Note: this is of historical interest only. Parliament threw out these proposed new rules on 8th November 2000

Civil Aviation
Safety Authority
Australia

Ref: ASSD 00/5334

21 September 2000

To: All Certificate of Registration Holders

Dear Sir/Madam,

REGISTRATION OF AIRCRAFT

I am writing to let you know of an important rule change that may affect you – the introduction of Part 47 of the 1998 Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR).

CASR Part 47 is being introduced because there have been too many incidents in which vital safety information (such as Airworthiness Directives) has not been passed on by the Certificate of Registration holder to the person controlling the airworthiness and maintenance of an aircraft.  [Note by Boyd Munro - CASA has failed to substantiate this claim and I do not believe it is true - see www.airsafety.com.au/rego/toomany.htm ]

The new Regulations means that if you are not controlling the maintenance of your aircraft you are required to transfer your Certificate of Registration to the person who is. For example, if you lease or hire your aircraft to an operator who controls its airworthiness and maintenance, then the Certificate of Registration must be transferred to that operator.

Please note that this does not affect your rights or ownership of the aircraft under law.

If you do control the airworthiness and maintenance of your aircraft, you should remain the Certificate of Registration holder; that is, there is no need to transfer your Certificate of Registration.

CASR Part 47 comes into force on 1 October. If you are affected and, as explained above, you need to transfer your Certificate of Registration to the operator controlling the maintenance of your aircraft you should do so by 10 November 2000. [What this letter did not say was that these new regulations had not even been approved by Federal Parliament! CASA just presumed that Parliament would go along because no-one in Parliament would understand. In the end, thanks only to an extremely vigorous campaign by Australia's aircraft owners, Parliament decided on 8th November 2000 to disallow these new rules.]

To arrange the transfer of a Certificate of Registration:

· Refer to the Aircraft Register page of CASA’s web site

(www.casa.gov.au/aw_std/register); or,

· Call 131 757 and for the Civil Aircraft Register, where staff are available to assist from 9am-5pm (EST) week days.

N.B. With effect from 1 October 2000 the processing of all Aircraft Register transactions will be centralised in Canberra. The Aircraft Register Section will be responsible for all such tasks and dealing with registration enquires.

Yours sincerely,

Richard G Yates

Assistant Director

Aviation Safety Standards

Note: Detailed information on Part 47 is available in Advisory Circular AC 47.1(0).