Voluntary Membership or Dictatorship???.

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Surely the main consideration is that if a person may be demonstrated to be operating illegally beyond any reasonable doubt then they could be in the gun on any liability litigation from a bingle that involved a third party. That could take all they own!

 

 

[Guest airsick]

Surely the main consideration is that if a person may be demonstrated to be operating illegally beyond any reasonable doubt then they could be in the gun on any liability litigation from a bingle that involved a third party. That could take all they own!

I think the tough question is - who does the chasing? If you fly an RAA registered aircraft with only a PPL does it fall under the jurisdiction of RAA because it is RAA registered or CASA because you are a PPL holder?

 

Ultimately it all comes back to CASA in the end (RAA is granted rights by CASA) but could they be bothered? As much as every one bags them (myself included) they have a lot on their plate and I wouldn't be surprised if they turned a blind eye.

 

If you crashed though that might be a different story. And I am sure your insurance company would figure it out too. Furthermore, I am sure they would use the arguments presented above to show that you were flying illegally and thus not pay up leaving you with a huge hole in your hip pocket.

 

In reality this seems pretty academic anyway. The only people that would question this are PPL holders. My conversion wasn't very expensive at all and I consider it a small, even tiny, cost to ensure I am safe and legal.

 

Think about it - a 10 hour (or so) conversion at say $150/hr is $1500. Membership of the RAA each year and so on. You could be converted and get change from $2000. In anyones books this is cheap for flying, why risk it?