30 August

Yesterday red boots attended the meeting of the Aviation Federation after earlier in the week working with a cross sector group of aviation community representatives. Both these meetings impressed upon me the importance of listening to the dialogue and how important this is going to be moving forward into the world of policy development prior to rule writing.
 
Some observations:

• No one person is the font of all knowledge
• Robust solutions come from listening as much as talking
• The speed of change may seem rapid but as soon as you try to commit it to paper, its glacial
• Everyone thinks the “other person” should pay but the “other person’s” cheque book is missing in action
• Collectively working together achieves more than riding off on your own “white horse”

 
Interesting feed back from members on the “slow payers” – most of you couldn’t believe how much time we waste chasing them and said “sell the book to the debt collectors”.  As a membership organisation we don’t like going down that path but the Board agreed this week the 15% penalty would be imposed from the 20^th of next month.
 
So firstly, a big thank you to those who did pay and secondly unless outstanding invoices are resolved by the 20^th of next month, there will be a 15% penalty and we will start taking outstanding debtors to the Small Claims Tribunal.  We’ve done this sparingly in the past and on each occasion had the full amount plus interest and costs awarded in our favour.
 
If you have cash flow issues speak to us but if you don’t communicate and ignore us, we will be on your case and the boots will be working over time.
 
A consequence of chasing debtors is that the pilot shortages project has been severely disrupted but John Nicholson is still interviewing and “the boots” hopes to be fully engaged next week.  It is becoming very clear that key government agencies want to understand the “market” and we need more pilots coming through the basic training system.  There are real concerns out there that we won’t have enough Instructors and that then frustrates our international growth objective of creating a $16Bn sector contribution by 2016.
 
We’re also hearing plenty of comments from the Engineering community even though were talking to pilot employers about the unsustainability of the present engineering model.  The concerns are quite diverse so I think once we’ve finished the pilot survey we’ll try and speak to engineering employers and gain your perspective.  Obviously if there are individual engineers who want to contribute and are members of AEANZ we will be talking to you.
 
We’ve also hosted the executives of NZAAA and NZHA this week.  There’s some excellent work going into causative factors of accidents in the helicopter community lead by John Sinclair and really well supported by the CAA’s Intelligence, Safety Analysis and Risk Unit.  John’s holding some more workshops in the North Island in the next couple of weeks so contact him directly if you’re interested in attending.
 
An interesting observation again is the power of the aviation community working together to solve issues and the acknowledgement from the CAA time and again that working together is the only way to actually achieve change. I’m reading an interesting book at the moment entitled The Regulatory Craft – the essence being that Regulators and Rules can in their optimum configuration only partly control “harms”, however, the community working collaboratively manages to solve complex problems, control risk and improve safety.
 
The default proposition of course is pulling in opposite directions and that results in Regulators being given more extensive powers which albeit a “risk control” is probably not optimum.
 
John Nicholson also attended a number of equally important meetings this week particularly in relation to airports and airport developments and he’ll also be talking about the various projects we’ve committed into in the next six months.         

 

Aviation is in our DNA Red Boots

Boeing’s 2013 Pilot and Technician Outlook predicts commercial airlines will require 498,000 new pilots and 556,000 new aircraft maintenance technicians by 2032 to keep pace with deliveries of new aircraft and overall air passenger demand.  Pilot predictions are up and technician predictions down on the previous report.  Lower maintenance requirements in new aircraft are responsible for the reduction in technicians.  Here
 
All Nippon Airlines buys Pan Am Flight Training Academy which has launched a new website and resumed ab-initio pilot training.  Here

Board and Aviation Council to meet on 12 September – this is a strategic hui to ensure we have a coherent direction moving forward.  One of the key issues is the rebrand of the organisation.  As we said previously it’s not just about the colouring in department i.e. what colours we roll out as our new brand, but living the brand values.  One of those clearly is that we want to be a “trusted” partner of government where we provide high quality advice that is listened too and acted on.  Another value is working collaboratively to achieve change.
 
We know from the work we do that the big decisions which improve the competitiveness of the aviation community are controlled by government and or regulations.  Get positive change happening at that level and it’s a game changer.
 
The Productivity Commission is focusing on the efficacy of regulation and in particular the “risk based” approach being taken across a number of regulatory agencies.  This approach is perceived by some to be flawed but generally we find it’s the approach that is flawed not the concept click here.   


 

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Helicopter Operations for the Great Mercury Island Pest Eradication Programme.  Government Electronic tenders Service (GETS) Reference 40031.  The project is being run by the DoC Waikato Conservancy – contact Peter Corson in the Rotorua Office – poorson@doc.govt.nz  Responses are required by 30 September.
 
New airport developments in Sao Paulo, Brazil to boost private jet and helicopter industries.   The main airport in Sao Paulo is currently very congested with 41% of flights leaving on time and 59% arriving on time.  Two new business airports are to be built – NAESP at Sao Roque (near Sao Paulo) costing US$500m and at Parelheiros, Sao Paulo, costing US$443m.  
 
Opportunities to operate airports internationally.  We’re seeing a number of countries turn to major and successful airport operators, primarily in developed countries, for some assistance in operating their airports, especially airports under construction.  Malaysia and Indonesia are doing this and Brazil is going this way.  GVK from India is now working in Bali, Changi Airports from Singapore is managing airports in India, Brazil is seeking assistance from the operators of Munich and Berlin, The British Airports Authority has been working in Australia and our own Auckland Airport is managing Cairns.  
 
We are putting more effort into the airports area to develop some more compelling reasons as to why our industry, with its knowledge and expertise, could and should be working more successfully internationally.  We see stories about poor building design for the new LCC terminal in Kuala Lumpur resulting in construction delays and a doubling of costs, airports struggling because their baggage handling systems won’t work, airports that don’t operate properly in the rain because drainage systems empty onto the apron and others where runways are too short for the aircraft the airlines want to operate.  We don’t make these mistakes, and our companies know how to avoid them!
 
Next week, we’re meeting an airport group from Indonesia and are planning for a bigger visit in October – chances to show our expertise.
 

LIB 4 – we remain unmoved by the CAA’s legal opinion but also think its better, now that we acknowledge a mess to get the mess sorted. One option is to go to court but we think the potential scenarios are so complex that its best to get this sensibly resolved with CAA.  CAA have indicated they will be doing a full policy analysis and take the matter from there.  There is some empathy in aligning the words with words used in the HSE Act as we are really talking about persons other than pilots and flight attendants who are contracted and employed to undertake an operation associated with the primary purpose of the flight.   
 
Medical Certification – AKA pilot medical certificate issue charges – assuming the charge remains – see comments below, phase one of this project to look at the efficiency of the certification system is now underway click here. “The boots” will be actively participating as the end objective is to have a charge which reflects value for money.      
 
Airspace and Air Navigation Plan – CAA are in the process of developing the plan for consultation and will be holding workshops later in the year.  It’s important that the community is across the changes being proposed.  A separate consultation will be undertaken on the allocation of airspace – there appears to be general agreement that the present allocation of airspace is too cluttered and I keep getting reminded that DC-3’s are generally not in business on scheduled routes today.   
 
Civil Aviation Act overhaul – if you have views please submit these either to MOT directly or you are most welcome to assist with the development of our paper. 
 
Colour Vision Deficiency – comment period on GD extended to the end of November click here.  We are interested in hearing from any CVD pilots flying in New Zealand.  We became aware of another two helicopter pilots this week and will be anxious to speak to them and any others.  Essentially Tim Woods is collecting the information and we’ll direct you there.  “The boots” is interested in hearing from student loan funded pilots caught up in the policy changes of 2009/10. click here
 
Regulations Review Hearing CAA charges – AOPA and others have complained to the Regulations Review Committee over the charges imposed in November of last year. AIA is not party to the complaint because we were extensively consulted.  AOPA and others can claim that they were not consulted and this gets them across the first hurdle.  We have made our views known to anyone who will listen that we do not support hourly charges being above those imposed in November and we do not support the pilot medical charge – we see this as an inefficiency charge imposed by a monopolist.
 
We have a number of other concerns about the unfairness of the division between public and private good and are bitterly disappointed that we were not consulted on the shift into Astron House despite the fact the its an excellent facility and a great place for CAA to reside.         

Government Agency relationship – we’ve heard informally this week from an Indian company that is about to place more business in New Zealand that the India New Zealand Aviation Arrangement, which was signed between both governments in October last year, has given them the confidence to place a new contract in New Zealand. We also know that the Regulatory Cooperation Clause in the China New Zealand Bilateral Air Services Agreement has seen the development of a technical agreement between CAAC and CAANZ to permit some significant new aviation exports to China to occur.  This reaffirms the importance of Government and Industry working together.  We are seeing some wins!

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