Happy CASR 139 Transition Day!
After 17 or so years, with at least 11 years in a post-implementation review, the new Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 139 (CASR 139) is ready to accept your application!
While the commentary from CASA is that the new rules introduce a less complex regulatory regime, the devil is in the detail and the standards have introduced a few little quirks into our favourite safety processes. Look out for little tweaks to the following requirements depending on whether your airport has international flights or a certain level of passenger traffic or movements:
Aerodrome Technical Inspection - Look out for relaxed periods for pavement and electrical inspections for some aerodrome or even no technical inspection with a manual validation instead.
Airside Driving - Make sure you identify whether you can do this via inductions or training and whether you need to do verifications, issue permits, and do monitoring. There are even some concessions regarding vehicle lighting.
Aerodrome Works - Check out the dispensations regarding MOWPs.
Wildlife Hazard Management - Some new automatic triggers for management plans.
Emergency Response - New varied AEP requirements and also some emergency exercise changes.
Safety Management - For some aerodromes, they don’t need a “full” SMS and may only have to implement a Risk Management Plan.
The First Step
New Aerodrome Manuals!
Aerodrome regulation nerds love this stuff. With the new requirements (see above), most manuals will need some form of update.
The deadlines vary depending on your aerodrome's existing status. It could be:
For certified aerodromes - 13 May 2021
For registered aerodromes - 13 May 2022
And implementation of a compliant SMS must occur according to other deadlines.
Always Here to Help
Over then next few months, I’ll be posting some handy tips for writing good manuals and, more importantly, developing good systems.
I already have plenty of posts on the above topics, which you can search for, by the way. Some of my favourites are:
A really old template for supporting your technical inspection system - I will review this one against the new requirements but if you’re keen, you could also use it to review your process.
And probably the most relevant for now, my really, really old post on 5 ways to improve your Aerodrome Manual.
