98 SA Flyer Magazine
98
SA Flyer
A
ll pilots have heard the
aphorisms about starting
ying with a bucket full of
luck and an empty bucket
of experience, and that you
cannot gain experience without making
mistakes, and so on.
Newcomers to aviation tend to
understand that the challenge is to learn as
much as possible by taking some risks, but
being able to discern that ne line between
acceptable risk and probable death is the
trick.
Once we have achieved prociency,
these considerations tend to occupy
our minds less and less, except when
unexpected circumstances arise. Only
the wise have already considered the
unexpected and planned for these
contingencies, while others merely hope
that bad things will never happen to them.
FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
Since there is currently a brief lull in
issues related to general aviation, it is a
good time to step back from the chaos
and confusion of contemporary politics,
economics and bureaucratic frustrations
and consider the bigger picture in order to
navigate our way forward.
Oscar Wilde’s statement, “Experience
is simply the name we give our mistakes,”
is similar to Nietzsche’s quote, but is widely
misunderstood to be passive and fatalistic.
Not so. Wilde, and probably Nietzsche,
had something much more inspirational in
mind: “A dreamer is one who can only nd
his way by moonlight, and his punishment
is that he sees the dawn before the rest of
the world.” Meaning those who make the
effort to try to look a little into the future are
often punished for their vision. But pilots are
different: they are taught to be ahead of the
aircraft – and this often comes from making
and learning from mistakes – having
experience.
Likewise, being ahead and informed of
possible new regulations and practices will
help SA’s aviation industry survive in the
future.
THE PRESENT
Our Civil Aviation Authority is very
preoccupied with the ICAO audit which
will be commencing as you read this.
The audit is to establish South Africa’s
levels of compliance with the Standards
and Recommended Practices (SARPs)
which bind states who contracted into the
Chicago Convention, which has since 1944
standardised international civil aviation.
The ICAO audit is a serious matter,
since audits are only performed when
there have been previous ndings by ICAO
which have not been remedied or when
other contracting states are concerned
about non-compliance. Adverse ndings
can result in blacklisting by major states’
authorities, most notably the USA’s FAA,
Europe’s EASA, China and other states
with signicant international air trafc to
South Africa.
Being the regulator, CAA has
responded by making more regulations.
Rafts of regulations have been pushed
into the consultation process over the
past several months. Most of them are
designed to pay lip service to the SARPs,
AOPA BRIEFING
Chris Martinus ‒ Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association – South Africa
That which does not KILL
us makes us STRONGER
This piece of wisdom
from philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche in
1888 is widely applicable
in aviation.
99 SA Flyer Magazine
without consideration of aviation safety or
other needs of the aviation industry. Some
regulations are indeed necessary, others
are either irrelevant or onerous and some
are downright nonsensical.
A matter of grave concern to AOPA
is that many of the regulations and
amendments to the Civil Aviation Act,
while proposed under the guise of ICAO
compliance, differ greatly from the SARPs.
These proposals seem to be motivated
by private and possibly corrupt special
interests, as well as being intended to
relieve CAA of many of its duties and
responsibilities, and to protect itself against
liability for its own negligence.
This is against the backdrop of CAA’s
failure to effectively implement its vaunted
new IT system, resulting in unacceptably
large delays and inaccuracies in normally
mundane tasks such as the issuing and
renewal of licences and other certicates.
Proper implementation of the rushed-
through regulations is also unlikely, given
the last-minute approach by CAA to matters
that should have been addressed years
ago.
CAA’s record-keeping has systemic
problems. This is what is behind the
requirements for applicants to supply
vast amounts of paperwork with every
Certicate of Airworthiness renewal
application and the need to prove ratings
on pilot licence renewals. It’s a clumsy
substitute for CAA’s duty to keep accessible
les on all aircraft and personnel – an
important item on ICAO’s audit list.
In effect, applicants are required to
furnish a fresh le to CAA annually, often at
great expense, delay and inconvenience.
This is also the motivation for private pilots
suddenly being required to do annual
licence renewals, rather than the usual
biennial renewals.
ATNS, ACSA and the SA Weather
Service will also be coming under close
scrutiny.
THE SHORT-TERM FUTURE
As an ICAO accredited organisation,
IAOPA/AOPA has insight into the objectives
of the audit. The predictions regarding the
possible outcomes of the ICAO audit vary,
however.
Some experts are of the view that
ICAO will overlook the shortcomings of
our infrastructure and accept the window-
dressing efforts and the lack of proper
implementation of new regulations. Others
point out that, since an ICAO audit is now
considered to be an extraordinary measure,
the ICAO team will be scratching far deeper
than the surface of supercial compliance
with the SARPs, and focusing more on the
empirical aspects of properly implementing
safety and security regulations, particularly
for international operations.
In view of worldwide and local political
instability and economic malaise, it would
seem likely that ICAO is under some
pressure from the major contracting states
to ensure that effect is given to the SARPs,
rather than giving much credence to a
few obscure standards which are not very
important.
What are the consequences of a
bad report card from the audit team?
Well, it does not necessarily mean that
international travel between South Africa
and the rest of the world will be relegated to
rowing-boats.
The Convention has alternative
provisions where ICAO “is of the opinion
that the airports or other air navigation
facilities, including radio and meteorological
services, of a contracting state are not
reasonably adequate for the safe, regular,
efcient, and economical operation of
international air services, present or
contemplated.”
In such a case, and at the request of
the state, ICAO may agree to provide, staff,
maintain and administer the state’s aviation
infrastructure. The state and the users will
have to bear the costs for ICAO to provide
an outside service.
Naturally, such an option will be very
unattractive to our authorities and state
service providers. Whether or not it would
AOPA BRIEFING
The proposed Part 93 regulations
could impose massive costs and
inconvenience upon businesses that
own and operate aircraft.
100 SA Flyer Magazine
SUPPLEMENT
be acceptable to our airlines and general
aviation is moot. It would undoubtedly be in
the interests of aviation safety and security,
but can we afford it?
THE LONGER TERM
What will kill general aviation in South
Africa is the implementation of regulations
that appear to be intended to give effect
to the SARPs, but are motivated by the
misdirected concerns of our securocrats
and which also seek to garner more fees
and charges from the already impoverished
private and corporate operators and pilots.
As has already been discussed here,
the mandatory licensing/registration of
currently unlicensed airelds is one threat
that is being dealt with by AOPA. The
other is the proposed Part 93 regulations
which will impose massive costs and
inconvenience relating to aircraft that are
owned and operated by businesses.
Should these regulations be forced
through the consultative processes and be
gazetted by our new Transport Minister, the
only option left will be to have the decisions
of CAA, CARCom and the Minister set
aside by the courts.
AOPA South Africa has set up
litigation trust funds in order to assist any
of its members who are victims of these
regulatory excesses and are unable to
afford adequate representation in court.
Businesses and individuals whose interests
may be adversely affected by regulations
and precedent-setting actions are already
generously contributing to these trust funds.
In a nutshell, that which threatens to
kill us makes us stronger. By standing
together and helping each other in the face
of adversity, we have the means to defend
ourselves and our freedom to y.
Nietzsche and Wilde would be proud of
us all.
AOPA BRIEFING
ABOVE - By making mistakes and
learning from them you learn to prepare
for the unexpected.
j
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