Australian Flying — November-December 2017

Solutions
It would appear that one of the
main issues, inconsistency, may be
on the cusp of correction. Rumour
f litting around the air show
community is that all display
approvals will soon be handled
by CASA’s Sport Aviation office
rather than the local office. That’s
a move that will please Paul
Bennet no end.
“They [CASA] need a specific
group of people to look after air
shows,” he reckons. “I think that
would make a huge difference
because, even though they’ll still
want to know a lot of stuff, at least
it will still be consistent.
“We do the paperwork for a lot
of the air shows, and if it all goes
under one office then at least it
will always be the same. There
are some people in CASA that do
really get it, and genuinely care
about the future of air shows and
wanting more of them.
“All the guys in the Sport office
go out of their way to make sure

that it will work. But, they’re also

critical of new people that have

never done a display before, which

I totally agree with.”

But regulation is one thing,

not the only thing, that is

holding back air shows. General

aviation in Australia has always

looked with envy towards

Airventure at Oshkosh, wishing

something like that, where

anyone who can f ly in does f ly

in, would manifest itself in this

country. It’s a case of pilots and

enthusiasts feeling welcome; like

this is an event for them.

In Australia, pilots are

more wary of going to f ly-ins

because they fear the scrutiny

of overlords. There are many

examples of CASA officials

that got over-official with nit-

picking, completely ruining the

atmosphere of camaraderie and

further isolating CASA as a force

to be avoided.

“When we have an air show or

a f ly-in, we want to have as many

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aviators there as possible,” Bennet

says, “but at an air display there’s

a big group of CASA people going

there to try to bust everyone who

turned up; ramp-check them and

find everything that’s wrong.

“What that does is turn

everyone away. They don’t do

that at Oshkosh; they encourage

everyone who’s got an aeroplane to

come there, and they make it easy

for them.

“But what we do is make it hard,

then we police it, then we make

it harder again. CASA needs to

make it so they’re not the police

and they’re not the opposition.”

Bennet is right. Air shows

should be an opportunity for

CASA to show they are an

integral part of the general

aviation community, rather than

overseers and spoilers of great

fun. The current approach does

discourage people from f lying in,

and a lack of aeroplanes in the

parking area is not something any

air show organiser wants to see.

The final act

There are probably few airports

around Australia that haven’t at

some time considered holding

an air show. Most often they are

charity events run by volunteers

on the ground and in the air.

Those volunteers are there

because they know the value of an

air show as a marketing tool for

general aviation, and are prepared

to put in time and effort.

The number of air shows that

have never happened because the

effort of getting an approval is a

mountain too tall to climb can’t be

measured, but by anecdote alone,

for every show that happens there

is probably at least one that doesn’t.

With a smarter, more

efficient and accommodating

approach from CASA, that ratio

would probably improve, and

subsequently so would general

aviation’s profile and reputation

with the public.

And who doesn’t want that to

happen?

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