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Welcome to a special Thursday edition of The Last Minute Hitch. This is happening for reasons no more nefarious than I am traveling tomorrow and won't have time to get it out in its customary Friday slot. Sonya the Magnificent and I are off to Sydney to attend a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Royal Aeronautical Society. That's right ... they existed before powered flight did! With that in mind, it's probably hard to estimate how important the RAeS was in bringing about the dream of powered flight, and even harder to estimate their influence over the years since. Congratulations to the Australian Division for this achievement and all the work they do for aviation in Australia.

Is there more to be read into CASA's decision to delay implementing CASR Part 66 on small aircraft maintenance licensing? Ken Cannane and his team at AMROBA have been trying to get the regulator to understand how damaging this suite could be for years. Now CASA has acknowledged issues in the face of persistent evidence and is going back to look at it again. Contrast that with the implementation of Part 61, where CASA created unworkable regulation, delayed it whilst simultaneously blaming the aviation community, then signed it into legislation without any of the concerns being addressed. Part 61 is now nothing short of meaningless legislation, necessarily bolstered with a litany of exemptions just so the industry can continue to operate. It seems to me that CASA is determined not to repeat that with Part 66, which would mean that someone in Canberra is listening to the industry. We also need to throw bouquets in the direction of Ken Cannane and AMROBA for not giving up.

Neither major political party did aviation any favours in the lead-up to the federal election. The Coalition didn't release an aviation policy, and the Labor Party released their's only three days before the big vote. Does that put the ALP in the box seat for our affections? On face value, yes; surely some policy is better than no policy, so the white hat goes to the ALP. Not so fast, McFly! It takes but a quick scan of the ALP policy to see that they have simply micro-waved the hideous Aviation White Paper and served it up to us again. It tasted terrible the first time around! On the other hand, the Coalition was involved in the Tamworth rally and the TAAAF and Project Eureka meetings in Canberra, where both sides came away with some homework. According to my sources, responses had been formulated, but couldn't get to the status of approved policy in time, so were not sent out. We can but guess what the Coalition papers contain, but if it's anything above the level of the ALP document we can count ourselves on the plus side of the register.

Nominations for the 2016 Wings Awards close tomorrow! The deadline has already been extended by one week (which it seems we needed to do), but now it's time to tie up all the loose ends and get your submission in. Judging will start almost immediately.

Our survey on technology in the cockpit has been open for two weeks, and the results show we have adapted to new technology quite well, with most respondents saying they are using electronic flight books with paper back-ups rather than doing it the old way, and that mostly we allow the EFB to do the planning work as far as tracks, distances, headings and time go. Surprisingly, it seems that Active Noise Canceling headsets are now more popular in general aviation cockpits than the old passive type, regardless of the cost. Here are some other stats for you:

  • 42% said they were using OzRunways plus paper back-up compared with 19% using AvPlan with paper back-up
  • 76% are using noise-canceling headsets
  • 46% are using Bose headsets, with 20% using each of David Clark and Lightspeed
  • 50% are allowing their EFB to do all the flight planning, with only 26% still doing the initial plan with protractor and pencil
  • No-one admitted to just following the magenta line on their GPS.

If you've got a great idea for a survey, drop me a line at stevehitchen@yaffa.com.au and we'll see what we can do!

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

 

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