Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Regulations 1988
Exemption — maximum take-off weight requirements in flight manuals or other documents (agricultural or restricted category aircraft)
Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 empowers the Governor-General to make regulations.
Under subregulation 308 (1) of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 (CAR 1988), CASA may, among other things, exempt an aircraft or category of aircraft, or persons associated with the operation of those aircraft, from compliance with specified provisions of CAR 1988. Subregulation 308 (3) provides that such an exemption is subject to the aircraft complying with any conditions specified by CASA as being necessary in the interests of safety. Under subregulation 308 (4), such an exemption is a disallowable instrument for section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
Under subregulation 235 (11) of CAR 1988, operators and pilots in command of single engine aeroplanes engaged in private or aerial work operations, and having a certificate of airworthiness in the agricultural category or in the restricted category, and a permanently installed jettison system to allow the pilot in command to jettison in flight the contents of a hopper or vessel, have been granted an exemption from compliance with the requirements of subregulation 235 (4) of CAR 1988. Subregulation 235 (4) requires weight at take-off not to exceed the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) calculated under that regulation.
This instrument is a consequential instrument that prevents pilots in command of aircraft who have been exempted from compliance with subregulation 235 (4) from breaching the requirements of regulation 138 of CAR 1988 in respect of the MTOW specified in the aircraft’s flight manual.
Under this exemption, a pilot in command of a specified aeroplane is only exempted from complying with the MTOW contained in a flight manual for the aeroplane, i.e. he or she will have to continue to observe all other limitations, procedures and instructions in the flight manual.
Legislative Instruments Act
Subregulation 308 (4) of CAR 1988 declares an exemption to be a disallowable instrument. Under subparagraph 6 (d) (i) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (the LIA), an instrument is a legislative instrument for section 5 of the LIA if it is declared to be a disallowable instrument in legislation in force before the commencement of the LIA. The exemption is, therefore, a legislative instrument and is subject to tabling and disallowance in the Parliament under sections 38 and 42 of the LIA.
Consultation
Consultation under section 17 of the LIA has not been undertaken in this case. The instrument is the same as an expired exemption previously issued for the same categories of aircraft (CASA EX33/2004) and is intended to facilitate operations under the primary instrument of exemption issued under subregulation 235 (11) of CAR 1988. The take-off of the aircraft mentioned at a weight that exceeds the estimated MTOW is normal in the course of agricultural operations involving use of a hopper or vessel.
The instrument commences on the day after it is registered. It stops having effect at the end of March 2009.
The instrument has been made by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Operations, delegate of CASA, under subregulation 7 (1) of CAR 1988.
[Instrument number CASA EX09/07]