SAFA Skysailor Magazine

43 SUMMER 2025/2026 | December-January-February SKY SAILOR more to do with setting up the landscape to enable drone delivery operations, and the appearance of Advanced Air Mobility vehicles (e.g., air-taxis). The rebate was to help finance the purchase and fitment of ADS-B equipment and display units, as well as electronic con- spicuity (EC) devices, into cockpits of VH registered aircraft and onto aircraft listed in a registry with RAAus and SAFA (i.e., WM, PPC and PPG >70kg). This struck us, and possibly some of you, as short-sighted, if not discriminatory. I purchased a SkyEcho2 EC device back in 2021 and there was no problem at all in registering it with CASA and obtaining the Mode-S hex code that would be transmit- ted by the unit. In place of an aircraft reg- istration marking, they accepted my radio call sign. So, if the argument for excluding us had been that we couldn’t be identified, it was hollow. I don’t know why we were excluded. That would be a question to ask of the architects of the scheme within the Transport Department at the time. I doubt the then Minister was over the detail. We decided not to delve into this and try to effect a change. A federal election was looming, and one didn’t need to be able to read the giblets to see that a change was coming. Who would we be dealing with? Submissions The person we would be dealing with turned out to be Catherine King, who has an electorate office in Ballarat. In August 2022, we sent a submission to her and her deputy, outlining the flaws in the scheme as we saw them, and request- ed that our excluded members – roughly 93% of our total membership – be included in the scheme. We received a very polite letter back from one of the Minister’s staff telling us that the scheme had been inher- ited, that it wouldn’t be changed as per our request, but a review period was coming and we may be able to be included in any recommended changes. Time passed. Tumbleweeds blew down the street. An announcement was made in May 2023 that the scheme was being extended for a further 12 months. Once more, we