Consultation Archives

EC takes off elsewhere (but flies beneath our CAA’s crumbling radar)

October 13, 2020

For GA operators flying in uncontrolled airspace, there’s obviously no safety benefit from ADS-B unless your most immediate (and invisible) neighbour also has it installed and running. It’s an open secret that ADS-B was mandated largely for the good of Airways and the airlines (what’s left of them). So it’s hardly surprising to learn that our powers-that-be are doing little, if anything, about a …

The UK’s CAA ‘opinion poll’ that shows Kiwi aviators were years ahead – and a lot smarter

October 8, 2020

Over in the UK, feathers are ruffling about Brexit’s effects on its CAA, and someone calling themselves Sky Lovers has decided to mount a user survey. Here’s the survey link The UK’s messy exit from the EU will have profound effects on its aviation regulator (and on private pilots who fancy a lunch in Le Touquet airport’s legendary restaurant, for example). The first thing …

The old guard said: You toe our line. The new CAA leaders prefer to dip toes in the water

July 25, 2020

In any organisation, the first few months for a new manager can be tricky. On one hand, you must establish a rapport with your team and the stakeholders. You have to create open communication and be accepted as genuine. On the other, you’ve been appointed for a good reason. That reason may be unsettling for some; you are the new broom, here to sweep …

It’s officially true: the CAA is toxic. But will it get a detox?

June 14, 2020

Cast your mind back to 2018 and you may recall the Saga of the CAA Client Satisfaction Survey and how the Authority’s leading lights rubbished the results when the GAA ran a customer survey after the CAA refused to do the job. The Director, Graeme Harris, rejected what GAA supporters said about his Authority after our survey of opinion in 2018 and 2019. His …

PPL reform: How the CAA is trying to sneak through radical change (for the worse)

January 2, 2020

The dyed-in-the-wool, antediluvian attitudes within the CAA are becoming unbearable. There seems to be a complete lack of rational thought, logic and common sense applied to the proposal, along with the usual ploy of putting it out for consultation over a holiday period when most people are trying to enjoy time away, or rest from the daily grind. Truly, a cynical and condescending swipe …

Hats off to the CAA whistleblower

June 25, 2019

The CAA, a place of dysfunction and distrust A whistleblower working in the Civil Aviation Authority has told Newshub that dysfunction and distrust at the CAA is putting the public at risk. The employee decided to speak to Newshub‘s investigations reporter Michael Morrah because, he says, the CAA has repeatedly failed in its regulatory role, and a “toxic” work environment is contributing to the …

ADS-B approaches The Twyford Zone – but is this another black hole?

April 25, 2019

In six days, some claim, God created Heaven and Earth. On the seventh, He rested. There was light, and God saw that it was good. Much later, this also pleased every aviator who did not possess a night rating. Making an entire world out of nothing, in less than a week, is an unimaginable feat of weight and balance, particularly when you compare it …

Imagine what might happen, if New Zealand had an APPG

March 23, 2019

It stands for an All-Party Parliamentary Group whose members cast aside politics and focus on matters directly affecting real people and their livelihoods. In the UK, this is a long-established concept and its APPG-GA is a group of 203 MPs and members of the House of Lords who, among other things, have succeeded in a campaign to Cut the Red Tape at their Civil …

Want to subsidise Airways and the airlines? Have your say on ADS-B

March 17, 2019

Most aircraft owners will be aware that, as part of the New Southern Sky (NSS) programme, Airways is moving to Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B). The current secondary radar service will be replaced by ADS-B as the main source of surveillance information for separation of aircraft in controlled airspace. The CAA’s proposed rule change would make ADS-B mandatory for all aircraft in controlled …

Why attempts to restrict New Zealand airspace for UAs must be blocked

November 20, 2018

Many folk in and around Alexandra (pop. 5440) were up in arms when a Christchurch-based firm called Skybase sought to restrict more than 500 sq km of Central Otago airspace in which to test unmanned aircraft. We do not know how many untested UAs are owned by Skybase in New Zealand, but we do know that Skybase is backed by US interests. We know …

Category: Consultation