That would be optimistic. Australian GA pilots have been waiting almost a
year for the new Aviation ID cards (which are useless, because you actually
need an ASIC Aviation Security Identification Card). The regulatory
authority has a backlog of 23000 and some think the wait will be 12 months.
If you haven't applied for one by 31 Dec 06 then landing at any airport with
regular public transport (just about every airport in Australia) then you
can get busted with a $2,200 fine for each infringement.

If the toursists go to the back of the queue then you better have a year or
so to drive around the country before contemplating flying yourself
anywhere. It is bureacracy gone totally insane handled in a totally inept
way that is killing an already suffering GA community. See posts on
Rec.Aus.Aviation...

And yes AAS has closed its doors to the best of my knowledge. There was a
press release towards the end of last year announcing same citing the
bureacracy/secuirty issues as the prime cause.

Cheers,
Kevin

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
m...
Eric Bartsch wrote:
Unfortunately this company (GOANA Safari) did stop operating at the end
of 2005 due to new security regulations in Australia that made it
difficult for foreign pilots to get checked out in their planes. I had
always hoped to do this someday, but looks like I missed my chance.
They used to have a booth at Oshkosh with all of the information.

It's not the checkout. I got checked out under the new rules (I
essentially had to do a full up BFR, just added an additional day).

What killed them is that to go into any airport with scheduled
air service (and we're talking about nowhere airports without
even a fence around them) you need a security card. The Australian
bureaucracy won't even start processing cards for foreigners until
you get to Australia which means you'd have to allocate a couple
of extra weeks in front of the tour to push papers.