Glen Buckley and Australian small business -V- CASA
 

Good afternoon, my name is Glen Buckley, the CEO of the Australian Pilot Training Alliance. I live at 36 Essex Road in Mount Waverley (no longer at this address) and absolutely stand 100% behind everything I will shortly be writing on here. My story is long and detailed, but it is the correct forum. What I am writing will be in the public interest. I will return over this weekend, and commence outlining my situation.

I have written to the CASA Board on multiple occasions, and those appeals have been completely ignored, so here I am.

I have written to the CASA Board and advised them of the following

To the Board of Directors of CASA, my name is Glen Buckley, the CEO of the Australian Pilot Training Alliance ARN 759217. I am obliged to formally advise you that as the CASA Approved CEO of APTA I have lost all trust and confidence in CASA. I do not take the decision lightly and it is a well-considered decision. I appreciate that operational matters such as this, are outside your remit, but the reasons for this decision must be bought to the attention of the Board. Could you please advise Mr Shane Carmody, so that he can arrange for guidance on the procedure to be followed in such matters.

I have made repeated attempts to contact the Board and discuss my concerns. Those appeals to the Board have been completely ignored, hence my options for an internal resolution are fading quickly. With the recent Royal Banking Commission inquiry, we know what happens once a Board loses control over the ethics and good governance of an organisation. I will clearly demonstrate how CASA bought harm to me, my Business, my valued and highly professional staff, and Members. CASA actions were never based on safety concerns, and there were no regulatory breaches.

Personnel such as Mr xxx, Mr xxxx, And Mr xxxxx have been complicit in this behaviour, and it extends to

A blatant disregard for CASAs own Regulatory Philosophy
A blatant disregard for the PGPA Act, and gross wasting of taxpayer funds and resources
Breaches of CASA own Enforcement Manual
Technical incompetence on behalf of those personnel mentioned previously
Motivations by certain personnel within CASA that are not based on safety or regulatory compliance
False audit results/blatant untruths etc My assertions are well documented and supported.

The sending of this email coincides with me mounting a significant and very public campaign to highlight the culture that exists within the Organisation. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the Minister, the Honourable Mr McCormack, and it is in fact he, who is ultimately accountable, and will be held accountable publicly.

Multiple attempts to contact him over a protracted period have also been completely ignored. I am advising that I will be forwarding a copy of this document to him, and also to the Honourable Mr Barnaby Joyce who has the confidence and trust of the Aviation sector generally. I am able to meet with any two Members of the Board at the same time at any location in Australia over the next 7 days, if required. At that meeting I would require 90 minutes to present the facts to you. Respectfully

Glen Buckley

Wishing you luck Glen.

Good luck to you Glen.

But I fear CAsA are unaccountable to you, the public, the industry, the minister or the Parliament.

As has been demonstrated so many times they are capable of anything, legal or illegal, if someone
threatens their rice bowl.

I don't believe anything short of a Judicial inquiry, preferably, or a royal commission with the same powers,
is capable of taking them on with any chance of a positive result. There are quite a few of them that should
be in jail, but as someone once said "the law is for everyone, justice is for them that can afford it" and CAsA
has the public purse to draw on.

A little something I ran across today. Very apt description of CASA.

Oxford University researchers have discovered the densest element yet known to science.
The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks.
Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.
Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years.
It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.
In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.
This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass.
When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons.

CASA can suck donkey balls!

I know your pain and can commiserate. Been there, had that. Written to many, Boards , CEOs and etc ...WAWOFTAM.!
Join the call for a Royal Commission or Judicial Inquiry, so we the victims... and there are many, of the obscene bureaucratic buggery by CAsA ....can be heard.
Its long past time that CAsA's ****ty nappies should be hung on the public line for all to see.
UNTIL there is a major trauma for CAsA and the truth is out, we are just pushing it uphill

Perhaps we should have a nation-wide boycott and publicise the fact.
THAT this industry has no trust and respect for CAsA, its managemant and its Ministers..therefore.....
All aviators and businesses IF they unified and just ignored CAsA completely, there would be an effect.
Ignore letters and calls , deny visits, close yr doors to the the venal visitors. Just get on with the normal things yr business does.
Difficult I know but it could be done. Better to do something legit than have to break the law like they do.
AOPA? B Morgan , K Cannane and others?..How about a full page ad in 'The Australian'

" If justice is not given to the citizens by Governments, and swiftly, then anarchy will prevail." B Franklin
I fell extremely anarchic....and so do many others.

Support for Glen
 

Hi Glen, I think you have great intentions in what message you want to deliver to CASA. However, after reading your story, and having a few moments to absorb it in, I believe that you have gone on the ATTACK, and not going in as someone WILLING TO LISTEN.
What I mean by that is that every point has been negative about CASA, and you haven't even said something positive about any direction they're going. They must have done something you like, or a training plan that has been implented but not followed through that would've been ideal?
I find the only way to get meetings through letters is present your arguments in a way that they'll consider listening. Also document in your letter that you have proposals that may revolutionize the way they do business within GA, and regulations could be adapted to suit GA owner/operators.
There's so much to say, but I believe that you're going about it the wrong way.......... Am I only the only one to think so too?
Cheers KP

KP, when your living is being destroyed for no good reason go quietly or fight back.
 

"The real damage will be done when Qantas , Virgin and the regionals decide its attractive to start cutting corners to remain competitive."

Well they are cutting corners now, and have been for a while!

KP... have a yarn with CAsA ... and all you get regarding yr issues is lies and BS. They WILL NOT admit their mistakes, and will break the Law to cover their respective arses.
And quite happy to keep criminals on the public payroll
No use approaching the current feather duster, our little 'democratic' flutter looms. Pity we cant vote on CAsA and any Minister
Whoopee a new "minister".shortly He/she will put a stamp on Aviation probably with a silly 'White Paper' as did Albo.mnay moons ago..which didnt even mention GA.
As one response from a minder told me,we have the worlds best safety record, Australia is mainly flat and our weather is good.
How on earth could there be any problem then.
Cantberra sure is Cloud Cuckoo Land.

The difference is the ones that will fall.

As we have seen the Royal Commissions cut a few heads off but leave the dirty workers safe to be promoted. The Judicial Enquiry's cut out some of the rot in mid/upper mid high levels but leave the head alone.

So we actually need both.

Excuse my cynicism but I lived through the Bjelke-Peterson dictatorship - one of his famous sayings was "never call for a Commission or Enquiry unless you know what the outcome will be". And before you remind me of the Fitzgerald Enquiry, he did not call that, Bill Gunn did while Jelke was out of the country!

1 of 20
 

As stated previously I do intend to start outlining my experience with CASA. I am expecting a report from the CASA Industry Complaints Commissioner to be presented today, and the results of that will be informative. I will outline the journey over 20 posts, and label them accordingly, to hopefully make it easier to follow. I appreciate that this will be long and detailed, and perhaps of limited interest. However, if you are an existing business owner,or a prospective business owner in the aviation sector, I feel this is important. I welcome any feedback, and call on anyone to challenge anything I say, and I will provide the required supporting evidence.

A couple of ground rules that I want to lay down before I commence.

CASA operate under the Australian Coat of Arms, and that places the highest obligations on the people that work within that organisation. The Coat Of Arms is the Australian Governments seal of quality. The taxpaying public and industry stakeholders are quite reasonable to have a high expectation of that Organisation. An expectation of good governance, ethics, and fairness is a reasonable expectation.

When I refer to CASA, I am not referring to the 900 personnel that work within CASA. The vast majority of them are exceptional people, and highly professional, and Industry will most likely concur with that assertion. The Organisation has almost no accountability however, and that permits an environment where bad ethics can creep in, and people can act for motivations that are not safety or compliance related. The culture of any Organisation is set from the top, and that is where the accountability must lie.

CASA is required to achieve "clear and concise aviation safety standards". It is a requirement placed on them in the Act, as one of their core functions. It is not a "nice to achieve", its actually a requirement. A recent poll on pprune with over 900 respondents suggested the following. 97% voted that CASA have failed to achieve clear and concise aviation safety standards, 2% voted that CASA have succeeded, and 1% were undecided. That really is a staggering figure. Consider any organisation that had feedback from 97% of its customers or stakeholders, that it had failed against its core function. That alone, should prompt a Royal Commission.

Anyway, that's the end of post 1/20, and I will return with post 2/20. Thanks again for the support, cheers. Glen

By the way KP , my first post contained my correspondence to CASA. If it was the start of the journey, I would concur with your sentiments. It is however the tale end of a 6 month battle which I will outline here. By the time I have finished post 20, and outlined my experience, I would be genuinely appreciative of your opinion.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....37ee3034ef.png
Hi Glen & others
Below is a current job opening released at CASA (and another 2 similar positions that came through on my subscribed CASA emails). It's ironic that about your post, because they must be aware of the change that is required that you speak of. This job is for a Business Transformation Specialist. And other similar jobs on the CASA site too.... IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM - JOIN THEM .... Is that how the saying goes?

I do not disagree with anything anyone has written. In fact, I'll be eagerly awaiting your brief overviews of your dealings with them.
Searching through their cumbersome website daily for rules & regulations is a bit frustrating & daunting. Maybe you could get them to sort out that as well with a better search function!
And having been involved with a RAMP check by CASA on the tarmac a while ago, the CASA guys seemed reasonable. Only had a few engineering issues on the maintenance release which was nothing really, just not complied with in part 2 properly.
The real issue is to make GA profitable again, keeping rules simple, whilst maintaining a good safety record which most have done. There's too many road blocks that even students/new pilots coming through the industry deter them away from flying! It's easier to just work as a tradie & fly PPL they think, instead of achieving CPL/ATPL and going on to fill the shortage of pilots.
Cheers KP

Perhaps post them on a website elsewhere, and a link or links to them here maybe with dot point summary?

I suspect few here are going to wade through 20 posts.

Just a thought.

Why do customers have to have an "exciting digital experience" when dealing with CAsA.
Like navigating your way through an terminal building as SLF is supposed to be an "exciting experience".

If I want an "exciting digital experience" I go to my Urologist .

The CASA job description via KP says it all, another below read “bulk recruiting.”
 

New CASA AD, trying to display it in full
 

Some text was a bit off there in the ad.
..."finding solutions to aviation safety issues.."
Should have said.." finding solutions for "safety" issues that don't exist.." eg CSF

Did the Board decide this was necessary ? WTF would they know.. The Fort calls the shots.
eg COOP adopted by the Minister AND the Board. Wiped out by the Fort.
Historical, I know ..but just shows that SBA has changed for the Fat Cats at the top of the smelly pile.

"New software and a “lead change manager” on $160k?? Sorry CASA, to handle that job will cost you $350k++. Nobody skilled enough to do that job will get out of bed for $140k.
Sounds to me that CASA woefully underestimates the difficulties of “service delivery transformation” - probably aided and abetted by the software supplier."

Unlikely - more likely is that to fit this manager into their Govt approved pay structure that's all they can pay them . Pay them more (eg a market rate) and the whole pyramid would have to be re-jigged , costs would shoot up and Politicians (and many on here) would bemoan "nest feathering public servants". Same all over the world - public bodies don't pay market rates - and so they tend to be staffed by the less ambitious, the less well trained and the time-servers. The only place I know that even tries to pay market rates for civil service jobs is Singapore.

As for complaining about CASA - don't come on here - you need to bend the ear of politicians and journalists - a bit of TV or newspaper coverage will have far more effect than 20,000 letters from pilots

Letter to Mr Shane Carmody
 

Letter to Mr Shane Carmody from Glen Buckley

my right to protect my reputation, my staff and my business
 

Dear Moderator,
I appreciate that you are currently reviewing the contents of a letter I wish to publish. Let me be very clear. I fully stand behind anything I say, and will be prepared to defend it with evidence. The issue is significant. The fact is that CASA do engage with Industry, and often that manner is inappropriate. My concerns are in the public interest, and in the interests of safety. I prefer this forum as it is appropriately discrete. I am not trying to cause mischief, I would use another social network for that. I am trying to communicate with my industry peers via the only forum available to me. My issue, in my opinion is pertinent to all business operators in the GA industry. My phone number is 0418772013, if you wish to talk to me. I need guidance from my industry peers, and am seeking it through here. Thankyou for your consideration.

Sunfish,
aint that the truth, there is NEVER any redemption, even if you win legally, you lose administratively.
Its very hard to counter the myth CAsA perpetuates that "Safety" is their overriding function,
that Australia is safe because of them, despite all the evidence that contradicts that notion, its all about protecting rice bowls and power.
As long as there is no major RPT accident in Australia, nothing will change.
A whisper in the ministers ear "The blood will be on your hands" is enough to negate any will for change, no matter how corrupt CAsA becomes.
In New Zealand it took a major accident and a royal commission to finally flush out the truth, even then it took several attempts and a mass clean out to finally affect reform.
The RPT industry doesn't give a damn, they pretty much self regulate anyway. Do you imagine the bean counters in Airlines care if they have to put a few more dollars on the price of a ticket to cover red tape, they operate domestically in a vacuum from competition, they can charge what they like. Like lambs to the slaughter the poor punters have no real idea they are being raped by the airlines and all the other parasites that feed off the industry.
Poor old GA is just not big enough for anyone to care until its gone.

I can't help imagining how much safer it would be, how cheap airline tickets could be and how big GA could grow if CAsA was completely disbanded and our regulatory oversight was contracted to the FAA or CAA in New Zealand. We seem incapable of doing anything sensible as long as our regulator is allowed to hide behind a myth.

I would really like to see Glen's letter and wish him strength and resilience in the battle ahead!

Glen’s hand written letter
 

[QUOTE=Sunfish;10481308]