Employment | GAA

The Ministry of Transport can hardly move a muscle. Here is some evidence

February 14, 2015

Following the last election, and the long overdue departure of Gerry Brownlee as Minister of Transport (arguably the CAA’s least competent overlord in living memory) to his new role in protecting our great nation as Minister of Defence, we must now work with two new faces: Simon Bridges as Minister of Transport and Tukituki National MP Craig Foss, Associate Minister of Transport, responsible for …

CAAs are not all made the same…

January 13, 2015

Significant progress was made in 2014 to make regulation of the UK’s General Aviation sector more proportionate and evidence-based, says the UK Civil Aviation Authority. It launched a new General Aviation Unit on 1 April 2014. UK CAA says the unit is the latest demonstration of its determination to being a better regulator, reducing and improving its regulation of this key part of aviation …

CAA funding and the fuel levy: It ticks all the boxes except the one marked ‘Too hard’

December 2, 2014

Based “on information to hand, the CAA Board does not support the introduction of a fuel levy”. This is the hidden headline in the CAA’s summary of feedback to its Stage 1 consultation. Hidden, in fact, on the final page of its document. In one throwaway line. Yet this was the most significant and most widely supported suggestion made by respondents to Stage 1 …

AvKiwi seminars, with free booze? No problem. Same schedule to discuss charges? Too expensive, says the CAA

July 12, 2014

Most of New Zealand’s aviators will know that the CAA is embarking on a review of its fees and charges. It must do this because the CAA is committed to three-yearly reviews of fees and charges after admitting that it lost the plot for 15 years and neglected to review its costs until 2010. This led to the most draconian increases – and some …

Sorry, folks, we lost. RRC rejects all complaints against CAA charges

February 27, 2014

Fellow aviators It is with a profound sense of disappointment that I convey the result of the Regulations Review Committee to my submission and those from AOPA, NZALPA, Aviation NZ and Mr Blair Boyle, regarding the CAA Fees, Charges and Levies. In essence, our submissions were unsuccessful and we have lost. We went into this battle knowing full well that we had a formidable …

2014 is the year General Aviation tells them exactly what we think of the CAA

December 27, 2013

We begin 2014 with the first in a series of online surveys to give users an opportunity to have their say on the issues that currently affect GA, and client relationships with the CAA. Our survey of CAA users is similar to what many commercial organisations do amongst their own client base to gain feedback so they can improve systems and service – and …

Pilot shortage? MoBIE tells Air New Zealand: We can’t see one

December 24, 2013

Air New Zealand’s application to have Aeroplane Pilot added to the Immediate Skills Shortage List has been rejected. This is an encouraging result for GAA, the New Zealand Airline Pilots Association and – most important of all – every Kiwi whose ambition is to fly for their national airline. GAA submitted a 17,000-word rebuttal of the airline’s claim (much of it written by students …

You’d like a trial flight? OK, but just one smile, and you’re nicked

December 7, 2013

The latest Vector magazine contains an article headlined Adventure Flights are not Trial Flights, and says “A so-called trial flight, or flight instruction, should not be used as a backdoor method for conducting commercial activities such as adventure or scenic flights without certification”. What follows is a rather baffling piece of work, based on Part 115 – itself inspired by panic and created in …

O Canada! Where the skies are vast, the charges are fair and the Admin is sane…

November 16, 2013

Today, NAV CANADA – the Canadian equivalent of our Airways – published its 2013 Customer Guide to Charges, and GAA is quietly proud to be the first website in the world outside Canada to reveal some of the contents. They will come as an unpleasant surprise to Kiwi general aviators, still hurting from Airways’ heavy increases earlier this year. We also hope that they …

How the Brits are taking an axe to needless GA red tape

November 9, 2013

The British Government and the CAA have announced plans to strip away unnecessary bureaucracy for the UK general aviation sector. One of the key changes will be the setting up by April 2014 of a new GA Unit within the CAA dedicated to more proportionate, effective regulation that supports and encourages a dynamic GA sector. Following the General Aviation Red Tape Challenge, which found …

Category: Employment