28 June

The Team was off air last week attending conference week. The weather played its part but interestingly, not so much in Dunedin which was wet and cool, but not the snow or winds of the rest of the New Zealand.

Our two award ceremonies were magnificent – full of Scottish pomp and circumstance with the appropriate lashings of whiskey for the haggis honour guard. Award winners were largely speechless – recognition must go to Bob Cleland for the shortest NZAAA award recipient speech on record. A mere “thank you”, quite humbling from a man who has written one of the best Ag aviation books for keeping budding aviators pursuing a career in that environment alive.

And then we must turn to the Larnach Castle AIA and CAA awards. The ambiance of champagne in New Zealand’s only true castle followed by the decorum of beautiful stairways, a large ball room and ladies and gentlemen suitably attired for the night made for a ceremony to remember. Our award winners were:

Tracmap - Richard Pearse Award for Innovation in Aviation
Russell Gutschlag – a 55 year veteran of fixed wing and helicopter flying, presently working in Central Otago actively flying at age 77 - AIA Individual Award -
Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust for their rescue at Paritutu Rock – AIA Company Award

Additionally, one of our members and chairman of the Air Transport Division, Errol Burtenshaw, won the Director of Civil Aviation’s award for his contribution to aviation safety.

Shortly thereafter, the ghost of Larnach Castle struck with an interlude of hail and sleet which at the hour before midnight sent our guests scurrying for the early buses. However, those not so quick witnessed the ghost strike again by disabling the last bus back to town – fortunately the fires were still burning and there was plenty of fine wine still to be consumed.

And of the conference itself – memorable high points were:

The progress industry has made over the last three years since we set the double helix growth and safety strategy
The co-operation between government officials and industry speaking from the same page and having an aligned focus
The absolute confidence going forward, despite some very tough times in some sectors, that the “One Industry One voice” strategy is the right one
The unity of purpose and determination to improve the safety performance and profitability of the industry – “on a high tide all boats rise”
A very quiet conviction and determination that each of us knows our part and understands the contribution we will make going forward.

Next year’s conference returns to the North, in Napier from July 21-25.

Over 1000 photos were taken at conference and these will be available very shortly. You’ll be able to download off our web pages.

At the AGM it was agreed we would in future trade as Aviation New Zealand. Expect to see a transition to this brand and raising of Aviation’s profile in the months ahead – this is our world.........

Aviation is in our DNA

Red boots

Conference 2013, Awards, Sponsors, Trades and other stuff

Awards

Life membership

Ken MacKenzie after 20 years of service to the Association and a further two years to come after being reappointed as a Vice President of the AIA.

The Richard Pearse Award for Innovation

This is our most prestigious award. Past recipients have been Spidertracks now the number one aviation tracking product for GA in the US; Altitude who design from new and remodel/refit aircraft interiors and Lanzatech recently recognised internationally by the award of a Green Oscar. This year Tracmap join this line up (click here). Fittingly, based in Dunedin this company has literally come onto the global stage with a series of very innovative and simple systems which can be used for precision application of fertilisers and toxic baits.

Individual Award Russell Gutschlag

Part of clan "venison" retrieval, Russell has had a long and magnificent career assuring us that his objective was to become the oldest commercial helicopter pilot in this country. Ably supported by life member Jim Love, Sir Tim and Lady Wallace and Ella Davidson, Russell and his wife, Teresa, were our guests at our Larnach Castle ceremony.

Company Award - Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust, Paritutu Rock rescue

We are delighted to be invited to join the Trust at a Black tie function on 10 August to present this award. The ability for the Trust to leverage receipt of the award for the purposes of fund raising adds to the level of support we are able to provide to the EMS sector.

AEANZ individual awards

These two gentlemen from the Waikato region appeared almost inseparable with a massive 120 years of aviaiton engineering expereince between them. They work next door to each other at Eagle and Super air and look as they are both degearing for a long and fulling sojourn. The individual awards went to Ralph Etheridge of Eagle and John Muir Super air.

Sponsors

A big thank you to every sponsor supporting the week (click here). We run the conference at cost to encourage maximum numbers to attend and our prices have been held at 2009 levels - this can all be put down to the tremendous support we received from our very loyal sponsors and one or two new one. We'll also be giving our sponsors the opportunity to talk to you about their products and some of the recent developments.

Trades

We need you to support those who supported us in the trades hall.  Here's our trades directory with contact phone numbers and email addresses (click here). Networking is a major part of the show but there are some fantastic services and products on offer. In our newsletters each week we will be featuring one of our trade displayers and their products and get them talking about the value of conference - warts and all.

Award recipients
Best trade stand NZAAA - Air Tractor

Best trade stand AIA - Heliflite

Other stuff

Best restaurant in Dunedin.....Etrusco, cheerful and on for a murder and mystery. Best Italian wine and food out. Great entertainment - next time you see Hank Sproull ask him about his karaoke abilities

PPL launch of the fuel discount card

Get a GO FUEL fuel card and get *8 cents per litre discount off pump price on Petrol and Diesel for your car, truck, tractor, bus or boat. Its easy – No fees, no limits and get as many cards as you wish (*at participating Mobil service stations and truckstops)

Just click here and complete a form or call direct and we’ll complete it for you

Get going - go to gofuel.co.nz

New Divisional Structure

NZAAA and NZHA remain unchanged but the following are merged :

Supply and Services and Engineering to become Logistics
Flight Training and Education and Research to become Training and Research
Air Transport, EMS and TFO to become Operations.

There is one caveat and that is divisions can opt out of the merger if that is so desired and this matter will be put to EMS and TFO members in the not to distant future.

New NZAAA and NZHA Committees

NZAAA - Chairman Alan Beck, Deputy Chairman Rick Graham, members - Rick Harding, Andrew Hogarth, Neil Miller, Bruce Peterson, John Funnell and Tony Michelle
NZHA - Chairman Lloyd Matheson, Deputy Chairman Dave Sowman, members - Louisa Paterson, Rick Graham, Davin Mudford, Qwilton Biel, David Beck, John Funnell, and a representative of the RNZAF - presently Shaun Clarke

Growth

Indonesia Update, things are happening
There has been quite a bit of activity since the mission finished on 24 May. Two mission participants were in Indonesia this week, following up prospects, another is there next week. An Indonesian company spent 3 days this week in New Zealand. We helped organise the programme for them. They met several agencies in Wellington which, from a government viewpoint, are responsible for the standards and conditions companies must comply with for international work. It was quite eye opening for the Indonesians to see just how integrated we actually are!

We’re also familiar with some formal proposals that have now been sent by mission participants to Indonesian prospects, and the negotiation process is well under way. Good fortune to those companies!

We’ve been involved in follow up with the NZ companies to understand what worked well and what can be improved in future such activities. Some interesting learning for the companies:

next time, we need to do more research and get more familiar with the market BEFORE we visit
gained much better knowledge of the wide ranging aviation capabilities that exist in NZ
identified opportunities where NZ companies could be collaborating and working more closely together, especially with in-market contacts. This brings economies.
we have much better knowledge and understanding of how to progress opportunities
NZ gained profile because of the scale of activity and we continue using this to advantage

A final comment from some – ‘the NZ Inc approach was well worthwhile’

Other In-Market Activity
We are looking at a variety of activities in key markets:

completing research through NZTE in some aspects of the China aviation market
leveraging off the India/NZ Aviation Arrangement, one of only three such agreements that India has
some missions with a small number of participants that accelerates their ability to do business (e.g. India)
some missions with a larger number of participants that helps them understand markets, the opportunities in them and how to do more effective business
some activities that build the profile of NZ (media work and possible entries in trade shows)
bringing regulators and potential customers to NZ

We talked about some of these possibilities in the Growth Agenda sessions at conference. If you missed those sessions or would like to volunteer involvement in future activities, let us know.

Safety

Submission to CAA – don’t forget risk based rule making AKA SMS introduction submissions due 9 July and there's the Omnibus rule with submissions due 28 June.

Review Process of CA Act - excellent discussion at conference and a good briefing from MOT officials. The Minister Hon Michael Woodhouse speaking at an Airports function on Wednesday night said the Act was in for a tweak as opposed to major overhaul and we think that's probably about right. The old Airport Authorities Act however, appears possibly to be looking for a new home or going into rehab permanently.

HSE Bill introduced into the House (click here) - an interesting discussion with a senior Labour MP in passing was a view that they saw more merit in specialist regulators in highly safety sensitive industries as the fix. When asked would this mean CAA our environment they said YES - consistent with their view of mining. Officials drafting the Bill don't appear to support this view.

Fixed Wing instructors - B cats in retreat.....(click here) - the lynch pin of training and source of most airline pilots, the decrease in numbers is quite alarming and under present policy settings impossible to arrest. One question that springs to mind is should student loans fund the flight instructor stream only - is that a reasonable way of ensuring we have good career pathways for pilots. B cats are the essential element of our training system and without them it starts to unravel particularly as A cat numbers are pretty stable. Your thoughts???

Pilot medicals automated system on the cards, but savings put at around 20% (click here) is this enough? We would like your views

Skill shortages - what next? Our Careers Expo, which needs some real fine tuning for next year, attracted around 100 plus expressions of interest. These are young people interested in joining our industry. However, the real challenge for us of course is having facilities and resources to train. There is no doubt that our flight training industry is in crisis - last year the boots thought it was stress - now I would put it at distress levels. Schools are surviving and providing excellent quality training for international students and the New Zealand pool contracts.

So what are we doing about it? Government has requested three things of us:

a forward looking demand projection model over the next five years
clear career pathways - it is not acceptable to train without essentially having a job at the end of the training
industry working as a collaborative voice - Officials have repeatedly noted how difficult it has been for them when there are multiple voices saying quite different things

We're in the process of scoping up the project and associated work with the help of a small working group with employer, flight training, ASPEQ and CAA involved. Once this is done, we'll be out to talk to you. At the moment we're thinking most of the work will be done in-house as it’s important to build firm collaboration between all key players.

AIRCARE™

Announcement by Landcorp

Landcorp has in recent years adopted a mandatory position that any fixed wing aerial agricultural operators must have NZAAA accreditation to operate on a Landcorp property. This now has been superseded by the introduction of Aircare which we subsequently have also endorsed and require total commitment to by operators.

Some of your members will be aware that we are currently tendering much of the fixed wing work nationally and our tender document conditions require tenderers to be Aircare accredited. Only accredited operators will be allocated work under a formal contract.

We are concerned that recent publicity has suggested that Landcorp is withdrawing from its commitment to Aircare. That is not the case. Landcorp continues to seek best practice in most aspects of its business. Agricultural aviation is no exception. Where the safety of a contractor is enhanced on our property and where Landcorp will be more assured of a professional job with proof of placement being a prime example of our requirements, then Landcorp will still insist on Aircare accreditation.

Our second phase of instigating best practice for aviation operations on Landcorp properties is now to request that all helicopter operators that could be engaged in any assignments after 1 December 2013 will be required to have Aircare accreditation.

I take this opportunity to thank aerial operators for their assistance to formally audit our airstrips and engage Landcorp in enhancing the operational standards of our facilities.

Meeting with Minister Nick Smith - post DoC's announcement that the AIRCARE or equivalent issue was on hold until October we had an opportunity to meet with the Minister's and better understand his rationale and thinking on the issue.

Minister Smith is a ‘less regulation better regulation’ proponent and he sees our programme as imposing additional costs and positioning him as a defacto aviation safety regulator. He accepts that Noise is a risk he must treat but doesn't see a need for a country wide programme.

Whether his approach involves DoC reverting to its original stance of "we will ration and pick winners and losers " we shall have to wait and see. AIRCARE's philosophy was to provide assurance that heavy handed centralist intervention was unnecessary as DoC was dealing with responsible operators backed by robust independent assurance i.e. a partnership approach.

AIRCARE™ ACCREDITATION process read here

AIRCARE™ accreditations Click here

Product Announcement and Information

Travel Careers & Training has classrooms available for lease at the AKL Airport (opposite the IBIS – 10 minute walk to Domestic Terminal). Available on a causal or long-term basis. Also available in AKL CBD. Contact Guy Domett on 07 853-0294

GSB Trade Card click here

AIA members deals

28 June

Conference 2013, Awards, Sponsors, Trades and other stuff

Growth

Safety

AIRCARE™

Product Announcement and Information

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