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Incoming Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) director of aviation safety (DAS) retired Air Vice Marshal Mark Skidmore will have a one-month handover period starting December 1 before formally taking up his new role.
The current CASA acting DAS Terry Farquharson said in his November briefing note published on November 25 that Skidmore would officially become the regulator’s DAS on January 1 2015.
Skidmore’s first month at CASA would be spent receiving briefings, meeting representatives from government, the aviation community and within the air safety regulator, Farquharson wrote.
“The transition will give Mark the smoothest possible start to his term as director, which will officially begin on 1 January 2015,” Farquharson said.
Skidmore was named as the permanent replacement to former DAS John McCormick on October 30 for a five-year term.
Farquharson has filled in as temporary DAS after McCormick finished up at CASA at the end of August.
The former F-111 pilot, who retired from the RAAF in 2012 and flies his own Globe Swift classic aircraft, said on the day he was appointed he would make listening to industry a priority.
“One of my priorities is to get out, listen to people and find out what some of those concerns are,” Skidmore told Australian Aviation.
“I want to build and enhance the reputation of CASA out there with industry.”
Skidmore’s arrival at CASA on December 1 meant he will be on deck when the federal government handed down its response to the Aviation Safety Regulatory Review, which was due before the end of the year.
Farquharson said “everyone in aviation will welcome Mark to his new role”.
“Mark places high importance on consultation and communication so you can expect to hear from him in one way or another in the not too distant future,” Farquharson said.
