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For sure 2014 was a watershed year in aviation. We either leapt the fence for grassy pastures or let our final chance for revitalisation slip through our fingers. The year was dominated by the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (ASRR - or the Forsyth Report) whether it was the inqury, the report or the response. You could say everything went exactly as planned for aviation ... but did it go exactly as planned by the politicians? At this stage, we have to take the government response as being fair dinkum, and wait to see what actually gets implemented.

You can read my take on the government's response on the Australian Flying website.

Naturally, there was a flurry of comments coming from aviation peak bodies, which, although generally welcoming, tended to be tempered with concerns about what happens next. You get the feeling that there is a lot of gunpowder being kept dry.

Action continued in Canberra in the lee of the reponse to the Forsyth Report, with the ATSB announcing they were going to re-open the Pel-Air ditching investigation. That's ironic given that their lack-lustre investigation was probably the catalyst for the ASRR and the TSB of Canada review in the first place. You have to wonder if any of these reviews would have been done had the original report had some integrity to it.

Warren Truss kept himself in the news with the first meeting of the Aviation Industry Consultative Council (AICC). This is a group of aviation luminaries that will advise the government directly, bypassing the regulators. A great idea, but we still haven't seen the sharpness of its teeth. Our hope is that this group will be given the task of watching over the reforms heralded by the Forsyth Report. People such as Alan Joyce of Qantas and John Borghetti of Virgin Australia add a lot of weight to the AICC, which tends to make you think this is serious. Having said that, neither of those two men attended the first meeting, electing to send proxies instead.

Can you believe ADS-B has been in operation in Australia for 10 years? There's still another two-and-a-bit years to go before the final mandate kicks in, so by the time it does, Airservices will have been trailblazing for 12 years. The path so far has been one of the most contentious in Australia, largely because the cost of the upgrades is being born by aircraft owners that get no discernible benefit from it at all. AsA might be celebrating, but there are many aircraft owners out there that aren't popping champagne corks.

May the gauges on your sleigh always be in the green,

Hitch

 

 

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