Random Paperwork Inspections

[Jabiru7252]

I don't put daily inspections in my maintenance log. I have a running sheet that states I have performed a daily inspection and deem the aircraft safe to fly for that day. All that's in my maintenance log are the 25, 50, 75, 100, yearly services and any service bulletins that come out from time to time. Like you, mine could be a little hard to read.

 

 

[DonRamsay]

So Don, you don't think that we'll go back to the performance of the old days..

That certainly is the corporate plan. If we did go back to the bad old ways then, under the proposed reforms, the directors responsible would want to be very sure that they have acted in good faith and done the best for all the members. Otherwise they just might get a tap on the shoulder from ASIC who carry a very big stick.

 

Re my registration renewal recently which I referred to in my previous post - RAA failed to notify me that it was due for renewal. If not for me following up with the Office I would have been unregistered and unable to partake in a fly away the next weekend. I am also due for a Biannual Review in a few days and have not been advised of this either- does any of this seem familiar to the performance of the old days?

You might be asking the wrong person here, Bill. If it were up to me, I wouldn't send out any reminder notices. Just a waste of money to my way of thinking. RAAus ove the years has spent tens of thousands of members dollars sending out reminder notices. Try 10,000 pilots memberships p.a., 5,000 pilot BFRs p.a. , 3,500 aircraft regos p.a., hundreds of ASIC card renewals. This function has been automated and emails sent to people with registered email addresses and a lot of this stuff is readily available from the Members Portal oh, and then there are those pesky plastic cards with renewal dates. How hard can it be?

Have you sorted this out with the Office yet Bill or are you going to have the same stuff-up again next year as well?

 

I was tied up in the backlog of registrations during the days of the the audits - unregistered for a time. All that nonsense about retrospectively putting extra placards on aircraft that were factory built to the standards required of the day.

You may not have noticed but RAAus does not write CAOs but it is obliged to ensure members are following the regs otherwise CASA jumps all over RAAus.

 

What about the aircraft that are in limbo over ongoing airworthiness/registration issues?.

RAAus does not write the regs. I can't comment on those issues for legal reasons.

 

How about the ongoing Jabiru fiasco and RAA's roll. Owners have been thrown under a bus. (Members Association my ****)

RAAus did all that was possible to make sure everyone at CASA from the CEO on down was very well aware that RAAus objected vehemently to the "Instrument" as having been issued without just cause. Jabiru now seem to prefer that it is a matter between them and CASA.

 

What about the accountability of the board when it was found we were running in the red.

When you go for years without quality governance and management why would you not run into deficits? And yes, the Board was held accountable. Have you forgotten about the extraordinary General Meeting at Queanbeyan where the Board were called before the members to give account for having overseen failures of 4 successive CASA Audits that resulted in hundreds of aircraft being grounded for lengthy periods? Poor record keeping and poor supervision of decision making contributed to the poor state of RAAus records.

 

What about the increase in fees for a Pilot Certificate and for registration - will it never end.

Do prices for anything ever stop increasing? A large component of your Pilot Certificate fees is to cover the Insurance. Have you noticed any insurance policy prices coming down in the last ten years or so? The current Board has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on modern information systems to improve productivity and member facility. We have fewer staff in the office now. Board and other costs are being trimmed. The reform agenda will see big savings that will be passed on to members.

 

Who's happy with the outcome of the magazine issue?

I'd say about 75% of the members who read it online for free. Thousands of non-members who can read it for free are probably pretty happy and may be encouraged them to take up our sport. The couple of thousand who pay for the printed version get value for money. Why should I pay higher fees so you can have an expensive magazine when I prefer the electronic version?

 

What about a CEO who keeps bleeting about how good things are going since he got the job when the rank and file like myself experience a different RAA.

That's your view and you are entitled to it. My experience is that the CEO is doing a great job cleaning up the mess left behind by earlier failed CEOs. He is handling a workload that is extraordinary. In my long experience, he is one of the most capable executives that I have ever worked with.

 

Changing the Constitution is purely cosmetic, the problems of the past should have been picked up by those in charge and rectified - that was their job!!

And I agree that "the problems of the past should have been picked up by those in charge and rectified" - but they didn't and the members with their apathy allowed them to get away with it until the Queanbeyan General Meeting made it very plain to the Board that they had to improve or be sacked by the members. Happily almost all of those Board Members are no longer on the Board.

 

And another thing - who said we need a weight increase, all I see is an organisation that wants to take over as many categories of aircraft it can while not catering for those already on the register.

CASA said when they introduced the RPL that the Recreational Pilot Cert was the equivalent of the RPL and set up a process for a minimal amount of formality to swap and RPC for an RPL. However, the RPL allowed recreational pilots to fly aircraft up to 1,500 kg MTOW and, with the appropriate endorsements and suitably equipped aircraft, access to CTA. RAAus is not seeking a "weight increase" we are requiring CASA to keep to its word and make the RPC and RPL truly equivalent. RAAus is requiring CASA to prove that any restriction that they have on our flying has a genuine safety case to support the restriction.

 

For all the good intentions of those in charge and those on the board, all we've ended up with has been a torrid few years of seemingly rudderless rule by an ever demanding master. And the worst problem of all is that it has forsaken it's existing and shrinking membership.

It is true that we are clawing our way out of the worst period in the history of RAAus . It may seem like it, but we didn't get into that deep mess overnight. It took a decade or more of bad decisions and poor supervision to get into that state. And the organisation was allowed to deteriorate because 80% to 90% of ordinary members took no interest in what was happening at Board level. They didn't want to know about the "politics" they just wanted to go flying.

 

 

[DonRamsay]

Don don't mandatory AD's only apply to GA aircraft. RAA aircraft are subject to Service Bulletens which are advisory only.

That's a question better directed to the Tech Manager. I fly a couple of aircraft type that operate in both RA and GA . If I get notified of an AD from Tecnam or The Airplane Factory I am certainly not going to treat it as advisory.

 

 

[DonRamsay]

Don, the reason I asked my question here and not to RAAus head office is that on this forum there has always been good and prompt answers.I have in recent times sent two things to RAAus head office, and in neither case was there any reply at all. And yes, they were polite things. One was an offer to help set up another maintenance weekend at my club ( I had done one with Steve Bell) and the other was a technical article about air-cooling of engines.

This is another reason why I really appreciate your input to this forum. I have got more answers from you here than the rest of RAAus put together.

Bruce, that is unfortunate to say the least. As a part of the modernisation of office systems we are looking at how we better manage correspondence from initial acknowledgement of receipt through to finalisation. Sounds like that needs a push along if you are not even getting an acknowledgement of receipt.

Don

 

 

[DonRamsay]

Well, I sent the copies of the last two pages of my maintenance log off today, as requested. I'll sit back and wait and see what happens. As far as I can tell I have been doing the right thing. If I get a beating, I shall wear the lace and they can wear the leather.

This is part of an initiative to get a handle on how well we keep our logs. From it will come options for training.

RAAus has adopted as a principle that if you are having a go but make an honest mistake, you won't get into serious trouble. If you want to get into proper strife you have to be clearly doing the wrong thing knowing it is wrong.

 

 

[Keith Page]

I don't put daily inspections in my maintenance log. I have a running sheet that states I have performed a daily inspection and deem the aircraft safe to fly for that day. All that's in my maintenance log are the 25, 50, 75, 100, yearly services and any service bulletins that come out from time to time. Like you, mine could be a little hard to read.

Yes those preflight inspections go on my flight log along with the fuel measures, times and landings.(Fuel management needs a safety net as it is done in flight planning procedure as well hence fuel required is calculated twice.) Better to be sure.

Only the services and maintenance/repairs get on the log book.

 

Regards,

 

KP

 

 

[frank marriott]

Daily inspection is recorded on a MR, with no MR requirement there is no requirement to record a daily/ or preflight inspection.

 

Other then for multiple pilot useage/training, I don't see any point in recording useless information.

 

 

[dsam]

Daily inspection is recorded on a MR, with no MR requirement there is no requirement to record a daily/ or preflight inspection.Other then for multiple pilot useage/training, I don't see any point in recording useless information.

Regardless, I still opt to maintain a MR. On remote flyaways, I often opt to use Avgas for convenience (rather than PULP). Looking back over my MR, if I've used > 30% Avgas, I change oil earlier (at 50) hours in my Rotax 912 ULS. Keeping an up to date MR helps

 

me

 

keep track of this over time.

 

Dave

 

 

[frank marriott]

You can record whatever you want to (including what you had for breakfeast if you like) my point was it is not "required" anything else is a personal choise - at least so far!!!

 

 

[Keith Page]

Operations Manual 2.03Pilots of recreational aircraft are required to participate with compliance

 

checks conducted by the Operations Manager, Technical Manager or

 

approved delegates.

 

Cheers

 

John

Did you read the rest of it?

How is it to be executed?

 

Regards,

 

KP.

 

 

[bushcaddy105]

I also was asked to send copies of my maintenance logbook (19 rego aircraft) with my last renewal and I happily complied. As I am the only person to have ever worked on this aircraft in its 10 years of flying, I requested feedback as to whether my record keeping was adequate or otherwise. To date I haven't had a reply.

 

 

[piecrust]

It has happened to me on two occasions. Frustrating I understand, someone has to maintain our safety.

 

 

[Spriteah]

Daily inspection is recorded on a MR, with no MR requirement there is no requirement to record a daily/ or preflight inspection.Other then for multiple pilot useage/training, I don't see any point in recording useless information.

Oil burn is useless information?

 

 

[Spriteah]

So Don, you don't think that we'll go back to the performance of the old days..Re my registration renewal recently which I referred to in my previous post - RAA failed to notify me that it was due for renewal. If not for me following up with the Office I would have been unregistered and unable to partake in a fly away the next weekend.

I am also due for a Biannual Review in a few days and have not been advised of this either- does any of this seem familiar to the performance of the old days?.

 

I was tied up in the backlog of registrations during the days of the the audits - unregistered for a time.

 

All that nonsense about retrospectively putting extra placards on aircraft that were factory built to the standards required of the day.

 

What about the aircraft that are in limbo over ongoing airworthiness/registration issues?.

 

How about the ongoing Jabiru fiasco and RAA's roll. Owners have been thrown under a bus. (Members Association my ****)

 

What about the accountability of the board when it was found we were running in the red.

 

What about the increase in fees for a Pilot Certificate and for registration - will it never end.

 

Who's happy with the outcome of the magazine issue?

 

What about a CEO who keeps bleeting about how good things are going since he got the job when the rank and file like myself experience a different RAA.

 

Changing the Constitution is purely cosmetic, the problems of the past should have been picked up by those in charge and rectified - that was their job!!

 

And another thing - who said we need a weight increase, all I see is an organisation that wants to take over as many categories of aircraft it can while not catering for those already on the register.

 

For all the good intentions of those in charge and those on the board, all we've ended up with has been a torrid few years of seemingly rudderless rule by an ever demanding master.

 

And the worst problem of all is that it has forsaken it's existing and shrinking membership.

 

Cheers,

 

Have a nice day.

Bill,

 

You bitch and sook about what you don't get. Then you bitch and sook when RAAUS tries to give you more!!!!! You are high maintenance.

 

 

[piecrust]

Oil burn is useless information?

Dents, scratches, hangar rash, dripping oil, moisture build up. All valuable information that piece together an incident/occurrence. I use it with notes in amalgamation with my maintanence record.

 

 

[facthunter]

Fuel use/Hr and oil consumption are very important. You use it for planning and noting any change in pattern, can herald some failure. Your actual established fuel consumption has legal standing for flight planning purposes. Nev

 

 

[Ron5335]

I too was a subject of this "Random Selection Process"

 

Any for of credibility for this process was quickly diminished when I was given a pro forma document that requested information that was not even relevant to my class of registration.

 

I quickly determined that it was a "Tick box exercise" designed to fill a few extra filing cabinets and justify their jobs.

 

I have seen better organisation and thought process put in by people at the local pub when they run chook raffles.

 

 

[M61A1]

Oil burn is useless information?

I didn't see the words "oil burn" in the post. What was said, was, "no point in recording useless information". You have a choice because it's not mandatory, to record information or not, wisdom might suggest that you record what is relevant to your aircraft and operations.

We are recreational pilots not Military or RPT, and this drive toward similar regs to those categories is completely unnecessary. The whole idea is to reduce to amount of crap required to aviate, to the bare minimum required for safe operation.

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I think you are being a bit hard Ron. The GFA require every glider to hand in a yearly " form 2" and it is a one size fits all thing. It must make for a hell of a lot of file work at GFA head office. This RAAus random thing at least reduces that.

 

I sure don't like how we are ordered around . " Live free or die" is a better way to live I reckon. I'll be in any class action against CASA like a shot. But we would probably come up against a judge who had a secret fear of flying and lose before we began.

 

But in the world we live in, our fellow citizens have traded freedom for "safety" so much that we have very few freedoms left, and so Oscar is right and so is Don. I'm satisfied that RAAus is doing a reasonable thing, but I would have liked to hear of the paperwork inspection business beforehand.

 

 

[dutchroll]

Auditing to ensure compliance or that standards are being met is a fact of life in most occupations around the world. I'm mystified as to why anyone would have any issue with it on principle.

 

As has been pointed out, if you can't prove from your paperwork that the correct standards were met, expect your insurance company to drop you like a hot potato. If you end up in court, you may end up losing much more than you think (like your house, etc). Never mind what the Government says, it's what the private organisations like insurance companies and law firms will do which is going to screw you over when you don't have the proper compliance documentation.

 

 

[M61A1]

I've never had a transport person ask for my maintenance records for my car, or a recreation motorcycling body ask for maintenance records on any motorcycle, anyone had requests for maintenance documentation on their jet ski or ski boat? No? Apparently having current rego and a licence is adequate. Maybe our hobby needs to review what compliance is required to bring it into line with recreation rather than RPT.

 

I have an issue because it's a hobby, not my occupation, although my occupation is similar. Perhaps that's why it annoys me so much, I can see rot that military aviation has to deal with, creeping into recreational aviation.

 

 

[dutchroll]

Flying a Cessna 172 with your family on the weekend is a hobby/recreational. Is it your contention that Cessna 172 maintenance records are an unnecessary burden?

 

 

[M61A1]

Flying a Cessna 172 with your family on the weekend is a hobby/recreational. Is it your contention that Cessna 172 maintenance records are an unnecessary burden?

That depends on whether or not you own it, and whether or not it gets used for hire or reward.

No different to the family Commodore if you own it and use it solely for private use.

 

 

[Keith Page]

I think you are being a bit hard Ron. The GFA require every glider to hand in a yearly " form 2" and it is a one size fits all thing. It must make for a hell of a lot of file work at GFA head office. This RAAus random thing at least reduces that.I sure don't like how we are ordered around . " Live free or die" is a better way to live I reckon. I'll be in any class action against CASA like a shot. But we would probably come up against a judge who had a secret fear of flying and lose before we began.

But in the world we live in, our fellow citizens have traded freedom for "safety" so much that we have very few freedoms left, and so Oscar is right and so is Don. I'm satisfied that RAAus is doing a reasonable thing, but I would have liked to hear of the paperwork inspection business beforehand.

Yes there is to be something to be done.. But not an eeny meeny miney mo process.

A nominated designated system and process not something just thought about and cobbled together.

 

There needs to be a clear nominated process not this pulled out of the blue where no one has heard about.

 

It is one of those basket of surprises which was not communicated.

 

The process needs to be registered with in the SMS.

 

Regards,

 

KP.

 

 

[facthunter]

You are carrying more people and have more "privileges" in GA. Not many here (I Hope) want to be another GA. The comparison has limited validity. (At the present time). Nev