Comment
With 2015 now all packaged up and put away on the shelf, it's time that the Australian aviation industry took stock of exactly what we made of it, and how it positions general aviation to take on the coming year.
The biggest changes were at CASA, where Director of Aviation Safety (DAS) Mark Skidmore began his program of reforms to align the regulator with the expectations of the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (ASRR). He started out on 20 January by issuing CASA staff with his five principles by which he expected them to operate, and finished on 26 November by announcing a corporate restructure.
Between those bookends, he outlined his plans for a "just culture" approach to regulatory oversight, dealt with a new statement of expectations from Minister Truss, called for more industry feedback, issued a directive demanding cost-effective regulation, launched his future forums, "celebrated" 20 years of CASA, made public his 10-point regulatory philosophy and announced the formation of a task force to sort out the Part 61 morass.
In the meantime, CASA gained a new chairman in Jeff Boyd and lost three senior managers. For better or for worse, we go into 2016 with a very different CASA than we started 2015 with. Is the new CASA a good CASA? We'll know only after the stories about interaction at the coalface start to become more positive.
There was much change afoot for the GA manufacturers during the year as well. Flight Design logged the first flight for their C4 prototype, as did Pilatus with the much-anticipated PC-24 twin jet. Cessna, however, was forced onto the back foot when the JT-A diesel program seized, forcing them to re-instate the C182T. There was some celebration for Wichita after the 2500th Caravan rolled out after 30 years in production.
Cirrus introduced the Australis in February and signed-off on their 6000th airframe in June, but certification for the SF50 Vision jet did not materialise before the end of the year as expected. Honda, however, did hit their mark with the HA420 HondaJet getting the FAA approval only two weeks before Christmas.
One of the big stories for Australia during 2015 was the success of Matt Hall Racing in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship Series. Going into the first race, Hall was yet to score his first win, although previous results had heralded the inevitability. The team battled British maestro Paul Bonhomme for line honours in the championship for most of the year, and although Hall stood on the top of the podium for the first time in Spielberg, and repeated the performance in the final race in Las Vegas, MHR fell just five points short of winning the series.
Sadly, the RBAR year finished with the death of pioneer Mike Mangold in an L-39 crash in California. Mangold won two world championships and was the mentor for pilots competing in the RBAR challenger class. The series will dearly miss Mike as a person and a great pilot.
And the ATSB got to go back to Norfolk Island six years after the Pel-Air ditching. This time, their task was to recover the flight data recorder that they initially thought not worth recovering. Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss strenuously asked the ATSB to re-open the case, which is what prompted them to go searching for the FDR. Should we expect a completely re-vamped conclusion to the crash investigation? Possibly not. The ATSB has always stated that there was nothing they expected to find on the FDR that would have an impact on their conclusions. Supposedly, the draft report is now complete, but we won't be seeing it in a hurry, I suspect.
On the local GA scene, Hawker Pacific bought out Aeromil Pacific, gaining themselves a Cessna agency in the deal. HP now has revenue streams from Cessna, Beechcraft, Diamond, Mahindra/GippsAero and Bell Helicopter as well as their management and maintenance businesses. We can probably officially label HP a "powerhouse" in Australian general aviation.
Some GA people were recognised throughout the year with the Wings Awards and the inductions to the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame (AAHOF). In the RAeS Wings Awards, Christine Davy became the first winner of the Col Pay Award, Peninsula Aero Club won Aero Club of the Year, Online Aviation Theory took out Flying Training Organisation of the Year and Steve Pearce anointed as Flying Instructor of the Year.
AAHOF inducted Sir Donald Anderson, Charles Ulm, PG Taylor, John Mackinght, Harry Schneider and Henry Millicer, giving the Southern Cross Award to the Temora Aviation Museum. This institution is still young, but it has a lot of energy behind it and every year moves closer to getting a building of its own. There will be more people honoured in 2016, and you can be sure every one of them will be worthy of induction.
One of the most remarkable journeys of the year was Michael Smith's circumnavigation in a Searey LSA amphibian. The Yarraville pilot did it in his own time, in his own way without corporate support or a lot of back-up. He also made no hoo-hah about the trip; he just got on with it. That's the spirit of aviation adventure in action.
In all, 2015 was a relatively turbulent year, with Part 61 and CASA reforms taking line honours for the most headlines. Some good, some bad ... some people say all bad. We're probably in for a similar 12 months in 2016, but hopefully general aviation will be in better shape next December.