Most of the buzz around the industry this week is about Warren Truss' statement of expectations to the CASA board. The thing about this statement is that there is nothing really unexpected in it, thankfully. It demands CASA put safety above all else (was anything else ever going to happen) and requires the regulator to implement the agreed-with Forsyth recommendations. That at least shows that Truss has not simply paid the industry lip service, but has made it clear he wants reforms and improvements. We can realistically ask for nothing more. However, CASA now has to ask something from us: co-operation. We were the ones who decried the relationship and demanded reforms. We can't now run for safety in a cloud of acrid mistrust; we have to start working with CASA to make things happen, and that may mean exposing ourselves to things that have hurt us in the past. I wonder if it's worth Warren Truss issuing the aviation industry with a statement of expectations as well.
Thirty years ago the very first Cessna Caravan entered service. Decades later, it is still the leader in the market that it pioneered: the single-engined turbo-prop (SETP). The reason for that is simple: it's a great aeroplane that showed the world a better way of doing things. So far, no-one has been able to best the Caravan. Only recently has the Quest Kodiak tried to overthrow the Caravan's reign as the premier SETP utility, and our own Airvan 10 is on the cusp of certification. Both these aeroplanes are are designed to woo customers away from the big Cessna, but it will take quite some doing. For me there is a melancholy sidebar to the Caravan story. More than 10 years before the Caravan project was announced, Australia's Government Aircraft Factory drew up plans for a single-engine, fixed gear, turbo-prop utility to keep the production lines going. It would have been a commercial pioneer SETP. However, to entice military users they morphed it into a twin-engine retractable. Only 170 Nomads were built; Cessna is about to deliver Caravan airframe number 2500!
Piper now has FAA approval for the Archer DX. It's been around in Europe for about a year, but this approval means it can start delivering customers into its prime market: the USA. How long before we see the first diesel Archer in Australia? The DX is down on power over its avgas-burning brothers, and is not the quickest of the four-seaters around, but the operating costs are significantly lower, which may endear it to flying schools looking to offer cheaper hourly rates to customers. With jet fuel available at most larger airports around the country, the DX has to be an attractive proposition.
I was in Perth last week doing research and was granted entry to RAAF Pearce, with interview access to No.2 Flight Training School, its Commanding Officer and two students. Having spent time with these people and listening to the way they work, it occurred to me that civil flying has a heck of a lot to learn from the RAAF way of doing things. OK, let's not start saluting the CFI, but we could do well to adopt the encouraging and enabling culture that exists over there. As was said to me: flight training is not about instructors, and if an instructor has to open their mouth to give a student direction then the student is deprived of the valuable experience of making a mistake. And these are the people who are training students to go on to fly F/A-18s in combat. Surely such a culture applied to teaching someone to fly a C172 would produce even better pilots. It's a pity that the idea of a national flying instructors' school fell under the mat.
Thanks to all those at 2FTS who were just the greatest bunch to work with.
CASA is asking us for our ideas on cutting the cost of regulation. No-one knows better than us where regulations are having no effect and costs are simply a burden that produces no safety outcome. Industry feedback to this is crucial. However, we need to resist the temptation to make broad, somewhat ridiculous comments such as "disband CASA" or "stop charging us for services". Let's keep it real and we have half a chance of doing something about the cost of regulation. Ideas can be submitted to CASA on deregulation@casa.gov.au.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch