Aviation change advocate Dick Smith has urged operators and pilots to leave general aviation before they lost large amounts of money trying to exist in a flagging industry.
Smith made his plea yesterday in an on-line forum and in a phone call to Australian Flying.
"There is no light on the horizon and many tens of millions of dollars more is going to be lost in general aviation in this county before anything is done about it," he said.
"I’ve just returned from a trip in the Caravan from Bankstown to Mornington Island and back. Basically every airport is dead, I see a totally dying GA industry.
"Take my advice now and get out before you lose even more."
Smith was twice appointed chair of the aviation safety regulator, first in 1990 and again in 1997. He has since advocated change in the general aviation industry, and most recently exchanged letters with CASA Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore and fronted a Senate inquiry into the performance of Airservices Australia.
Smith says that when Skidmore first became Director the two of them discussed 20 points that Smith thought could be done straight away to cut the cost of aviation in Australia.
"In the intervening year not one item has been addressed," Smith says. "I haven’t even received a phone call from anyone at CASA to ask about any of the ideas."
One of Smith's largest concerns is the mandate to implement ADS-B from February next year, which he says stands to cost general aviation a substantial amount of money for no discernible benefit, particularly for VFR aircraft.
Smith also maintains that people within CASA are attempting to wind-back the National Airspace System (NAS) that the regulator previously agreed to implement, which Smith says is reflected in the advice CASA gave to use the area frequency for broadcasts at ALAs without dedicated frequencies rather than the 126.7 multicom demanded under the NAS.