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Trouble for Jabiru: Australian CASA restrictions proposed

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Vigilant1

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The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is proposing flight restrictions for aircraft with Jabiru engines (link to their page and more info).

Stated reason:
CASA is responding to a high, and increasing, rate of engine failures among aircraft that are powered by engines manufactured by, or under licence from, Jabiru Aircraft Pty Ltd (Jabiru). Such aircraft are referred to in this document as 'Jabiru powered aircraft'.

The issues appear to be the result of several failure modes, which require separate investigation.


CASA has formed the view that its functions under the Civil Aviation Act 1988 require it to mitigate certain risks to passengers, trainee pilots and persons on the ground.


Accordingly, while CASA works with Jabiru to identify the causes of these engine failures and to implement appropriate corrective actions, CASA proposes a set of operating limitations on Jabiru powered aircraft.

While they are working with Jabiru to find out causes and fixes, they are proposing the following use restrictions:
The proposed instrument will:
1. only permit operations by day under the visual flight rule, unless approved by CASA;
2. require that Jabiru powered aircraft are operated in a manner that minimises the risk of a forced landing into a populous areas;
3. define ‘populous area’ by reference to whether an area is populous at the time of the operation, meaning that (for example) a sports field would generally be a populous area at a time when that field is in use;
4. prohibit the carriage of passengers;
5. prohibit the use of Jabiru powered aircraft for solo operations by student pilots, who generally are less able to respond effectively to an engine failure event;
6. require that a notice be located in each Jabiru powered aircraft, conspicuous to each occupant of the aircraft, that states the limitations in paragraphs (4) and (5) above and notes that the occupants fly at their own risk.

I'm not sure if these proposed restrictions would have legal force outside Australia, but I can see how they might come into play for liability issues if an aircraft fitted with a Jab was operating outside these restrictions and had an engine failure in flight.

Anyway, I hope this is resolved effectively and rapidly.
 
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