Hello All,
***Excessive Verbiage Alert***
(Before I begin, I have to warn you that, I will frequently write huge emails/postings. I am exquisitely skilled at writing in 10,000 words what could/should have been said in 3 or 4 . This is the complete opposite of how I am in person. I can only speculate that it is because I rarely get the chance to communicate with so many people that know so much more than I do about aviation. I have a gross of ignorance at my disposal and I would gladly trade it for any knowledge that you can see your way fit to spare me. Most of my learning comes from books, online data, limited experience and my occasional research success or blunder. This is truly a luxury for me.
Generally, nothing I have to ask or say is particularly earth-shaking. As such, there is no reason for wading through this {or pretty much any of my postings} if they inconvenience, annoy or burden you. Please don't read any further if my postings are not acceptable. I apologize to anyone who actually did, or does so, and finds it was a complete waste of time. If you all think I am in the wrong place, for politeness sake, please tell me and I will leave quietly, no hard feelings. Thank you!)
Thanks for the welcomes and the lexical guidance. Well, since I wrote yesterday, I was able to complete a reading of the full CASA site's relevant materials as well as the RAA-Aus's. On the question of licensing, I have concluded the following (I am drawing this conclusion from the items I have read over the last 24-36 hrs. Some of those items are quite old, promise updates or issue resolutions and then never publish a follow-thru. So, please feel free to tell me if I am wrong about something. As far as my future in Australia is concerned; it is very important for me to get the facts. Designing and building aeronautical things is all well and good, but I need to know if it will be a hobby here or a potential vocation--thanks).
Anyway, as far as I can tell, if it flies, and you are able to fly in, on or because of it as the PIC, or should have been the PIC to do it, one must have at least a recreational "Pilot's Certificate" issued by the appropriate agency. I did not find any sort of standard exemption though there were several means of requesting special consideration regarding most of the requirements. I think it would be very unlikely that, other than in the case of the military or other gov't. agency, they would ever waive the Pilot Certificate option.
As far as I am concerned, this does affect me both financially and temporally. As some of you may already know, the US does not require anything other than compliance with the published rules and regulations for Ultralight aircraft. In some ways, this has worked really well because most of the idiots have long since killed themselves off and their sacrifice for the sport has acted as an effective warning against flight without training. In fact (I have not verified this statistically yet) our ultralight category has been alleged to have less, per capita, aviation "incidents" and/or fatalities over the last few years than our GA category.
Actually, this possibly counter-intuitive statistic might make sense if one considers just a few of the factors likely responsible for it, to wit: The first is that when a UL pilot "lawn darts" his aircraft, he generally only kills or injures one person (himself). Secondly, the knowledge behind the materials and construction methods has advanced far enough that structural failures are all but non-existent now. Even a boneheaded individual has easy access to all sorts of build and fly data. Plus, ultralight dealers do a good job of self-policing and offering discounted/free training if you buy your machines from them. As a private seller, I won't sell anything to someone who has a target painted on their foreheads. I have refused to sell motorcycles and firearms for this same reason. It definitely makes them angry but I think I would much rather blow the sale. I find that way better than explaining to a spouse, close relative and/or their friends why I did sell a given machine to an obviously clueless and/or moronic, individual.
End Part 1