From the President’s Desk - Royal Aero Club · 2018. 10. 2. · CERTIFICATE $95.50 ALAC’S RULES & REGULATIONS ... to CASA and the OAR is now a distinct operational unit within

Flightlog October—December 2015

Presidents Report Xmas time is traditionally a time of joy and goodwill but this not being experienced by the aviation industry at present. The industry is in a state of angst and frustration. More delays, more cost, more talk-fests and more reviews.

CASA Organisational Structure The Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore has advised of a restructure for CASA. This will occur over the coming months to be completed by 30 June 2016. The new structure will consist of three main groups:

Stakeholder Engagement - this will bring together all communication functions into one area to ensure CASA's communication and information is consistent and delivered effectively to all stakeholders.

Aviation - this group will manage and deliver all collaboration and interaction with the aviation community. This includes entry control, surveillance, regulatory services, standards setting, regulatory development and regulatory implementation.

Sustainability - will include all support functions, both internal and external.

Comments have been made that this is not revolutionary as a similar structure was introduced in the early 1990's.

CASA Review Casa has appointed an independent consulting firm to assist CASA to provide an independent analysis of the Australian Aviation environment and to identify the impacts and challenges likely to be faced by industry and CASA.

The industry has been telling everyone that will listen and those that won't, what the industry needs and wants to keep viable, for so many years. So we now have another review.

(Continued on page 3)

From the President’s Desk

President’s Report 1,3,4

Learn to Fly Scholarship 5

Go by Air—John Willis OAM 6,7,8

P Factor Accidents—John Douglas OAM 9

Proposed Air Space Changes for Bankstown—Charles Thompson 10,11

Club Corner 12

Canberra Meetings—Alan Bligh OAM 13, 14

2016 Conference & ALACs Information 15

New Task Force—Charles Thompson 16

Ins ide t his iss ue:

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THE ROYAL FEDERATION OF AERO CLUBS OF AUSTRALIA

PO BOX 164 RUTHERFORD NSW 2320 Tel: 4932 0200 Email: [email protected]

Executive Committee

PRESIDENT: Marj Davis Gillespie, OAM Mob: 0412 338 051 Email: [email protected] VICE PRESIDENTS:

Allan Bligh, OAM Phone: (H) 02 9954 7224 (B) 0408 268 689 Email: [email protected]

Bernie Sarroff, OAM Phone: (H) 02 4930 1577 (Mob) 0408 301 578 Email: [email protected] Andrew Eldridge Phone: (H)08 9221 4336 (Mob) 0438 220 703 Email: [email protected]

REGIONAL DIRECTORS

NSW/ACT Phil Unicomb Mob: 0447 474 307 Email: [email protected] QLD Graham Dooley Mob: 0407 696 030 Email: [email protected] SA/NT Tony O’Brien Mob: 0438 530 366 Email: [email protected] VIC Paul Canavan Mob: 0409 149 010 Email: [email protected]

WA Rod Garnaut Mob: 0411 700 336 Email: [email protected] TAS Peter Fenton Mob: 0418 399 386 Email: [email protected]

Technical Advisory & Safety Committee

John Douglas, OAM Chairman

(B) 08 9417 0000 Email: [email protected]

John Willis, OAM Deputy Chairman

(H) 03 5134 1146 Email: [email protected]

Trevor Jones


Dick Gower (B) 03 9739 0626 Email: [email protected]

Charles Thompson


John Warren


Mike Waldburger


CFI Latrobe Valley Aero Club


David Forsyth


Phil Unicomb


Jan Rebello


Mike Nolan


Richard Gross


Rod Jouning

(M) 0411 161 723 Email: [email protected]

Paul Summers Email: [email protected]

PRODUCT PRICE LIST (Incl. GST) OFFICE BEARERS

Postage & Handling - minimum charge $5.00

MASTERCARD OR VISA ACCEPTED

Place your Order – by Phone or Email with the RFACA office in Newcastle

(see above for contact details).

RFACA INSIGNIA & PRINTED MATTER

RFACA FULL MEMBERS

RFACA FTG

Pilot’s Wings (Gilt, large) $13.20 N/A

Pilot’s Wings (Gilt, small) $10.00 N/A

Tiepin (With guard) $ 8.50 N/A

Tie $25.00 N/A

Lapel Pin (with clutch grip) $12.00 N/A

Cuff Links (pair) $10.80 N/A

Blazer Pocket Badge (Gold wire embroidered)

$13.20 N/A

Aircrew Membership Cards No Charge N/A

“I Fly Aero Club” Car Sticker

No Charge N/A

First Solo Certificates $ 2.75 N/A

GFPT Certificates $ 2.75 N/A

RFACA Wall Plaque $50.00 N/A

Mugs with RFACA Insignia $ 6.50 N/A

Blue Cap with Embroidered RFACA Insignia

$20.00 N/A

Jacket/Flying Suit Badge (cloth, sew on)

$11.00 $11.00

RFACA T-Shirts $35.00 $35.00

RFACA PILOT PROFICIENCY PROGRAM (Includes Certificates & Badges)

Blue Level (for PPL) No Charge $11.00

Red & Bronze $11.00 $16.50

Silver & Gold $16.50 $22.00

MASTER INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATE

$95.50 (includes framing & postage)

ALAC’S RULES & REGULATIONS

No Charge for Entrants Others $5.00

mailto:[email protected]











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Industry Advisory Panel for Part 61 Solutions Task Force CASA has advised this task force has been formed to deliver solutions for the aviation community and CASA associated with the Flight Crew Licensing suite of regulations (Parts 61, 64, 141 and 142) and will ensure known or likely safety risks continue to be effectively addressed whilst ensuring unnecessary costs are not imposed. The RFACA's representative on this Task Force is Charles Thompson CFI Basair and member of the RFACA's Technical Advisory and Safety Committee. Charles attended the first meeting on 16 December 2016. Please read his report on Page 16.

GA Action Agenda Group This is a sub-committee of the Aviation Industry Consultative Committee and was introduced by Minister Truss to provide a forum to work collaboratively on issues facing general aviation and review the recommendations of

the 2008 General Aviation Action Agenda. The first meeting date has been set for 17 December 2015 if enough members are available to attend. Unfortunately I am unable to attend on this date but will be very much involved in coming meetings.

Aviation Industry Consultative Committee Minister Truss has called for a meeting in Sydney on 29 January 2016. I will be attending this meeting taking with me the many issues that RFACA members are experiencing in the industry.

Review of the Office of Airspace Regulation Review In September 2006 the Government transferred responsibility for Airspace Regulation from Airservices Australia to CASA and the OAR is now a distinct operational unit within CASA.

OAR are conducting a review and the questions were provided by CASA.

Part of the review is proposed changes to RAPAC Terms of Reference.

RAPAC (Regional Airspace & Procedures Advisory Committee) from all states are concerned with the proposed changes as it will have the effect of considerably limiting their scope and function.

Current Terms of Reference are: " to provide a forum for civil and military airspace users, government and private aviation organisations, air navigation and communication service providers, and other stakeholders to discuss any aviation matters, including airspace and procedures of a regional and/or national importance;"

New Version: "to provide a forum for civil and military airspace users, government and private aviation organisations, air navigation and communication service providers, and other stakeholders to discuss any airspace and airspace procedures of a regional and/or national importance;" Note the inclusion of the extra word "airspace" and the deletion of "aviation matters, including".

Bureau of Meteorology A Graphical Area Forecast Working Group has been formed to discuss all details of Graphical Area Forecasts to ensure industry requirements are met, consider any issues and progress the project through to implementation. After several meetings we are now advised that Airservices are unlikely to meet the November 2016 deadline for GAF implementation. Another meeting will be held early next year.

New Time Table for Transitioning to Parts 141/142 The date to transition has been extended by twelve months and is now 31 August 2018. The primary reason given by CASA for the new schedule is to give industry more time to prepare for the commencement of the new regulations. Whilst this is of some benefit to those Clubs who have not transitioned it is a disadvantage to those Clubs who have.

(Continued from page 1)



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If you have already transitioned to a Part 141 organisation you can no longer provide the integrated CPL and nor can you offer Joy Flights. This puts Part 141 organisations in a position of commercial disadvantage. This will be raised by the RFACA at the AICC meeting with Minister Truss in January 2016.

With regards to the progress of Joy Flights we have been advised the following by CASA "The NPRM industry consultation resulted in very mixed responses with a proportion of respondents welcoming the proposal and a similar number lobbying against the proposal. As such the NPRM has been put on hold temporarily until priority post implementation review (PIR) matters concerning the Flight Crew Licensing (FCL) CASR Parts 61, 141 and 142 are addressed. We are expecting that the main issues identified from the FCL PIR will be addressed by the newly formed FCL task force over the course of the next 6 months and as such work should be able to recommence on the scenic NPRM project later in the 2nd quarter of 2016." The RFACA challenges the validity of CASA’s analysis of the responses to the NPRM on the grounds that CASA has used simple numbers of responses. The response of an individual person is given the same weight as an aircraft business owner/service provider, whose response in turn, is given the same weight as those of an Organisation. This is unjust as the RFACA response, which is the response from a dozen aircraft business owner/service providers representing several thousand individuals, is given the same value as the response of one individual. We cannot speak for other organisations but similar logic must apply.

Bankstown Training Area Proposed Airspace Changes

The proposed changes are of great concern to Bankstown Flying Training Organisations. For full report see Pages 10 & 11.

December has been a very busy month for meetings Allan Bligh OAM, Vice President of RFACA attended three meetings in Canberra.

Airspace & Aerodrome Consultative Forum (Session 14)

Waypoint. An Air Services annual meeting.

ASTRA See Pages 13 & 14 for full reports on these meetings. Attending any of the above Panels, Forums and meetings, is not funded in any way by Government, CASA, Airservices etc. and therefore is a considerable cost to aviation organisations, not only in monetary terms but time wise as well. Each organisation has to consider whether the cost is worthwhile. With so many proposed changes effecting the industry at present it is not surprising that the industry is concerned about it's future.

Flying Training Conference & ALACs TOOWOOMBA Darling Downs Aero Club is our host Club in Toowoomba in April 2016. They send a warm welcome to everyone and hope you will come along and support these events. Please make your accommodation bookings early. See Page 15 for full details also visit our website: www.rfaca.com.au

Conclusion Another very busy year has passed with a lot happening in the industry. Many meetings have been attended and Clubs visited. It is never dull in the aviation industry, always a challenge, mostly enjoyable, especially the people you meet. 2016 is going to be a challenging year for us all.

I wish you all a very safe and happy Xmas and look forward to seeing you in the New Year in Toowoomba.

Marj (Davis) Gillespie OAM President



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RFACA Scholarship Competition 2014/2015

Four Scholarships are available each year to the value of $7700 each including GST .

1) Two Scholarships are for ab initio pilots

All entrants who fly a Trial Flight with an RFACA Member Organisation between the commencement of scholarship, 1 October 2015 and closing date 28 March 2016, will be considered for nomination by that Organisation for a RFACA Learn to Fly Scholarship. Each Club can nominate up to three candidates. (See Terms and Conditions for full details)

2) Two Scholarships are for pilots that have completed their PPL and wish to further their career in aviation.

The scholarship is to go towards achieving CPL or Flying Instructor. Entry to this is by nomination by RFACA Member Clubs and each Club can nominate up to three candidates.

COMMENCES: 1 OCTOBER 2015

CLOSING DATE: 28 MARCH 2016

RFACA LEARN TO FLY

SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION

2015/2016

SPONSORED BY

AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA


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IF YOU’VE TIME TO SPARE – GO BY AIR

by John Willis OAM Deputy Chair RFACA Technical Advisory & Safety Committee

GENERAL

What goes up must come down. In more than 100 years of powered flight, nobody has been left up there – yet.

In matters of aviation safety, you are only as good as your last game.

It always takes longer than you think.

LEARNING TO FLY

Flight Instructors turn turkeys into Eagles.

Your flight instructor is your rope ladder to the ground.

My old ethnic grandma once told me –

If you must learn to fly, remember three things –

Don’t stall,

Don’t stall and

Don’t stall.

In flying, nothing beats experience except recent experience.

Aircraft handling is a matter of – Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey. When all else fails – Use brute force.

LANDINGS

In learning to fly, the most important thing is to learn to land.

The art of landing can be described as throwing yourself at the ground … and missing.

A “good” landing is one which you can walk away from. A great landing is one which lets you use the aeroplane another time.

The most important landing of the day is the last one. In landing – Only two things are certain – Cross Winds and Wind Shear. Don’t be one of those pilots who fly what is called Grandmother Airspeed on landing approach,

wherein their airspeed = 1.3 Vs plus five knots for their wife, one knot for each of their children and another knot for their grandmother.

Save your brakes for the time when you will really need them.

PILOTS

There may be old and bold pilots but there are no old enthusiast pilots, only old cynical pilots.

Only birds and fools fly – and birds don’t fly at night.



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DECISION MAKING

When in doubt – do nowt, Or alternatively, When in doubt – yell and kick and scream and shout.

OTHER TRAFFIC

A mid-air collision could spoil your whole day.

You only get one go at a mid-air collision.

See one – Look for another.

Beware of the person of German ethnicity in the Sun.

GRAVITY

The first thing a trainee pilot must learn is that gravity works at 100% strength, 100% of the time.

The next thing to learn is that aeroplanes cannot stop in flight and certainly cannot back up.

The formula for Gravity – g = 50hp per bUm

There is no such thing as an overpowered aircraft – Just various degrees of being under powered

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE

If you think there is something wrong with the aircraft, there is. And it’s a whole lot worse than you think.

He who hides the Maintenance Release, has got something to hide.

Be kind to your mechanic.

When it comes to pre-flight inspection, don’t trust no B_______. Keep looking around – there’s always something you missed. Engineer’s Time –

If an engineer says the aircraft will be ready in: 5 minutes – Come back in an hour 1 hour – Allow ½ a day at least 2 hours – Come back tomorrow 1 day – More like a week 1 week – At least a month 1 month – 3 to 6 months 1 year – The aircraft will never fly again.

The smallest, most critical, spare parts are always made of UNOBTANIUM.

PRE FLIGHT

When the weight of the paper exceeds the weight of the aircraft, it’s safe to go flying.

WEATHER

When the length of the fax weather briefing exceeds the wing span of the aeroplane, it’s not safe to fly.




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A Terminal Forecast is a horoscope with numbers. TAFs –

One Line – Group Captains weather. Two Lines – An okay day to fly. Three Lines – So, So. Four Lines – Be careful. Five Lines – Stay home. Six Lines – Hangar the aircraft.

Forecasts – Generally the weather is a little better than forecast – but if it’s worse than forecast, it’s a whole lot worse.

The aircraft we don’t crash today when the weather is bad are the aircraft we can fly tomorrow when the weather is good.

In bad weather it’s better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here.

The secret of visual flight is to only fly in the sunny bits.

Keep your options open. When confronted by adverse conditions, decide whether to continue, detour, hold, return, divert or land.

A VFR pilot confronted by cloud has the following options – Go under or over or around the cloud or go back, but not to go through it.

VFR pilots who inadvertently enter cloud should –

Concentrate on the flight instruments.

Climb if possible.

Communicate their predicament.

Conserve their fuel.

Whilst remaining Cool, Calm and Collected and in Command.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL Air Traffic Controllers are not mind-readers.

Air Traffic Controllers usually only have one head.

Air Traffic Controllers are public servants.

In controlled airspace, only two things are certain, holding and airways charges.

FUEL In flying only two things are certain – Gravity and Fuel exhaustion. Don’t trust fuel gauges –

If the gauges indicate that you have more fuel than you think you have, they’re wrong. If the gauges indicate that you have less fuel than you think you have, they’re right.

Fuel is life Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase headwinds.

A FINAL WORD

If God had meant people to fly, he would have given them a season’s ticket with Qantas.



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P FACTOR ACCIDENTS

John Douglas OAM

Chair of RFACA Technical Advisory & Safety Committee A pilot departs Bankstown Airport to fly to a strip up in the mountains around Cooma way.

He is flying a Mooney and approaches the strip and observes very little wind, joins the cir-

cuit and approaches to land. As he comes over the threshold he notices the aircraft does

not settle and experiences a long float. The strip actually had a slight downhill slope and a

gentle tailwind. The pilot elects to go round and with three on board the aircraft develops a

very high nose attitude, rolls and yaws to the left at which time the PIC runs out of think

time. He uses full opposite aileron which only makes matters worse. He can’t pull back, the

aircraft would stall. He can’t push forward as he is now off the side of the strip and the air-

craft would impact the ground. So the aircraft is now set up to take him to the scene of an

accident. The throttle is left wide open, the aircraft flies through a fence taking a metre of

left wing off on a post, continues on for several hundred metres, impacts a tree halfway out-

board on the right wing, spins around the tree and slides backwards across a road and hits

a barn with the tail and stops. Three very shaken occupants vacate the wreck luckily unhurt.

So what caused this accident? What caused the pilot to lose control of his aircraft?

The answer is P- FACTOR.

One of the main causes of P Factor is allowing the aircraft to become airborne before it is

ready to fly. A rough field take off or an unexpected go round where the nose attitude is too

high, airspeed too low resulting in very little control response. Two new factors come into

play. Firstly you get Asymmetric Blade affect where the down going prop blade produces

more thrust on the right hand side, yawing the aircraft to the left. Next you get Torque affect

which at low speed and high RPM tends to produce a roll to the left. The pilot usually cranks

on full aileron (not rudder) which produces aileron drag on the left wing further yawing the

aircraft to the left. The aircraft at this point leaves the intended flight path (the runway) at 45

degrees and finds something to hit. The pilot at this late stage has no options. If he raises

the nose the aircraft stalls, if he lowers the nose he sinks to the ground in rough terrain.

How can the P Factor accident be avoided?

1. Be prepared for a go round – don’t get caught unawares.

2. Don’t get airborne until you have min safe take off speed.

3. Trim carefully for take off.

4. Use only rudder for directional control close to the ground.

5. Be aware of the causes and effects of P Factor in propeller driven aircraft types

6. The bigger the aircraft (more power) the greater the effect.


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Proposed Airspace changes for Bankstown Training Area

Report by Charles Thompson CFI Basair/RFACA Technical Advisory & Safety Committee

On Tuesday 24th November Teraya Miller from CASA and Stephen Ross ATC Line Manager,

Air Traffic Control, Airservices visited flying schools at Bankstown Airport promulgating the

following proposed airspace changes to the Bankstown training area.

1. Bankstown training area to become Class E airspace out as far as Katoomba.

2. IFR traffic inbound to Bankstown from Richmond to no longer arrive via Prospect

Reservoir but come through the middle of the training area and intercept a track running

from the old WATLE waypoint to 2RN.

3. Extend the YSBK CTA out from 3 miles to approx. 4 miles.

4. Proposed a VFR outbound only route via Lucas Heights to the South Coast.

In short the proposal is Class E from YSBK CTA from 700' to 2,500' to a semicircle joining

Prospect and 2RN, the two inbound reporting points for Bankstown. Then from that semicircle

to 20DME SSY Class E from 1200' to 2,500'. From 20DME to 30DME SSY Class E from

2,500' to 4,500' and from 30DME to 45DME Class E from 4,500' to 7'500'.

What are the implications for Bankstown flying training operators?

1. The current training area is Class G where operations are permitted clear of cloud below

3,000'. Class E requires 1000' vertical clearance from cloud at all times. Given that the

Bankstown training area is in a saucer bounded by mountains to the west, Richmond military

airspace to the north, Sydney airport to the east and Holdsworthy military airspace to the

south the BK training area is extremely small in area and also often suffers the effects of a

low cloud base where operations could be carried out in Class G but not in Class E airspace.

There are numerous occasions where pilots have a need to both depart and arrive by

requesting Special VFR. This option will no longer be available from Class E and the tracks

from the inbound reporting points of Prospect and 2RN both go over densely populated areas

so making the airspace on those tracks Class G below 700' makes little sense.

Effectively the operations of flying training organisations are going to be severely restricted

with significant reductions of operations and the associated financial losses.

Might I also suggest that it would be unreasonable to expect an initial training area solo

student to accurately judge 1000' vertical cloud clearance.

There are many occasions where there is a cloud build up at Katoomba, the main inbound (Continued on page 11)


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tracking point from the west, and pilots will need to cross the ranges with less than 1000'

AGL cloud clearance. Katoomba is around 3,800' AMSL with the proposed Class E airspace

commencing at 4,500' which means that if you are crossing the ranges at 4,500' you must

have a cloud base of 5,500'. The weather in the Katoomba area can change very quickly

due to orographic uplift from the westerly airflow meeting the easterly sea breeze with a

resultant cloud build up in the area. This will make it virtually impossible for pilots, (especially

student pilots on initial navigation exercises), to get back to Bankstown without breaking the

cloud clearance requirements of Class E.

2. To re-route IFR traffic from Richmond, (effectively this will be all IFR traffic), through

arguably Australia's busiest civil training area just makes no sense whatsoever and one must

ask what is the safety case for this?

3. There will also be a significant cost to industry to equip all training aircraft with

transponders.

It would appear that this restricting of the Bankstown training area airspace might be the start

of making operations for flying schools so difficult that they will decide it is all too hard and

leave Bankstown, so that in a few years time when there is nobody left, Bankstown can be

sold for industrial or residential development and the airspace will be cleared for Sydney's

second airport at Badgerys Creek.

However it is at least 10 years at the earliest before that will be operational.

We know the end is coming and the largest city in Australia will be left without a secondary

aerodrome but I think they are starting a bit early and we could have a bit more time.

If the proposed Badgerys Creek runway is 05/23 then that will put the Rwy 23 ILS straight

over Camden.

That won't work!

Alternative training areas suggested at the presentation:

West out to Katoomba - over heavily timbered country in the Blue Mountains.

South between Wollongong and Appin - also over heavily timbered country.

North of Sydney in the busy traffic lane between Sydney and Newcastle.

Over the years there have been several forced landings in the Bankstown training area

which had they not been over open country would have almost certainly equated to deaths.

The obvious solution is to allow training in the Richmond military airspace to the north east of

Richmond aerodrome.

Charles Thompson

CFI Basair

Technical & Safety Advisory Committee RFACA.



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CLUB CORNER

Neil Cromarty Life Membership

At the Royal Newcastle Aero Club's Wings Presentation Night in November Neil was bestowed the honour of Life Membership of the Club. Neil has been a member of Club for over twenty years and became active in the Club right from the beginning. He has held the position of Club Captain, leading the Flying Sub-Committee team and organising all activities and events at the Club including Club Competitions, Working Bees, manning the RNAC promotional stands at various community events. He has also done all the preparation work for RNAC functions such as Dinners, Open Days, Charity Days and Airshows. Neil was elected President of RNAC at the AGM in October 2016. This is Neil's second term as President having served from 2010 to 2012. Neil is a most worthy recipient . His dedication to the Royal Newcastle Aero Club over the years has been a wonderful contribution. The RFACA congratulates Neil on receiving his well deserved Life Membership.

Paul Canavan Instructor Rating Paul is Regional Director for Victoria for the RFACA and Vice President of Royal Victorian Aero Club. Paul has recently completed his Instructor Rating at RVAC. Paul has been a member of the formidable formation team from RVAC called the Eagles. They have won at ALACs and Wings International events many times. Congratulations Paul.

We welcome any Club News that you wish to submit for Flightlog


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CANBERRA MEETINGS DECEMBER 2015

Report by Allan Bligh OAM Vice President RFACA

Three meetings were held in Canberra on successive days,

Wed 2nd: Airspace & Aerodrome Consultative Forum (Session 14)

Thurs. 3rd: Waypoint. An Air Services annual meeting.

Friday 4th: ASTRA

The first and third meetings were consultative in nature with views being exchanges between participants. The Waypoint is more a formal occasion where Air Services deliver their report on the past year(s) and their view of the future.

Waypoint received briefings from Sir Angus Houston at lunch preceded by the Acting CEO and Acting CFO in the morning sessions. It highlighted the need for Air Services to get their management selected and settled. As one wag put it, there were so many “acting” positions in Air Service, they should be renamed Hollywood!

Money was at the heart of the Air Services report. The core issue is, despite planning and consultation via the Pricing Consultative Committee (PCC) meeting, they cannot meet their profit objectives. The bottom line is; they aren’t putting enough on the bottom line. So stand by for price increases and dark looks from airlines.

Many costs are imposed on Air Services when automatic passenger trigger points are reached. However when conditions change such as a decline in mining, they are left with the infrastructure and personnel costs but a reduced ability to recoup those costs.

If meetings of ASTRA and Airspace & Aerodrome Consultative Forum, appear to contain similar if not identical content it is because similar if not identical people attend both groups. They are like Waypoint, Airline centric as the passenger numbers and financial power concentrated as they are, through a few airline operators are what impress government.

GA because of its fragmented and individual nature does not sit well with government and their desire for uniformity. We GA participants fill out the numbers and allow the government groups, to say they have consulted. They mean well but to them, GA is an irrelevant and an annoyance. It is why virtually all expenditure and development goes to support airlines with virtually nothing to GA, save heavy handed regulation. No one but GA sees the irony of Air Services, battling against one airline’s reluctance and local opposition, to supply and install an ILS at Coolangatta when GA is desperate for a Sydney training ILS facility. Air Services has not supplied one training ILS at a capital city GA airport in 60 years.

As to what meeting is the important one to attend, I am reminded of the comments from one of the Lever brothers about their soap advertising; “I know half of my advertising is wasted but I don’t know which half it is”. For GA the trick is to contain and reserve our fiscal resources and engage with government where it counts most. This may require a regular review of what meetings we attend, with ruthless culling where necessary plus sharing resources and representation with other bodies, such as AOPA and like, to stretch our dollar further.

To maintain consistent content, I kept to three agenda points;

Engage Dept. of Infrastructure on aerodrome and airspace access so as to facilitate long term investment in aviation.

Engage with Air Services on the timing and cost of ADS-B with a view to getting an offset credit against Air Navigation Charges for individual GA aircraft, ADS B installation.

Engage with CASA and ask that they bring value to GA via P61/P141 & 142 and not impose on us.

This I did at each meeting and with each and any representative of the respective departments.

Department of Infrastructure

The issues arising out of the Badgerys Creek briefing at ASTRA on June 4 th in Canberra and the subsequent Bankstown briefing for airport operators is most troubling. Specifically, Bankstown operators and operations may be severely constrained and it has wider implications for the entire General Aviation industry plus some for



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airlines.

The land, acquired some thirty years ago, is not suitable to accommodate a wide body suitable, twin runway system running in the optimal direction of 16/34, to parallel the Sydney runway direction. The land size and shape dictate a Badgerys Creek runway direction of 05/23 which, will of course, conflict with the extended centre line of Sydney. Now, all this can be handled by Air Services but the question is “why”? How could this airport project end up with less than optimum aviation results? But it get worse.

It is proposed to construct a single runway of 3700 metres to start operations on or about 2015. However, no airspace design has been done and none is proposed to be promulgated, until within two years of the start of RPT operations. It appears no consideration has been given to a revised Bankstown training area nor any redesign of underused military airspace which occupies about half of the sky above Sydney and surrounds.

The airspace required by RPT machines plus their preference priority (along with military) for clearances will force IFR and VFR general aviation operations inexorably out of Sydney airspace. Further, the Dept. of Infrastructure say that when the second runway starts operations in 2025, IFR operations into Bankstown will be markedly compromised. So much for thirty years of planning!!

To obtain a third airport for Sydney, the Department of Infrastructure will sacrifice its second airport, Bankstown.

What does this mean for owners and operators across Australia? Obviously, your access to Sydney via its previously dedicated GA airport will be severely curtailed. With the ability to operate from BK restricted, the number of operators and services will diminish thus raising the cost base for those left (sic Helicopters) and for those lucky enough to gain problematic, future access.

By taking away full and free aviation access to a capital city the Department of Infrastructure will diminish aircraft values across Australia, probably by a third. Plus they will cause significantly reduced investment in non-airline aviation.

It does beg the question, how could the Dept. of Infrastructure initiate a major airport development and not notice that the fourth busiest airport in Australia, was next door? Then make no airspace provisions for Bankstown’s continuing existence? One questions whether the entire Badgerys Creek development is to benefit aviation or create financial benefit for a group of Sydney developers? Even the “blue sky” promise of Western Sydney employment generation, comes with the downside that to get baggage handler and cab driver jobs at Badgerys, you sacrifice highly skilled jobs at Bankstown?

This is not a Sydney centric issue but one that will resonate through aviation and could be the primary instigator of the eradication of Australian GA, as we know it. Bankstown operators and all Australian GA are entitled to a fair distribution of capital city airspace.

Air Services

It has been put to Air Services that the savings to them arising from the introduction of ADS-B should be shared with those paying to fit the equipment rather than solely returning that dividend into government general revenue. The money saved by withdrawing the many ground navigation aids and radar is huge but it imposes on individual GA aircraft operators a significant charge for new equipment and installation.

We at RFACA and our associates at AOPA plus the Business Aircraft Association have put to Air Services that they should reward non airline owners by waiving all forms of Air Navigation Charges for a defined period, for each owner who installs ADS-B. We await the response of Air Services.

We must acknowledge the initiative by Air Services, appreciated by all sectors that they are looking at low cost, non-TSO’d ADS-B equipment for use in GA VFR-PVT & AWK aircraft. Such devices would normally be restricted to RA-Aus type machines but the strong safety dividend of having all GA aircraft equipped with ADS-B rather than just IFR is encouraging this lateral thinking.

CASA

Time and space does not allow more discussion here on P61 and the associated flying school matters arising from Parts 141 and 142. However, we did report to those in CASA, at the respective meetings that we felt the past year dealing with CASA on these matters had been “character building”.



15

RFACA FLYING TRAINING CONFERENCE & ALACs

IN TOOWOOMBA 2016

Host Club Darling Downs Aero Club

CONFERENCE

Tuesday 12 & Wednesday 13 April 2016 Flying Training Conference - Toowoomba City Golf Club Registration Form will be sent early January or you can access on our website: www.rfaca.com.au

ALACs

Thursday 14 ALAC Practice Day Friday 15 & Saturday 16 ALACs Entry Forms will be sent early January or you can access on our website: www.rfaca.com.au

ACCOMMODATION:

TO RECEIVE SPECIAL RATES YOU MUST QUOTE "AERO CLUB"

The following four motels are operated by the same group.

Contact Telephone No. for ALL bookings: 07 4638 4644

Double, Queen, room with three beds all $120 per room per night. For other variation of rooms please ask for prices at motel.

Leichhardt Motor Inn - 682 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba Website: www.leichhardtmotorinn.com.au/welcome/ - email: on website

James Street Motor Inn - Cnr James & Kitchener Streets, Toowoomba Website: www.jamestmotorinn.com.au/ - email on website

Country Gardens Motor Inn - 94 James Street, Toowoomba Website: www.countrygardensmotorinn.com.au/ - email on website

Cotswold Motor Inn - 389 Boundary Street, Cotswold Hills, Toowoomba Website: www.cotswoldmotorinn.com.au/welcome/ - email on website


16

A special taskforce is being set up within CASA to address outstanding issues with the new

licensing suite of regulations.

The 26-person taskforce will work full-time on finding solutions to issues identified with Civil

Aviation Safety Regulations Parts 61, 64, 141 and 142.

The taskforce will work closely with a new advisory panel made up of people representing a

wide range of sectors across the aviation community.

The first meeting was held on 16 December and addressed a myriad of issues re Parts 61, 64, 141, and 142. Membership of the Taskforce is very wide and varied with representatives from airlines, aerial mustering, firebombing, charter, training and academics both for fixed wing and helicopters. Needless to say the issues were wide and varied. At this point the issues which I believe will affect our membership most will be Part 61 licensing requirements such as the transition of Grade 3 instructors to Grade 2 and how we are going to enable these instructors to achieve the privileges that were previously enjoyed under CAR 5 without incurring the expense and trauma required under the current Part 61 legislation. Examples are: under part 61 Grade 3 instructors are unable to teach Basic Instrument Flight and the requirement to lift that restriction is a Night VFR Training Approval or Instrument Training Approval so we will be working to come up with a less onerous method of allowing them to exercise this privilege. Other examples are Design Feature Training Approvals and Instructor Rating Training Approvals. Part 141 will be receiving attention with templates and sample Ops Manual and Training Files to be developed.

The taskforce will be operating via an online forum with face to face meetings to be scheduled as issues are identified and solutions suggested, and is expected to be in operation for at least 6 months.

New taskforce to implement licensing suite solutions

Report by Charles Thompson CFI Basair and member of RFACA Technical Advisory & Safety Committee

WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

A N D A P R O S P E R O U S N E W Y E A R

‘SAFE FLYING’

FROM THE EXECUTIVE, TECHNICAL ADVISORY AND

SAFETY COMMITTEE AND STAFF

Documents

From the President’s Desk - Royal Aero Club · 2018. 10. 2. · CERTIFICATE $95.50 ALAC’S RULES & REGULATIONS ... to CASA and the OAR is now a distinct operational unit within