CASA $1,000 Useless Compass Check
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CASA $1,000 Useless Compass Check
Readers of this site may remember years ago when I complained about AD Instrument 8 which was an Airworthiness Directive that required routine checks on things like the airspeed indicator, the compass and the fuel gauge.
I started a campaign to remove this AD and it was agreed by CASA that only items required in other leading aviation countries would be put over to a CAO.
CASA issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making and from what I can remember it had lots of submissions from the avionics industry that makes money from these ridiculous checks.
I understand we now have CAO 100.5 which results in some of the most onerous and expensive checks in the world, including every twenty-four months a compass check on privately-registered helicopters.
You can’t just tow a helicopter to do a compass check – you actually have to hover it. What if you had to pay a pilot to travel to the maintenance hangar to fly the helicopter to do the compass checks? The overall cost is about $1,000 and this has to be done every twenty-four months.
Of course, every time I taxi along the taxiway at Bankstown I know the exact compass heading and I can tell if the compass is faulty or not. So the $1,000 is a complete misallocation of money – other than for the maintenance industry who no doubt makes a fortune from it.
It also appears we have a forty-eighth month fuel gauge check.
Neither of these checks is required in the USA for privately registered aircraft.
I would like to hear other comments in relation to this.
Remember – if your aircraft happens to be in Birdsville and it is not concurrent with a one-yearly maintenance check, it could mean flying the aircraft to Adelaide or Longreach to have the check done. Imagine the cost!
I started a campaign to remove this AD and it was agreed by CASA that only items required in other leading aviation countries would be put over to a CAO.
CASA issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making and from what I can remember it had lots of submissions from the avionics industry that makes money from these ridiculous checks.
I understand we now have CAO 100.5 which results in some of the most onerous and expensive checks in the world, including every twenty-four months a compass check on privately-registered helicopters.
You can’t just tow a helicopter to do a compass check – you actually have to hover it. What if you had to pay a pilot to travel to the maintenance hangar to fly the helicopter to do the compass checks? The overall cost is about $1,000 and this has to be done every twenty-four months.
Of course, every time I taxi along the taxiway at Bankstown I know the exact compass heading and I can tell if the compass is faulty or not. So the $1,000 is a complete misallocation of money – other than for the maintenance industry who no doubt makes a fortune from it.
It also appears we have a forty-eighth month fuel gauge check.
Neither of these checks is required in the USA for privately registered aircraft.
I would like to hear other comments in relation to this.
Remember – if your aircraft happens to be in Birdsville and it is not concurrent with a one-yearly maintenance check, it could mean flying the aircraft to Adelaide or Longreach to have the check done. Imagine the cost!
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Dick,
Do a search on 100.5 and you will find much bleating. A year or so back
The intent is great….the implementation is a disaster. Like some of the rude letters they send out to owners telling them that their SIL=0 broadcasts by their transponders may be correct, but they need top get it fixed before further flight or possibly face further action.
What moron wrote that? in the first instance what they are reporting is correct, they then say that it may well be correct, then they say fix it or else.
The place is a disgrace. If this was an isolated case of poor written communication, I would let it slide, but seriously these guys have lost the plot on so many fronts I have lost all hope in ever seeing improvement.
So what hope have you of getting sense on 100.5, and what is worse some avionics shops have some very weir interpretations of many things of late. And they are not always correct.
Good luck.
Do a search on 100.5 and you will find much bleating. A year or so back
The intent is great….the implementation is a disaster. Like some of the rude letters they send out to owners telling them that their SIL=0 broadcasts by their transponders may be correct, but they need top get it fixed before further flight or possibly face further action.
What moron wrote that? in the first instance what they are reporting is correct, they then say that it may well be correct, then they say fix it or else.
The place is a disgrace. If this was an isolated case of poor written communication, I would let it slide, but seriously these guys have lost the plot on so many fronts I have lost all hope in ever seeing improvement.
So what hope have you of getting sense on 100.5, and what is worse some avionics shops have some very weir interpretations of many things of late. And they are not always correct.
Good luck.
Of course, every time I taxi along the taxiway at Bankstown I know the exact compass heading and I can tell if the compass is faulty or not
As I have said, I am no great lover of CASA, but I reckon this is one of the few things that they have done that is a good thing
Static leaks,,,,,,,,,dont get me started
Thread Starter
Different taxi ways at different times. Surely that is clear.
Arnold. How come other countries don't reqire these expensive rules?
Resultant safety levels in the USA show that we should not be mis allocating this money.
Arnold. How come other countries don't reqire these expensive rules?
Resultant safety levels in the USA show that we should not be mis allocating this money.
I can't even remember the last time I even looked at my compass.
A $1,000 check on a potentially $100 item is beyond ridiculous for the owner.
A $1,000 check on a potentially $100 item is beyond ridiculous for the owner.
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I'm with Arnold E. Static + Pitot leaks mostly in VFR registered ****boxes. God damn I have spent days under dashes chasing leaks Eventually I came to the realisation that it's easier and less time consuming to change the whole static system in something like a Cessna 172.
I've found the static system open to atmosphere , Bolts stuck in the end on pipes and silastic up . Pipes completely missing, mud wasp nests ,chaffs and sun affected pipes etc.
VFR LAMEs have just been ticking boxes for a long time. Probably back to the days of when CAO 108.56 went extinct.
As for compasses most seem to have more air than fluid.
All over I think 100.5 has brought up the standard of aircraft. I get paid a wage either way and don't profit any extra from the additional work. My chiropractor might profit more as I'm breaking my back under a dash.
I've found the static system open to atmosphere , Bolts stuck in the end on pipes and silastic up . Pipes completely missing, mud wasp nests ,chaffs and sun affected pipes etc.
VFR LAMEs have just been ticking boxes for a long time. Probably back to the days of when CAO 108.56 went extinct.
As for compasses most seem to have more air than fluid.
All over I think 100.5 has brought up the standard of aircraft. I get paid a wage either way and don't profit any extra from the additional work. My chiropractor might profit more as I'm breaking my back under a dash.
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Completely agree with you, Dick. Useless regulation for its own sake. Have you seen the justification for 100.5? Doesn't even talk about safety, just a nice to have arm waving statement.
More Eurocrap regulation for its own sake where VFR aircraft are treated like IFR, increasing costs for no safety benefit.
Let's go to the Canadian owner maintenance category for private aircraft owners who wish it. The resultant standard of the fleet is likely to rise, not because LAMEs do a bad job, because the owners themselves will fix problems when they become evident, not when maintenance is scheduled.
I've no objection to the old instrument 8/rad 47 as the altimeter, transponder and static system are where everyone interacts with the system.
If you LAMEs are finding static leaks now, why weren't you finding and fixing them under the old system?
More Eurocrap regulation for its own sake where VFR aircraft are treated like IFR, increasing costs for no safety benefit.
Let's go to the Canadian owner maintenance category for private aircraft owners who wish it. The resultant standard of the fleet is likely to rise, not because LAMEs do a bad job, because the owners themselves will fix problems when they become evident, not when maintenance is scheduled.
I've no objection to the old instrument 8/rad 47 as the altimeter, transponder and static system are where everyone interacts with the system.
If you LAMEs are finding static leaks now, why weren't you finding and fixing them under the old system?
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Eyrie you ever looked under the dash of the average cockys aircraft dash?. They want the cheapest price on a service and the LAME's in the past complied. Now the avionics side got involved we actually did the tests and they come up short.
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Yeah Arnold E , If homebuilders could not use nyloc nuts to put in aircraft instruments that would be great. We have these things called instruments nuts now days. Saves about half hour taking out instruments. Or even cherry rivets to hold in radio racks, even better a certain factory build Czech aircraft that silastics the entire transponder rack in (no hardware). Or a home builder that used household electrical joiners through out his audio panel install.
I will never be out of a job it seems
I will never be out of a job it seems
I watched a Sikorsky S76 doing a compass swing only a couple of weeks back. At $100 a minute it was not a cheap exercise.
, even better a certain factory build Czech aircraft that silastics the entire transponder rack in (no hardware).
I will bet that had an outstanding ROC on the radar screen