89 SA Flyer Magazineof that and abandoned the idea of trying to
impose additional constraints upon turbine
aircraft under 5,700 kg that are being used
for non-commercial purposes.
As discussed extensively last month,
CAA slipped Part 93 in front of the new
Minister of Transport for signature during
the 2016 festive season – despite vigorous
opposition from AOPA since 2015. CAA has
subsequently granted some limited blanket
exemptions from significant portions of Part
93, giving the lie to their contention that
there were good reasons to recommend the
regulation to the Minister in the first place.
This regulation thus becomes little
more than a cash-cow for the CAA and
consultants who will “help” desperate
corporate operators to obtain short-term
exemptions for a fee.
AIRFIELD CAPTURE
The saga of CAA’s attempts to force
licensing and registration of private airfields
has been going on for over ten years.
It now enters another round where
CAA has chopped up the original proposed
regulations like a salad and rearranged
them on the plate in an attempt to fool
everyone that it is something different
- despite thousands of objections and
comments lodged on the previous
proposals.
AOPA has been taking the point for
some time that the regulatory process
over this issue is seriously flawed and
that the procedures that are painstakingly
prescribed in the Civil Aviation Act and the
Regulations are simply being ignored.
A procedural aspect that has recently
taken a comical turn for the worse is
that Part 11 prescribes that proposed
regulations must be published in the
Gazette for not less than 30 days. In this
instance, and despite warnings from AOPA,
the proposed airfield regulations were not
published in the Gazette. Only a reference
to the CAA website was published – but
the proposed regs were not on the website
either.
A frantic scramble to get them on the
website was, however, too late. The date by
which public comments must be submitted
was now less than the mandatory 30 days.
CAA has asked CARCom members to
condone their failure to comply with the law.Obviously AOPA cannot give permission for
the law to be broken, and has refused.HOW TO KILL A ZOMBIE
These undead regulations continue
to lurch and stagger through the halls of
the CAA. As in the classic movie, Night of
the Living Dead, the zombie apocalypse
threatens to swamp civilised society,
leading to its panicked collapse where
only a few isolated pockets of survivors
remain, scavenging for fuel and airfields in
a world reduced to a pre-industrial hostile
wilderness.
Zombie experts all agree that the
only way to kill a zombie is the complete
destruction of the brain. Fortunately, the
brains appear to be faltering already.AOPA BRIEFING
CAA has granted some
limited blanket exemptions
from portions of Part 93.RIGHT - The saga of licensing and
registration of private airfields has been
going on for over ten years.
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