*Aerospace* **2020**, *7*, 84

The power that customers had over maintenance engineers were reflected in working practices where aircraft were always serviced with the *"bare minimum"* because engineers were encouraged to *"keep doing these 3 or 4-day hundred hourly's"* (P\_2) through lack of provision for major refurbishment.

Power-distance with the regulator was also reported in the context of examination for licensure which impacted working relationships. For example:

*There is no right of reproach. You cannot go to anyone within [the regulator] and argue it. Recently I did my [aircraft] exam for my license [* ... *] Doing the exam, I noticed there were some discrepancies in the wording [* ... *] When I rang [the regulator], they e*ff*ectively said "stick your head up your ass, we don't care, we are the regulator and we will do what we want to do." They are not engaging with it*. (P\_10)

In terms of general industry changes, the consensus was that the regulator had grown in austerity over the years and become *"stricter"* (P\_7), with an added perception that in an industry-wide regulation satisfaction survey, *"they ended up with a 99 percent disapproval"* rating (P\_10).

Despite negative participant perceptions around training and education, drift, and ostensible widening of power-distance, an *emphasis and* indeed even *growth of safety culture* was a prominent perceived change in GA and its working practices. More frequent inspections, helpful programs, increase in multifactorial explanations for error, introduction of new working practices with positive influence, increases in work flexibility for volunteers, and general increases in professionalism and attitude were all attributed to a change and maturing in safety culture, for example: *"I think the professionalism [in the General Aviation industry] has increased overall"* (P\_3); "*the authorities come and keep us on guard as well, coming in for inspections here, there and everywhere, which is fair"* (P\_9); *"that just culture of no blame and trying to find the cause behind errors is really a big, it is a big thing now"* (P\_1).

The focus on compliance was perceived to be *"flushing out"* (P\_2) dishonest or unreliable operators, and while some perceptions showed ambivalence, there was consensus that new regulator systems had had an impact on the industry:

*[The regulator is] trying to help more than they have done, and it is happening. Some of the things I've learned over the past and put into the company like doing safety meetings, things like that* ... *Yeah, that's all stu*ff *that we never used to do in the past, but it's a positive*; (P\_9)

*The small operators are being pushed out now. There's an argument that those smaller dodgy operators get filtered out of the industry. Perhaps that's one of the goals of this increased compliance*; (P\_2)

*[The Regulator] has devolved responsibility in a number of di*ff*erent areas, some good, some bad*; (P\_4)
