EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS 1988
CIVIL AVIATION ORDERS
APPROVAL UNDER SUBREGULATION 207(2)
Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 empowers the Governor-General to make regulations.
Subregulation 207(2) of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 (the Regulations) provides that an Australian aircraft shall not be used in any class of operations unless it is fitted with such instruments and is fitted with or carries such equipment as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approves or directs.
Section 20.18 of the Civil Aviation Orders (the Orders) sets out instruments and equipment required for Australian aircraft engaged in certain classes of operations. Paragraph 6.1 of section 20.18 sets out requirements relating to the carriage of radio survival beacons by aircraft on flights over water. One of the requirements is that the beacons meet the standards set out in section 103.40 of the Orders. One of those standards, set out in paragraph 2.4, is that the beacon is self-activating on immersion in water. This is a standard that radio survival beacons are not currently manufactured to meet. Most beacons have to be activated..
This approval under subregulation 207(2) permits aircraft VH-ESA, VH-ESB and VH-ESD to operate with radio survival beacons that are not self-activating on immersion but otherwise meet the requirements of paragraph 6.1 of section 20.11.
Under regulation 5A, a “prescribed direction or exemption” that affects the operation of anything in an Order is a disallowable instrument. This approval affects the operation of paragraph 6.1 of section 20.11 by modifying the application of the standards in section 103.40 to the specified aircraft. It is therefore a prescribed direction or exemption as defined in regulation 5A. It has been tabled as a disallowable instrument.
The approval came into operation on gazettal.
The approval has been issued by a delegate of CASA in accordance with regulation 7 of the Regulations.