Bill Gunn, at TxDOT Aviation, spent ten days in March of this year assisting the Air Safety Foundation, Australia (ASFA) setting up trial safety seminars and flying instructor refresher clinics.
Sample clinics for flight instructors were conducted in Sydney, Bankstown and Melbourne as part of a comprehensive revision of the Australian Civil Aeronautical Regulations equivalent of our Federal Aviation Regulations.
During the two-day clinics, Bill and select Australian Instructors gave comprehensive presentations in all areas of flight training. It is estimated that Australia has a general aviation accident rate four times higher than the United States. The number of incidents and accidents in the United States is much higher due to the larger pilot and aircraft population, but the rate per 100,000 flight hours (an industry standard worldwide) is higher in Australia. Moreover, the Australian pilots and Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) are the first to admit to this dilemma. One area under examination by CASA, the equivalent of the FAA, is to require recurrency training for flight instructors.
According to Gunn, “I was concerned that Australian pilots and flight instructors might have very different expectations of refresher training. However, I was pleased to discover that the course was well received. The Australian instructor and pilot communities are just the same as in Texas. The group accepted the information and the concept of refresher training every two years, just as we do in the United States.”