Overview

img_7436

For the purposes of your Pre Solo Exam you need to know the rules to fly safely within your local area.

This section contains details on the relevant documents you must know exist. At this stage you are not required to know each of them in detail.

These document are undergoing a rapid change as CASA tries to modernise. We are in a transition period where we are moving from laws enacted in 1988 to laws still under development.

You need to know each of these exists and what it roughly does. You are unlikely to get questions on these at all, but it is an important part of your piloting to know what rules we operate under.

In short the old version had 3 main sets of rules. The Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR) which then had more detailed Civil Aviation Orders (CAO) that focused on sub parts of the CAR. We then had a list of exemptions that allowed RA-Aus to fly aircraft that did not comply with all the rules. These will be referred to as 95.10  95.32   or 95.55

Under the new system the CAR and CAO will be replaced by Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR) and Civil Aviation Advisory Publications (CAAP).

We then have RA-Aus with its own set of rules. The two main documents are the Technical Manual and the Operations Manual which have both just been completely re-written in and are being phased in during 2016.

CASA has enacted Part 103 CASR and the upcoming Manual Of Standards (MOS) and will consolidate the CAO 95-series of exemptions for recreational private flight operations, maintenance, and training. Part 103 CASR is out and in force as of Dec 2 2021, however the 103 MOS is still being developed.

The CASA website is the best source to keep abreast of new rules and changes. Other great sources are the online VFRG and the RA-Aus website. Searching the CASA site is difficult as their search function is often poor. but searching google for e.g. CASA Part 91 MOS or CASA CASR Part 61 generally yields good results.

Often the CASA site will redirect you to the www.legislation.gov.au website. If it does and you are looking at legislation ALWAYS ensure it has the green in force version shown below. If it does not and has red writing saying “In force – Superseded Version”, click on “view series” and look for the latest version at the top of the series. The latest version will generally have no end date.