Sometimes it take a long while before a story comes out and this is now I heard it.

When a US President flies around there is a temporary flight restriction of the airspace around him (why isn't this true of say the Australian prime minister or Governor General?). A few times when George Bush would go to Orlando, Quest Air would have to cease operations as they were just on the edge of the TFR (Temporary Flight Restrictions). See explanation here.

Well, back in September, 2007 George Bush came to Australia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetingand his TFR came along with him making it so that there were flight restrictions on a very well know site just down the coast. No hang gliding was allowed there.

Of course, George Bush was greeted by protesters but the protesters that he probably didn't get to see were the two local hang glider pilots who flew at this site in protest of the closure.

The General Manager/Executive Director/Operations Manager (this gets all mixed up on the HGFA web site and Operations Manual) of the national hang gliding association in Australia heard about this and called up CASA (like the FAA in the US) to have them deal with this TFR violation. Remember that the association is supposed to be a self regulating body. CASA told the GM/ED/OM that it was his job to deal with it and that he should deal with the local (not the national) authorities.

He then called the local police (talk about self regulating). But what were they to do?

Finally, the local club was convened (as it should be) to mete out a measure of punishment, and, without perfectly established guidelines about how to deal with these particular miscreants and this type of misdeed, they were punished by having their flying privileges pulled for a week.

Now tell me, how can an association GM/ED/OM be so completely clueless as to call CASA? This boggles the mind.

Relevant section from the Operations Manual:

To effectively control the sport, HGFA has established standards for operations, pilot certification and for pilot training. (These standards are presented in italics in this manual). As standards they are prescriptive. Operation in accordance with these standards ensures that the requirements of the Civil Aviation Act and the Civil Aviation Regulations are met. Operations that are not in accordance with these standards and procedures MAY result in breaches of the Act and/or the Regulations. The standards and any amendments are prepared by the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia and submitted for approval by the Directorate of Aviation Safety Regulation, for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

HGFA members operating in breach of these standards may be disciplined in accordance with the HGFA Constitution and the Disciplinary Code as outlined in Section 7.2.1 of this manual. Persons who breach the requirements of the Civil Aviation Act and/or the Civil Aviation Regulations may face prosecution by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Check out Section 7.2.1  at the URL above for the details.