New Regulations: CASR Part 91

CASA has provided information to pilots for some time about the implementation of the General Operating and Flight Rules under Part 91, which will become live on 2 December 2021. Up to now, RAAus members have been exempt from the requirements of the CASRs under our Civil Aviation Orders (CAO 95.55, 95.32, 95.10). Part 91 will change that and as the leaders in flight training for RAAus, our Instructors (rating and approval holders) must be aware of these changes, be familiar with the requirements and be ready to inform and educate RAAus members during flight training and conduct of BFRs.

This link provides more detail directly from the CASA website CASR-part-91-general-operating-and-flight-rules. For the majority of RAAus members, differences will include changes in legislative references for these rules. The first document for Instructors to become familiar with is the CASA Part 91 Plain English Guide (PEG) available here CASA Plain English Guide Part 91. In the first instance, RAAus pilots should review this PEG to learn about changes to references for the rules and learn more about Part 91. While Part 91 has elements which apply to the flights conducted under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) or in areas not relevant to RAAus there are many requirements which will apply to RAAus pilots. The CASA Visual Flight Rules Guide (VFRG) will be updated accordingly by CASA.

There are some specific changes to operating requirements which Instructors (rating and approval holders) must be aware of, in order to assist RAAus members to operate compliantly from 2 December 2021. These documents CASR_part_91_key_operational_changes_v_1.1.docx and mapping-CARs to-part-91-CASR-general-operating-flight-rules.pdf provide more specific details but an example is a change to the requirement  for hemispherical cruising levels. These requirements now apply from 3000’ AMSL (and or above 1500’AGL) rather than the existing 5000’ AMSL.

These changes will require amendments to exam questions, syllabus references, RAAus documents and more. The RAAus team is working hard behind the scenes to amend our documents, references and create checklists to assist Instructors when conducting flight training or BFRs for RAAus members. We will keep members advised of changes as documents become live.

The other significant change relates to edits to our existing Civil Aviation Orders (CAOs), which have been edited to reflect the exemptions to some Part 91 requirements. RAAus has been heavily engaged with CASA and the other sport aviation organisations throughout this year to tirelessly advocate for our continued privileges along with an expansion including the long-awaited increase in the MTOW and CTA access. Regardless, when Part 91 does come into effect we will require amendments to exam questions, syllabus references, RAAus documents and more and we will keep members advised of changes as documents become live.

For now, as the leaders in flight training for our members, RAAus is relying on our Instructors to take the time to become familiar with Part 91 requirements, incorporate these changes into training requirements and particularly when conducting BFRs for our pilots and renewals for ratings and approvals.