.7 could be one solution, the needless commentaries I heard this morning blocking it for miles will only increase and the one radio aeroplane will not be on this frequency over an unmarked farm field anyway. Calling on the area is not much of an option either it appears, so what is the answer? Do we really need a court to work it out? Perhaps 2 radios? Perhaps no radio? Perhaps just legislate lighties away? I dunno.

Aussie. The answer is really simple. Just copy the country that has about thirty times the amount of traffic in the same land area.

In North America they have half a dozen CTAF frequencies available. Simply allocate one of those frequencies if there is too much traffic in a given area. We already do that.

Interesting how it's not in your realm of thinking that we should copy the best proven systems from anywhere!

Not actually as stupid as it sounds. Over here, the high-flyers (F290 and above) are generally on a different freq to the low levellers and so will not be comm-jammed by rampant calls on Area...

I never said that Dick, it is well within my realm of thinking. My main point is that I wish it could be done without solicitors. I am also impressed that you are having a go too, no doubt not a cheap exercise.

Remember the saying

"Owe a bank 200,000 and you have a problem, owe them 200,000,000 and they have the problem"

Dicks tilt at CASA has all the hallmarks of CASA having the problem.

My guess it will be quietly decided over tea and biscuits.

If he wins this one what about ADS - B???????

Dhav. Unlikely over tea and biscuits. They will throw an enormous amount of the industry's money at this to make sure no one ever gets any success through legal action.

It's how the Canberra bureaucracy works - protect any individual within the group who makes a mistake .

It won't cost me a cent as I will take the money from what would normally be donated to organisations like the RFDS and Angel Flight. I would imagine hundreds of thousands of dollars will be siphoned to the legal fraternity while CASA supports the incompetent.

I find Sir Angus and Mr Skidmore are similar to Cardinal Pell. That is all thoroughly decent people who think that their prime job is to defend the. " the system" and those in it against any outside criticisms or attacks. It is sad.

When I first went on the CAA Board the Chairman Allan Woods took me aside and said from then on I must support all CAA personel and the decisions they made. Very strange I thought.

dick, they won't change, period. they regard themselves (in Canberra) as 'rulers'. Their customer is the minister, not aviators, least of all GA or recreational pilots. entry to the magic circle is now via the military or legal professions. sorry, I'm feeling cynical this morning.

I reckon they'll see sense and make it 126.7 - just my uninformed opinion, but it seems pretty clear-cut that cluttering the area freq is anti-common sense.

With it, though, there needs to be a push for getting people to cut out unnecessary calls to avoid clashes on 126.7 at airfields close to one another - just one inbound to an airfield or taxiing, and rolling and base calls if needed (or not if you can see all the circuit traffic and know you're clear).

I agree with Dick here and wish him well with this push. Can't say I've become a fan of his rhetoric though - Cardinal Pell eh? You are a master of propaganda, Dick!

And we know where that idea came from, don't we Dick? Yet another "good idea at the time" that CASA quite rightly fixed up later. But we are still stuck with it. First, it was the "don't say anything!" letter to us all, then it was the NAS talk "yourself around the circuit" nonsense and finally, as it was and should always have been, two mandatory calls and the rest "on demand". For every one of these changes, it has taken 10 years to sift through the system. Shame on you.

Propaganda??

So, far more traffic than us (15x, was it?), the same area, and only 5 CTAFs plus, I assume, 126.7. Sounds like that'd work...

Bloggs. I have no idea what you are raving about. The NAS works superbly in Canada and the USA and it could do so here.

The problem is that it is half wound back here. Giving circuit calls on ATC frequencies is madness in most people's view.

This morning Sydney radar was paralleled with Sydney departures resulting in VFR announcements jamming the departure frequency. Once again complete madness .

Good, report it to your RAPAC convenor and he/she can take it up with CASA. It did ask for feedback re VFR broadcasts on ATC frequencies, so this is the info that should be provided.

FYI, I am not arguing against being on the Multicom, Dick. I can see both sides of the argument. I'm merely being sceptical. After all, your track record so far WRT Alerted See and Avoid in E and verbal diarrhoea calls in the circuit is not good...

What frequencies were involved this morning and roughly what time? I'll pull them off LiveATC and have a listen.

Unfortunately I cannot give a time however it happens each weekend when the the frequencies are combined. Often caused by float planes north of Sydney on 124.55 I suggested to CASA that the 120.8 victor lane CTAF be extended to cover the Hawkesbury River. Got no where of course.

You only need one VFR self announcement on a departure frequency at the wrong time to cause problems. Does anyone know of any other country where VFR self announce on Departure frequencies of a big international airport? I bet not.

Wow is this Dick Smith the famous Aussie Entrepreneur?

I think its great that someone with the connections, resources, & industry experience is prepared to fight for the betterment of the people/industry. Thank you.

It's ironic that in a so called "democracy" the people really have little say, and while there are legal mechanisms for justice, they are pretty much unaffordable for almost all in society.

Something has to change. Im sick of ministers steering the direction of the nation, with ZERO qualifications or experience in the area which they govern. Turnbull was the communications minister, did he have a technical background in telecommunications or IT? No hes a lawyer and a Goldman Sachs banker. Abbot was minister for women?? its a joke right.. :yuk:

Most politicians are ex lawyers, and this is the problem. The only way they know how to solve problems is with more legislation or harsher penalties. This is the lawyer mindset. But it's ineffective. Example: Some states in US even have the death penalty for some crimes (arguably the harshest possible penalty), but those crimes still occur. Infact, the homicide rate is often lower in non death penalty states
Deterrence: States Without the Death Penalty Have Had Consistently Lower Murder Rates | Death Penalty Information Center

Real world solutions & improvements are the product of Science, Engineering, Healthcare, & Business. I believe that people that have lived and breathed in the relevant industries, with first hand real world experience, are the only people that can truly understand the issues and come up with effective solutions.

I challenge anyone reading this to pick a minister in charge of a sector, and research their career history. Most have ZERO relevant experience/qualifications... and these people rule the future of our nation :uhoh::yuk:

I wonder how many people in CASA that dont even hold a PPL/CPL :confused:

Now, THERE's an 'interesting' question Mr K.......

Not 'enough' it would seem.....

Cheers:}

I would guess 90% of CAsA dont have aviation experience or PPl/CPL
Its full of career bureaurats building many empires within the Greater CAsA Caliphate...the controller and ruler of Aviation and the GA peasantry.

Its one of the great cons in federal government that $$ squillions can be urinated away by an Agency on the pretence that all the paperwork, fees and burdensome rules are actually making it "safer"
Its a crock of...but there is no political interest, knowledge or will to do anything about it.
Advance Australia where..down the gurgler?.
Exciting times, innovation etc are just all money spending thought bubbles in political heads.
We have reached the stage where we dont need these people any more and a revolution by the people, for the people is our only hope.
Dream on...