New maintenance regulations proposed in five CASA discussion papers may threaten the viability of general aviation, according to the Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Business Association (AMROBA)
AMROBA President Ken Cannane has been critical of the new Part 145 regulations since they were first proposed last year, and the discussion papers have not changed his opinion of that.
“This is worse than anyone ever expected,” he told Australian Flying. “Our members are starting to think maybe a petition is need to stop it.”
“It’s a crazy bureaucracy that has no safety outcome! It’s worse than the EASA [European Aviation Safety Authority] ever proposed and the Europeans are screaming about that!”
One of the major changes mooted that worries AMROBA is the removal of Schedule Five maintenance, replaced with the aircraft manufacturers’ schedules, which don’t include an annual inspection, but work on 100 hours regardless of the time taken to reach the limit.
With the average hours flown each year around the 25-30 mark, it means an aircraft may not see a LAME for four years.
At most risk, according to Cannane, are the independent LAMEs who won’t be able to take on the liability of charter work unless they can expand their operations to include the Part 145 charter requirements.
“Members [of AMROBA] who have been to workshops tell me that CASA is saying ‘grow or get out of the industry’. This is out of step with the way GA operates all over the world, and doesn’t take into account the years of experience we have with aircraft maintenance in this country.”
Regardless of reassurances issued by CASA Director of Aviation Safety John McCormick last year, AMROBA has not been placated and says the discussion papers again hint at a fait accompli.
“If you pull out of the papers CASA’s preferred direction,” Cannane explained, “then private GA and small charter won’t exist! Once they write down their preferred option you can’t stop them.”
AMROBA is yet to finalise their submission to CASA, but going by Cannane's comments, there is unlikely to be a lot of support for the proposed regulations.