It's clear that general aviation's future will not resemble what we have today very much at all. The industry looks set to benefit from developments that will be recorded in aviation history as a boundary between eras. Regulators are beginning to understand the need for less prescriptive legislation that will enable new technology to adopted far more easily, so GA can start to look more like an advanced industry rather than the throw-back to the 1950s that it does today. Currently, getting approvals for new avionics, safety systems, navigation systems, construction materials and even production methods is so costly that in many cases it is not economical to go ahead with the project. When the project is scrubbed, gone too are the cost savings and improved safety levels that it would have brought. Of course, there is still the natural resistance of bureaucracies to adopt concepts they didn't invent, which will have to be overcome in order for GA to go forward technologically, economically and safely.
GA's future in Australia came under scrutiny at Mildura this week in the first of CASA's Flightplan 2030 forums. Anyone who attended would have come away with a couple of strong impressions: the concerns of the future sound very similar to the concerns of today, and that CASA is beginning to convince some of aviation's most die-hard detractors that the opportunity exists for real change. Although Mark Skidmore did not answer every question, he certainly didn't baulk anything or bluster until people's eyes glazed over. There's one change right there! For me, the biggest indicator was the optimism expressed by an operator who had been subjected to Draconian, punitive enforcement from CASA that saw him shut down twice. If anyone has the right to remain angry and pessimistic, it was this man. If he can start to see a way forward, the rest of us have little excuse in not following.
Textron Aviation is back on the single-engine turbo-prop warpath, looking at a corporate or private speed machine to complement their very successful Caravan series. And with Pilatus invading the corporate jet market, why would they not strike back? No doubt, the end product will be something akin to a Piper Meridian, TBM 900 or PC-12. It is intriguing that the company is setting Oshkosh 2016 for some sort of airframe presentation. That gives them only one year to produce a shape they say will be clean-sheet. Well, perhaps not quite absolutely clean. Cessna admits they have had SETP thoughts in their heads for a few years, giving them a headstart on the design already.
Two years ago, CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation found no reason for a Certified Air/Ground Radio Service (CA/GRS) at Ballina. In fact, a report suggested that a CA/GRS would cause frequency congestion. Now they've backflipped and a new draft report says they have recommended the service go in, and that Evans Head be cut away from the CTAF to ease congestion. The stakeholders seemed split on whether or not heavy radio traffic was actually a problem, but it's hard to see how this balances out. Will the calls now made from the CA/GRS be more or less than those made at Evans Head? Probably more, which means the frequency congestion will remain an issue.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch