• Operators of recreational aircraft would come under the new Part 149 ASAO rules. (Australian Lightwing)
    Operators of recreational aircraft would come under the new Part 149 ASAO rules. (Australian Lightwing)
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The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is calling for submissions to NPRM 1502SS on proposed new Part 149 rules for Approved Self-administering Organisations (ASAO).

ASAOs are approved to administer certain aviation operations such as sport and recreational aircraft, model aircraft, parachuting and gliding.

In the preamble to the NPRM, CASA says that self-administering organisations have come a long way since the concept was first devised.

"Whilst the fundamental principles on which these self-administering arrangements were based may remain valid today, the scope and sophistication of the activities involved have grown enormously.

"The extent to which these once marginal activities now take place close to major population centres, and often in the same airspace used for conventional private and commercial aviation operations, has made the historically exceptional nature of these pursuits very much a thing of the past.

"The membership of many sport and recreational organisations has grown exponentially and, although some still operate on a relatively informal basis with staff made up of enthusiastic and committed volunteers, a number of these organisations conduct their affairs today as serious and successful profit-making or not-for-profit enterprises.

"Increasingly, the activities in which members of these organisations are involved take place near or in controlled airspace, to and from busy aerodromes, and in the vicinity of major airports."

The NPRM puts forward three options for Part 149:

  • Option 1: retaining existing exemption arrangements and extending these beyond sport and recreational aviation activities
  • Option 2: retaining principal aspects of existing arrangements but giving effect to a range of devolved and self-administration functions entirely by way of delegations
  • Option 3: approved self-administering aviation organisation model, supported by appropriate manuals of standards and individual organisational expositions.

CASA's prefered model is Option 3, which the regulator says "reflects the rational expectations of the members of the regulated community with whom CASA has been conferring for several years."

Under the proposal, CASA points out that although it wouldn't be mandatory for operators to join an ASAO, CASA has no obligation to supply a parallel path of regulation if the ASAO has put no barriers to membership in front of the operator.

It also notes that it would be possible for more than one ASAO to be approved for a specific aviation activity, but that CASA would need to be satisfied such an arrangement did not compromise safety.

Full details of the NPRM are available on the CASA website. Submissions need to be in by 21 October 2016.

 

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