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Every now and then I get a bee in my bonnet and decide that it's worth starting a "David versus Goliath" battle against the bureaucracy that we call government. These times normally occur on a Friday afternoon when I've just had enough of the stupidity of some aviation regulation that we all love to hate. So what issue got me motivated towards proper civil expression?
It all started when I received a notice in the mail from our friends at CASA letting me know that I needed to renew my ASIC. The covering letter included eleven different steps that needed to be completed followed by a payment of $186.
The website address asked me to dutifully fill out the form and pay the money and then at the end it asked me to print the whole lot off so that I could post it to them. In this day and age why would I want to print something out and put it in the mail when I've just filled the thing out online! Go figure?????
Let's explore for a minute the problem that an ASIC is trying to solve. There is a belief in some circles of government that a private/recreational pilot could very possibly be a lethal instrument of some terrorist organisation. This then suggest that what the government is trying to protect us all against is some bright spark flying a Piper Warrior into a building. I can guess the outcome of that conflict, building 1, warrior 0. This level of paranoia is what we have all given up a portion of a freedom for. It's simply ludicrous.
Is a little plastic card going to stop planes flying into buildings? Not a chance. The security around ninety percent of country airports in range of a capital city is almost non-existent. I say almost because there's quite often thirty metres or so of fence that can't even keep out a kangaroo let alone a terrorist. In fact, more often than not you can just walk around the fence! If there is a gate with a "security lock" just enter in the CTAF frequency or the number written on a plaque on the wall next to it to gain access.
If I was suicidally inclined and wanted to steal a plane for some "nasty work" then I'd hop down to my local country airport, walk around the fence and jump in a plane. Let's face it, the majority of aging aircraft in Australia don't have functioning locks or an ignition that couldn't be turned with your fingernail let alone a screw driver.
Better yet, why don't I just drive a semi-trailer full of fertiliser and a box of matches into the foyer of a building. I imagine that will do the job much better than a Cessna and I don't need any sort of special security clearance.
I think that the majority of pilots are absolutely fed up with imposts like the ASIC as they actually don't do anything to solve the perceived problem. Private and recreational pilots have a license with a photograph - let that be our security check and do away with the thing dangling around our necks. Organisations like CASA obviously believe that this sort of activity is important but how depressing would it be trying to enforce something that clearly doesn't make sense. It almost makes you feel sorry for them.....almost.
So why do I think we have ASICs? I'm from the old school which means following the money trail.
It was at this point that I began to do some calculations around this legislated monopoly. My guess (and it is a guess) there are roughly 30,000 ASICs issued each year to pilots, engineers, stewards, catering personnel and the guy who fixes the lights on the runways. This makes the ASIC a $5,580,000 (30,000 x $186) monopoly that pumps out little plastic cards!
Some may say that there are high costs associated with the security checks that need to be offset. Let me understand this for a moment. As part of my ASIC renewal I had to provide both a passport and a drivers license. Is CASA suggesting that the security check conducted on a pilot who flies a Cessna 152 is more thorough than for a passport? Maybe we are going to get into a turf war on who has the toughest security, the department of foreign affairs and trade (ie. the passport people) or CASA?
Like I said in the beginning, I got a bee in my bonnet and so I decided to take some action. Two weeks ago I contacted the Department of Infrastructure's media division to enquire about how the rules for ASICs could be changed. They suggested that I send a list of questions to them and an hour or so later my email sped off through the ether. Since I hadn't heard from anyone I contacted them again today to let them know that I was writing this article. I was promised a returned phone call and still nothing came.....our taxes at work. |