Australian Helicopter Industry Association

[AHIA]

Rotortech 2014 Conference Package now available.

Rotortech 2014 will probably be the largest helicopter event staged in the Southern Hemisphere, as we are sixth in the world with 3,100 helicopters, New Zealand is still about tenth with almost 900 helicopters. Combined would make us maybe second or third overall.

Australia has had a steady 6% growth averaged over five years. However, our twin fleet will get a kick in the pants FISCAL 2014/2015 due to energy and mineral resources industries about to increase production.

Also health and civilian defence training contracts.

To be held at Twin Waters Resort (An Accor hotel) Ocean Road, Sunshine Coast Qld. Located by a lagoon. You can also walk across the road to a lovely surf beach. Coffee cafes just a morning’s walk along the beach. Bring your partner.

Anyhow, if you are just curious or wanting to attend as a delegate or maybe market your company products; then perhaps Rotortech 2104 with its romantic setting and helicopter fly-in capability (if you have a helicopter), may be worth checking out.

We can send you info just ask: secretary@austhia.com

AHIA

[AHIA]

CASA updates – Helicopters Australasia – December and January.

Two issues of our Helicopters Australasia will be provided to industry at no cost during late December and mid January. Our official journal, ‘Airwaves’ is not published by our sponsor in January. We recently sent out the December ‘Airwaves’ - next is February 2014.

Due to the enormous work being done by CASA and the AHIA with existing CASR Part 61 (Flight Crew Training) and latest information released on the draft CASR Part 133 (Passengers) and Part 138 (Aerial Work) we cannot go two months without keeping you informed about Part 61 amendments due 12 Dec ’13 and other parts released by CASA a few days ago. (Adelaide conference follow-up).

If you want to contribute something, our deadline for HA special December issue is Fri 20 Dec ’13.

To help us please join the AHIA. It is sad to note so many will benefit from the work being done by our volunteers on your behalf. And yet few can be bothered to join. “They will sort it out – I am too busy” is a common excuse.

Our volunteers have logged hundreds of hours of work, attended dozens of telephone conferences with our working group members scattered across Australia and directly with CASA people as we chip away at the expensive obstructions being placed in our way as the EASA legislation is lurching into your business and munching away at your bottom line and wallet.

Give yourself a Xmas present – join up - help us to help you!! If you do not understand the problems we are facing, then you are really a Kamikaze Kid!

AHIA

[AHIA]

Helicopter industry data updates.

At present there are just over 15,000 aircraft on CASA’s Aircraft Register. Of these 2,074 are helicopters or about 14% of the CASA Register.

Our 2,074 helicopters are owned by 1,014 individuals or companies. All together these machines may be used by around 240 AOC holders or private owners (who represent 15% of the fleet); however, private numbers are rising very quickly.

New CASA regulations will see AOC holders fall in number as aerial work operators will not need an AOC; however, you will need an Operations Certificate in lieu of an AOC. You will still need an Exposition and other manuals as described in the proposed CASR Part 138.

You must get your head around these significant changes – CASA has indicated mainly minor changes, but have a read before you evaluate the regulators advice. You must understand where this journey will take you .........

You can find the following on CASA Website:

NPRM - CASR Part 138, Aerial Work Operations – Rotorcraft (252 pages). Definitions associated with CASR Part 138 may be helpful – about 48 pages.

Best of luck - Just a coffee time snap shot.

AHIA

[froginasock]

Do we have a guide of what an exposition should look like yet? A CASA example? Or at least a list of headings?

[froginasock]

From CASA's website it looks like rewrite of an ops manual … that requires an ops manual (and the other manuals). I know there are no samples for part 141/142 operators (in the future), but it sure looks like an ops manual (guide) to operate the ops manual ..????

http://www.casa.gov.au/wcmswr/_assets/m ... iagram.jpg

[oldrotorhead]

There is no need for a major panic at present due to the time frame of the introduction of the new regs, in particular Part 119, but also 133,138 and the delayed141,142 and 61
There is quite a lot on the CASA web site regarding Expositions and it is easy to find as froginasock has demonstrated.
What is topical right now is the new CAAP 215-1 which was published last year. All new Ops Manuals (ie for new AOC holders) are required to be in this format as will the manuals for all current AOC holders over the next few years.
What is however sneaking up and biting operators on the arse at present is the current CASA requirement to present your Ops Manual right now in the new CAAP 215-1 format if you vary your current AOC for any reason like a new acft type or AWK function. It depends who you talk to at CASA as to whether they want the entire manual in the new format or whether you just have to expand your OM content to ensure the "requirements" of the new CAAP are met.
Just sayin......be aware and ready for some work.
Cheers, ORH

[AHIA]

Heavy helicopter news – Bond Helicopters

On 12 Dec ’13, it was announced two EC225 will be delivered to Avincis Group’s subsidiary, Bond Helicopters Australia, to use for offshore crew change missions. (The deal was via Waypoint Leasing).

The helicopters will be used in Bond’s five year contract with the PTTEP Australasia Group of Companies – which is part of Thailand’s national petroleum exploration and production company.

Eurocopter’s EC225 is an 11-ton weight category rotorcraft. More than 80 EC225s operate for the oil and gas sector in approximately 12 countries. With over 300,000 flight hours logged so far.

AHIA

[AHIA]

Happy New Year from AHIA team!

The all volunteer AHIA Board and AHIA’s President, Peter Crook; Vice President, Mark Scrymgeour and Company Secretary, Rob Rich wish you all the best for 2014. Fortunately, the economy is accelerating a little better now, according to the “wise heads” – which puts us in a better place than this time last year.

May your blades stay in track and your fuel tank gauge always read above the big “E”.

AHIA

[AHIA]

Helping industry in 2014.

We are providing some improved services to industry as we launch into 2014. For example, the EASA legislation changes are very wide spread and complicated to the extreme in some cases. As a result, we will provide threads which deal with only a specific topic. These will usually provide references to both our website and CASA, as required. For example, the second updates on Flight Crew Licensing (FCL) were released mid December 2013. Have you seen these? The first release after industry/regulator negotiations were released by CASA in October 2013 and ran to about 111 pages.

When planning the implementation of the new training legislation you need to have the latest sheet of music.

In no way will these specific threads replace the work underway by many on 'Bladeslapper' – such as training legislation for schools (CYheli) and performance changes for what was charter and aerial work (Richard Nest).

AHIA

[froginasock]

CASA's requirement for a discernable horizon at night for NVFR is no issue and makes sense (in my opinion). However - It will be interesting to see what a Part 61 Training Helicopter might now need to be for 'Basic Instrument flight' given the stability issues CASA raises (below) given that they are (effectively) saying that a NVFR helicopter is particularly unsafe without a visual horizon.

It looks like one step before making NVFR machines comply with IMC (IF) standards.

Frog.

"Helicopter night visual flight certification issues

There is a significant difference between a helicopter's certification for VMC and IMC operations, which centres on both the static and dynamic longitudinal stability of the helicopter. Unlike most aeroplanes, in VMC a helicopter can be certified with highly unstable static longitudinal stability characteristics provided it can comply with basic requirements for correct control sense of motion criteria.

However in IMC, where there is reduced external visual cues for orientation, the certification standards provide for further longitudinal stability requirements, both statically and dynamically. This is significant as outlined above, the reduced visual cue environment as experienced in dark night conditions effectively constitutes IMC and to operate a rotorcraft in such an environment would require the rotorcraft to be capable of meeting the additional IMC stability requirements."

[AHIA]

AHIA SPONSORSHIPS

Industry associations such as the AHIA rely on various forms of sponsorship to supplement membership fees in order to represent and promote the industry to the public and regulatory bodies.

Small associations such as the AHIA usually have five income streams, including: Membership fees, Conference and goods for sale income, Annual sponsorship to support secretariat activities, Sponsorship of a particular conference or exhibition and goods or services in kind to facilitate AHIA activities.

A review of many international (and local) associations shows most follow the guidelines being presented here, in order to have a common protocol to manage sponsorship requests. We are proposing the AHIA has the following classification for 2013/2014.

Gold Sponsor - AUD $18,000 per year.
Membership of the AHIA as a company member with full voting rights.
Public acknowledgement at all AHIA activities such as receptions, forums, conferences, symposiums and meetings of the industry wide safety committee.
Acknowledgment on AHIA letter head as a Gold Sponsor member.
Acknowledgement on the AHIA web site as a Gold Sponsor.
Acknowledgment in AHIA e-newsletter as a sponsor.
Four attendees at Rotortech Conference & Exhibition or similar.
Standard booth at a Rotortech Conference & Exhibition.
Speaking rights at AHIA functions as appropriate and agreed by AHIA Board.
Acknowledgement in our membership directory as a Gold Sponsor member.
Advertisement on AHIA webpage page for 12 months
Promotion of products and services as appropriate.
Free promotional material in conference bags, satchels.
Facilitation of any other arrangement appropriate to promoting the business of the member.

Silver Sponsor - AUD $9,000 per year.
Membership of the AHIA as a company member with full voting rights.
Public acknowledgement at all AHIA activities such as receptions, forums, conferences, symposiums and meetings of the industry wide safety committee.
Acknowledgment on AHIA letter head as a Silver Sponsor member.
Acknowledgement on the AHIA web site as a Silver Sponsor.
Acknowledgment in AHIA e-newsletter as a sponsor.
Two attendees at Rotortech Conference & Exhibition or similar.
Standard booth at a Rotortech Conference & Exhibition.
Acknowledgement in our membership directory and brochures as a Silver Sponsor.
Advertisement on AHIA webpage page for 6 months.
Promotion of products and services as appropriate.
Free promotional material in conference bags, satchels.
Facilitation of any other arrangement appropriate to promoting the business of the member.

Bronze Sponsor - AUD $3,000 per year.
Membership of the AHIA as a company member with full voting rights.
Public acknowledgement at all AHIA activities such as receptions, forums, conferences, symposiums and meetings of the industry wide safety committee.
Acknowledgment on AHIA letter head as a Bronze Sponsor member.
Acknowledgement on the AHIA web site as a Bronze Sponsor.
Acknowledgment in AHIA e-newsletter as a sponsor.
One attendee at Rotortech Conference & Exhibition or similar.
Acknowledgement in our membership directory & brochures as a Bronze Sponsor member.
Advertisement on AHIA webpage page for 3 months.
Promotion of products and services as appropriate.
Speaking rights at AHIA meetings on topic of choice, subject AHIA Board’s approval.
Free promotional material in conference bags, satchels.
Facilitation of any other arrangement appropriate to promoting the business of the member.

Conference sponsorship will vary with each event, depending on the location, cost of venue and other factors. The offers to sponsor will be advised by the AHIA prior to each event. For example, a conference sponsor, may want to provide a social function may not want to be an annual sponsor, etc.

Hope this answers a lot of questions we are receiving as the New Year unfolds.

AHIA

[AHIA]

Military pilot training provider selected. Will use Eurocopter EC135 helicopter.

An unconfirmed medial report has stated Boeing Defence Australia and Thales Australia have been selected to provide the ADF’s new Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS) under AIR 9000 Phase 7. The AIR 9000 Phase 7 project is intended to deliver a new joint helicopter aircrew training system for the Army and Navy, and aims to overcome the broadening gap in training requirements for the ADF’s increasingly advanced rotary wing platforms, including the Tiger ARH, MRH 90, MH-60R Romeo and CH-47F platforms. BDA currently delivers training to the ADF on a number of systems, including the Bell 206B-1 Kiowa, S-70A-9 Black Hawk and CH-47D Chinooks.

Congratulations to the successful tenderer. It has been a long, long time getting this sorted out!

AHIA

[AHIA]

AHIA AGM will be held at Rotortech 2014.

Due the concentration of helicopter folks at Twin Waters, Sunshine Coast, Qld, during Rotortech 2104 from 24 to 25 May ’14; we are announcing an AGM will be held to finalise the set-up of the AHIA.

As you are aware the AHIA Board which formed from the Steering Committee; has continued to run the associations; especially during our recent conferences and the review of CASR 61 and MoS. The latter has been delayed by CASA until 1 Sep ’14. This intense work load has delayed the formation of the AHIA Committee. Rotortech 2014 is a good chance to get some help for the steering committee (The present Board). It is hoped Peter Crook will become Chairman of the AHIA Board and Mark Scrymgeour will remain as a director and continue his work reviewing CASR 61. The AHIA Committee, once elected can confirm these nominations. Board Members can also nominate for Committee positions. Rob Rich will stand down as the Company Secretary and devote his time to marketing, promotions and industry trade shows for the AHIA..

If you want to share in the excitement of an expanding industry, and make yourself known as a leader in the industry; then we need your application for the following positions;

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer

Please let us know if you are interested. No qualifications required, apart from being part of the industry and filled with enthusiasm to watch our fleet hit 3,000 in maybe four years and double to 4,000 in less than ten years.

Please let us know – secretary@austhia.com

[AHIA]

Free online helicopter longline and cargo net seminars.

We have been asked to advise our members by NZ based Tony Marsters, from Aeromarsters Powervamp, that they have invited AHIA members to free online maintenance seminars for longlines and cargo nets.

These free courses are provided every Friday at 0800 NZST.

Tony has offered to run these courses for Australian operators at a time to better suited to our time zones, if demand is sufficient. Some notes from their website:

What will you learn during the training? You will learn and see demonstrations on risks associated with using longlines and cargo nets, the complexity of today’s longline and cargo net construction, why you should use only Barry longlines and cargo nets, snap back factors – why you shouldn’t use alternatives, longline life, load cycles, vibration, chemical, heat and aging factors, in house inspection requirements, obtaining free manual upgrades, pre use inspections, mandatory inspections and recertification requirements, selecting the right longline and cargo net for the job, safety factors, longline and cargo net storage care, aerodynamic behaviour, shock loads and best practices.

Registration: sales@powervamp.co.nz. More info: http://www.barry.ca.

Any feedback from AHIA members would be appreciated.

AHIA

[AHIA]

AAAA and CASA review

From Australian Flying Web News 14 Feb ‘14. (Our thanks to Editor for info reproduced here).

The team at Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia (AAAA) has always taken pride from their efforts to work with CASA on increasing safety in the aerial ag business. That they have delivered CASA a serious backhander in their submission to the safety review panel is very significant: if anyone was going to have a good relationship with the regulator it should have been AAAA! Although coming from the croppies' point of view, other submissions are reflecting a similar concern with the way the regulator regulates, so the AAAA is not a squeaky voice in the corner.

On 11 Feb ’14, it was stated “Aerial Ag Gives CASA a Spray.”

The peak body of the aerial agriculture industry has given CASA's relationship with general aviation a decent spray in their submission to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (ASRR). The Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia (AAAA) has singled-out the regulator's culture as the crux of a poor and deteriorating relationship with industry. "There has been a complete breakdown in the relationship with industry at the highest levels, an example which has now cascaded throughout almost the entire organisation," the submission reads.

"There are many good people working in CASA who are simply unable to make headway against the prevailing culture. They are increasingly isolated and powerless. "There are also some who delight in the culture of ‘gotcha’ that exists and is encouraged at various levels, where the ‘zero-sum game’ against industry is strongest.” The lack of systems and confidence to allow the free flow of information both up and down the chain of command within CASA sustains the negative aspects of the CASA culture, and reinforces and encourages behaviour that in a healthy, open and just culture, with a clear focus on cooperation with industry and positive safety outcomes, would simply not be tolerated.

"As with all cultures, the problem starts and is sustained at the top.” CASA demonstrates no strategic engagement, with industry withdrawing from meetings and discussions that involve senior management due to fatigue from being lectured to. "There appears to be a complete disconnect between words spoken by senior CASA management and what happens on the ground – with no consistency of policy or interpretation being a long-standing concern. CASA encourages industry to adopt sound management principles and systems such as SMS, ‘just’ cultures and strong executive control of aviation companies, but is hypocritical in not applying these same principles and practices to its own operations.

"CASA does not have ‘Aviation issues’ – it has management and cultural issues. A resetting of the CASA/industry relationship is critical to establishing a more mature regulatory safety culture in Australia." The AAAA submission also evaluates other government bodies influencing general aviation, rating Airservices Australia as "professional and competent organisation, with comparatively sound and well functioning consultation methods". The full submission is on the AAAA website.

AHIA

[AHIA]

CASA – DAS John McCormick not renewing appointment

The Chair of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Board, Dr Allan Hawke, has announced that Mr John McCormick will not be seeking a further term of appointment as Director of Aviation Safety. Mr McCormick has, however, agreed, to the Board’s request to stay on in the position until 31 August 2014. This will allow for an executive search process to fill the position and enable the Director to assist the Board’s initial consideration of the Government’s Independent Review of Aviation Safety Regulation scheduled to be completed around the end of May.

Mr McCormick’s leadership over the last five years has been the critical factor behind the significant improvements to Australia’s aviation safety regulatory regime and CASA’s performance. The aims he set out when taking up the position have been largely achieved, including:

- refocussing CASA on regulation of aviation safety as its core activity;
- improving CASA’s governance by restructuring it around functional lines;
- ensuring CASA staff are properly trained and deployed through the Brisbane-based training school and establishment of the Central Region and satellite offices at Broome, Gove, Horn Island and Kununurra;
- addressing emerging issues such as remotely piloted aircraft and Australia’s ageing aircraft;
- completion of the major part of the modernisation of aviation safety standards in a most expeditious manner and the attendant improvements in industry performance through the regulatory reform program;
- introduction of advanced air traffic navigation and surveillance equipment;
- reform of CASA’s surveillance and safety management systems oversight; and
- enhancement of air traffic services at major regional and capital city secondary airports.

These improvements have come at a time of increasing and more complex demands on CASA with major growth in Australia’s diversified aviation sectors and record numbers of domestic and international passengers flying in Australian skies.

Australia’s outstanding international reputation for aviation safety owes much to John McCormick’s stewardship and the reforms and initiatives undertaken on his watch. Dr Hawke acknowledged that CASA had had to take significant regulatory action in relation to a few aviation operators, aircraft types and aircraft equipment over the last five years. Dr Hawke praised Mr McCormick’s key role in ensuring that these actions were taken by CASA to protect the travelling public and industry operators.

The Authority has also developed a more stable funding model under Mr McCormick’s direction to underpin sustainable and effective operations for CASA.
The Board has regarded it as a privilege to serve with John McCormick in the interests of “Safe Skies for All” and wishes him all the very best in his future endeavours.

Our thanks Peter Gibson. CASA website - media releases

AHIA

[AHIA]

Australian UAS pioneers – Coax Helicopters Ltd

Extract for Airwaves March 2014. Thanks to Aviation Trader. Will be on display at Rotor 2014.

Australia has frequently been the launch pad for locally developed aviation technology, which often failed to generate local public interest, but was later snapped up by an international investor. Some just faded away and can be seen in museums.

The Afghanistan war, the US’s longest running conflict, saw the outing of ‘drones’ which have grabbed the media’s attention in TV news programmes. One recent report stated 7,500 ‘drones’ had been used in Afghanistan. The FAA estimates twenty thousand small UAV are used in the US for recreational or emerging commercial operations, generally in uncontrolled airspace.

The Wikipedia website suggests the UAV name has been replaced by the term Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). This technology is steadily becoming more prevalent in all facets of aviation other than commercial passenger aircraft. The UAS is described as a “machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator, or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity”.

In November 2007, a new company Coax Helicopters Limited, based near Parramatta, NSW was registered. Their primary role is to provide rotary wing lift and transport capability utilizing both manned and unmanned vehicles using coaxial rotor head technology.

Peter Batten, Managing Director, CoaX Helicopters Ltd, has stated the common public misconception of these craft is that they are predominantly weaponized ‘drones’. This high profile utilization of UAS is only one of many opportunities rapidly becoming available to UAS manufactures. Any task that is monotonous, dangerous or carried out in an environment that is unpleasant or unhealthy for human occupation will eventually be achievable using UAS. This includes many large scale agricultural aerial operations, civil emergency tasks in hazardous environments and commercial maintenance tasks such as power line inspection.

Technology has now advanced sufficiently to make UAS cost effective and reliable enough for them to begin appearing in everyday use. Where there is a clear reduction in accidental loss of life associated with specific airborne tasks for example, crop spraying. Regulators may demand that UAS replace manned systems.

The history of the coaxial rotor systems is rather lengthy. In 1859 Henry Bright designed a coaxial rotor system where a pair of rotors is mounted one above the other on concentric shafts, with the same axis of rotation, but both turn in opposite directions (contra-rotation). This configuration is a feature of helicopters produced by the Russian Kamov helicopter design bureau. However, the British Patent Office awarded the first helicopter patent to Henry Bright for his co-axial design. This was forty-four years before the Wright Brothers managed to achieve heavier than air flight.

One hundred and fifty years later we can compare the coaxial rotor rotorcraft with traditional helicopters. For example, the first Russian aircraft placed on the CASA Register in December 2012 is the Ka-32А11ВС helicopter. It is claimed it has a number of advantages due to its co-axial configuration. The lack of a tail rotor ensures increased load lifting capacity and higher hovering ceilings. The higher efficiency of the helicopter co-axial system is obtained by avoiding the 10-15 % loss of engine power to the tail rotor when in flight. The shorter tail boom and absence of a tail rotor make the helicopter very compact with good piloting qualities. The design allows the fuselage and tail section, to remain within the area of the main rotors. This is means safer operations into very confined areas such as oil rigs, ships or built up areas. The high rotors also provide an advantage when operating from unprepared sites.

Coax Helicopters Ltd is planning to develop series variants of their existing prototype, ranging from a basic manned version which can carry a 100 kg payload and operate for one hour to larger models which will be able to carry two people and a 50 - 100 kg payload. The strictly UAS top of the line machine will be a real workhorses with payload well in excess of 300 kg and have an endurance of several hours.

Peter Batten recently told Airwaves he believes there is a huge market opportunity particularly in the areas of unmanned precision agriculture. With the coaxial configured rotor head we believe we have a safer and more efficient rotor mast design that may be employed effectively in both manned and unmanned applications. Our capacity to deploy product over wet or marshy soils that are susceptible to machinery damage from wheeled vehicles will be widely welcomed.

With no tail rotor we can fly in almost any direction removing the need to overfly boundaries and turn the aircraft to reposition and make another pass, CoaX can simply fly sideways and backwards to optimise the area to be managed. Our initial forecasts indicate we will be the most cost effective unmanned civilian helicopter on the market. Most importantly however, we believe CASA will ultimately approve our unmanned operations 24 hours per day, this could mean between two and three times better effective time on task than available with conventional manned helicopters.

Peter also said, “We will be building both manned and unmanned helicopters and will be focussing on the sports and agriculture markets. Our manned helicopters will also complement many agricultural enterprises. The helicopter is simple to fly and its total cost of ownership will be significantly better than any other similarly capable helicopter on the market. Obviously there are many other applications for our technology, the current bush fires being a classic example where it may be too dangerous for manned helicopter operations”.

When asked about timelines, Peter said; “Until we complete our development program I am unable to provide you with any pricing. We are also considering a kit option but cannot confirm this until we review the certification process requirements. We are still 18 months to 2 years away from our first release helicopter. Our speed to market will be dependent on financial investment into our company, the more investment dollars we receive the faster we will get to market.”

More information: Peter Batten, Coax Helicopters. Mob: 0414 405 898. peter.batten@coaxhelicopters.com. http://www.coaxhelicopters.com

CASA has been very helpful, according to the company. A lot of legislation is still being developed. The current licensing provision is proposing four levels of competency. The proposal includes differentiating between low skilled operations and full Air Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) level Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) competencies.

At the lowest level the proposal demands Visual Line Of Sight Operations (VLOS). This will necessitate an observer to provide visual collision avoidance for operations below 400 feet AGL. This will be a significant manpower overhead when put in the context of the cost of a single pilot essentially executing the same task. Recently however, CASA has announced that by the end of 2014, regulations will change to reflect the capacity for UAS to operate unmanned below 400’ AGL in IFR. This change dramatically improves the potential use of precision agriculture UAS.

Regulations for civilian certification and operations are still being written and are currently approved under individual certification. Australia is leading the world in development of these regulations and compliance with Australian requirements will minimise any additional requirements elsewhere.

IFR Operations will be the simplest environment in which to operate. Compliance will see the need for transparency by Air Traffic Control Services and other airspace users between manned and unmanned aircraft. In order to operate in this airspace compatible identification and communication capability will be required. This will include incorporation of current manned systems including ADS, CPDLC and TCAS. Voice communication may also be required. Integrated flight plan submission with the navigate a remote pilot aircraft (RPA) control interface would be useful.

Visual Flight Rules (VFR) Operation will be the most difficult airspace to operate in safely. Currently there is no suitable detect and avoid technology that can provide a similar degree of collision avoidance as visual manned flight. Segregated airspace separating manned and unmanned aircraft will allow safe civilian operations in the interim. Once detect and avoid is available, RPA operations will be permitted in unsegregated airspace. Research systems are currently focussing on optical pixilation technology. Consideration must therefore be made to construct CoaX with provision for integration of detect and avoid during design.

AHIA

[AHIA]

DAMEs issuing class 2 medical certificates

The following is an interesting news item from AOPA. It may have application for some of our members. Our thanks to AOPA for working on this regulatory issue.

Quote:

As you are aware, AOPA has been encouraging AVMED to look at the issue of DAMEs issuing class 2 medical certificates. CASA did investigate this issue several years ago and it failed because DAMEs were worried about indemnity issues.

In September, AOPA had a meeting with Pooshan Nevathe and the CASA complaints commissioner. CASA called a further meeting in November 2013, which Phillip and I attended to perform a formal risk analysis of the initiative. I personally undertook to approach four of the major medical indemnity companies and their replies were generally supportive without suggestions of increased premiums, (I wonder if anyone bothered to do this last time?) I can now report that DAMEs have been invited to a series of information and training seminars to explain the issues and how the proposed new computer software will work. I will be attending the meeting in Melbourne this coming Sunday.

The system proposed will be on an opt-in/opt-out basis so it will be up to individual DAMEs to decide if they will agree to be part of the initiative. The computerised medical records system will be altered to enable DAMEs to have much greater access to pilot medical records and give the DAME much more information to make a decision. Certain conditions will be excluded and CASA will make the decisions in these cases.

It would seem that CASA has made the decision to go ahead with this initiative, otherwise I don’t see why they are holding DAME meetings in each capital city. This should, at the least, speed up the process of class two certificate issue and give DAMEs a sense of being more involved in the decision making in respect of their pilots.

I will report back after the meeting on Sunday with some further detail but it seems that the process will go ahead.

Regards,
Tony

End quote:

More information on their website.

AHIA

[AHIA]

Flying training rules simplified

As most of you are aware, the AHIA has done an enormous amount of work with our sub-committees in getting our voice heard. Our CASR Part 61 team leader Mark Scrymgeour is in Canberra for three days being updated on many of the regulatory changes. In particular, the guide posts for a flying school have not been really understood due to the complexity of the legislation. Several days ago CASA made a significant announcement; which will help ease us into the new EASA based rules. Our thanks to the AHIA and CASA people who have laboured hard to get the goal posts moved.

From CASA website:

The new regulations covering a large number of flying training organisations are being simplified.

This follows a review by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Part 141 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations. The simplification of the rules and requirements will cut red tape and reduce costs for about 300 flying training schools across Australia. CASA estimates the changes will lower costs in the flying training industry by nearly $2 million a year. Optimal safety outcomes for flying training will be maintained by retaining the core elements of the new Part 141.

Part 141 covers flying training for recreational, private and commercial pilot licences, ratings and endorsements for single pilot aircraft. It does not extend to intensive integrated training for private and commercial licences, which is contained in Part 142 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.

The new licensing suite of regulations, which includes Part 141, will take effect from 1 September 2014. Simplification of the requirements will be made before the regulations come into effect.

CASA’s Director of Aviation Safety, John McCormick, said the review of flying training regulations was conducted in line with the Federal Government’s direction to look for opportunities to reduce the cost and burden of regulatory compliance on industry. “I am very pleased the new regulations in Part 141 can be simplified and made less costly while at the same time maintaining high safety outcomes,” Mr McCormick said. “Naturally, safety can never be jeopardised in the pursuit of simpler regulations but with hard work the two outcomes can be achieved. “CASA has listened to the views of people in the flying training sector and responded to their concerns with positive action.”

Key changes to Part 141 are:

The requirement for a safety management system will be removed. Recommending safety management systems are implemented for small, simple flying training organisations is more beneficial than mandating them.

A quality assurance manager will no longer be required and the quality assurance system requirements will be simplified for operators who are limited to simulator training.

There will no longer be a need to develop an exposition when transitioning to the new rules. An operations manual will achieve the same safety outcomes.

To help reduce the administrative burden on flying schools, CASA will provide training course material and off-the-shelf operations manual material.

A policy statement will be developed in relation to entry control processes to ensure they do not go beyond what is legislatively required.

Find out more about the changing licensing rules.

Media contact:
Peter Gibson
Mobile: 0419 296 446
Email: peter.gibson@casa.gov.au

End of quote.

AHIA

[hand in pants]

Jesus, so the new Part 141 hasn't even come into being and they have "reviewed" it and changed it.
What a poo fight. Why wasn't this done before they made it law. Now we have to change our plans again, how much of the new change will stay changed and not be rearranged or changed again before 1/9/14.

Another bloody waste of everybody's time and money....................