What a lot has happened over the newsletter break! China has bought Austria's Diamond Aircraft, in Canberra Darren Chester lost his job as minister and Barnaby Joyce took over, CASA claimed to have taken action on all the ASRR recommendations agreed to, astronaut John Young died and BITRE released the GA study report without a bang. We've a lot to get through, so let's go.
It was probably inevitable that Christian Dries would sell Diamond to Wanfeng, considering the Chinese company bought controlling interest in Diamond Canada last year. Dries had ambitions for an expanded range of single-engine aircraft including a single-engine turbo-prop, and that sort developmental effort requires a lot of available cash. After iconic US companies have been falling to the Chinese purse like skittles (Cirrus, Mooney, Glasair, Enstrom, Teledyne), it would appear only the Chinese have money to throw at general aviation. Cessna and General Electric have joint ventures in China as do Pipistrel and Australia's Brumby and Epic, Icon and Sikorsky all have forms of agreement in place. China is emerging as the great world power in GA as the industry seeks to reinvent itself with new materials and technology, so I will be very surprised if there aren't more announcements similar to the Diamond one coming in the next couple of years.
Darren or Barnaby? In a surprise move, Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce took the role of Minister for Infrastructure and Transport himself, leaving Darren Chester with not even so much as a junior ministry. In Canberra terms, Chester wasn't making a complete dog's breakfast of the portfolio, so it seems the move was driven by political chicanery (officially denied, of course). So where does this leave general aviation? Technically, it means not much change; afterall, at the Tamworth meeting in May 2016, Barnaby Joyce was just as supportive of moves to reform GA as Chester was. But, the encouragement he distributed at Tamworth is coloured by the fact that an election had just been announced and Tamworth was Joyce's electorate. Since being elected (illegally as it turned out!) we've not heard a word on general aviation from him. Now that he clearly believes he's a better person for the job than Chester, it's probably time we knew what he's thinking.
The much-awaited and Canberra-lauded Bureau of Infrastructure Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) GA study report had been published for about a week before I knew about it. Rather than being released, it was almost like it meekly slipped out the window. And so far, the report has been greeted with a mix of amusement and disdain. Some have been as harsh as to equate it with the 2009 Aviation White Paper, which proved to be about as valuable as a gall stone. The difference here is that the BITRE study report, although it contains conclusions, was never meant to be a list of recommendations. It mentions opportunities, but the job of reacting to those opportunities lies with the department. So, once again, we are back in the hands of the politicians. I have been told that the department will look at it in conjunction with the General Aviation Action Group (GAAG) early this year. But, as AMROBA's Ken Cannane stated in 2016, the study itself is not as important as what the government decides to do next. My concern is that the report contains some statements that seem to be shepherding the department towards concluding that the industry has the capacity to fix itself.
It looks like war in Wagga Wagga. The council there has established a regime of usage charges for the airport that it seems users just aren't going to put up with. Leading the charge is the local aero club, which naturally stands to be disadvantaged the most by the fees. Their argument is strong: the council doesn't charge the boat ramp users to use the boat ramp, and there are free campsites around the town, so why do aviators get charged just because they arrived at the town by air. This is a discrimination argument, and one that could use a lot more exploring. AOPA Australia is getting involved and is watching the Wagga battle with great interest. The result, if successful, could form a tactic template to be used at other airports around the country facing similar problems.
Heroes are not immortal, sadly, and over the Christmas break the time came for John Young. Young was not the most famous of the NASA astronauts, but he was their most experienced and perhaps most dedicated. Long before all his contemporaries hung up their space suits, Young was still on flight status. He was the first of the New Nine astronauts recruited for Project Gemini to go into space, and also the last. His second and final space shuttle launch was his sixth mission, and a seventh was on the slate, only to be canceled when Challenger was destroyed in 1986. Still, many people around the world didn't know his name. That was just the way John Young worked. If you read his list of achievements, you will realise he was probably the greatest space traveler that ever lived.
It seems the issue of 457 visas for pilots is causing a rift in the general aviation industry. The regional airlines are apparently all for it, and the PM himself is behind the need to address the "pilot shortage." It's a bit embarrassing then that the BITRE GA study has come out and stated that there is no pilot shortage (p41). Flying schools and academies are not impressed because bringing pilots in from overseas reduces the opportunities for the candidates they're training. Associations that once worked in harmony are now starting to eye each other with suspicion. That can't be good for general aviation.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch