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Category: Employment

Would the last PPL holder out of here please turn off the clubhouse lights?

September 30, 2013

Without wishing to tempt fate, this is a semi-serious request. When it comes to GA, fate needs no tempting because the GAA survey of aviators has already revealed alarming statistics that include a major switch by PPLs to either the RPL or to microlights, and provides evidence of serious damage to general aviation. Many PPL holders say they have given up altogether because they …

SOS! Support Our Survey – but time is short

September 22, 2013

When Parliament’s Regulations Review Committee convened on September 19 to hear submissions opposing what Minister of Transport Gerry Brownlee signed into law last year, dramatically increasing costs to GA operators in particular, consultation was a key topic. Notably – nine months after the first objections were raised – the Ministry of Transport suddenly revealed its response at the hearing and the Ministry’s representative declared …

Colour deficient pilots: Is there light at the end of this tunnel?

August 31, 2013

GAA supporters will be aware that the CAA is at last taking a serious look at the way it handles colour deficiency in pilots, following a vigorous campaign by Colour Vision Aviators, led by Nelson-based Tim Woods. But you may be unaware of the detailed background to this issue, and how it generated the CVA campaign. Tim Woods reports: It has been a very …

Crisis in the airline hangars: A badly tuned piece of anti-social engineering

August 26, 2013

Hot on the heels of a claimed skills shortage of pilots, in which an application by Air New Zealand and PricewaterhouseCoopers said that only eight people in our great nation qualify for an interview for airline pilot positions, Air NZ now threatens up to 190 redundancies in its team of wide-body aircraft engineers. In stark contrast, at Singapore Airlines, SIA Engineering is benefiting from …

GAA supporters versus PwC and Air New Zealand: We rest our case.

August 9, 2013

Submissions for or against the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Air New Zealand application to have Aeroplane Pilot added to the list of Essential Skills In Demand for immigrants closed on Friday August 9. GAA met the extended deadline with 24 hours to spare, thanks to an astonishing response from supporters who – within the space of 14 days – provided a wealth of evidence and comment to combat …

You lose some, you WINZ some: Chuckle at this hearth-warming Winter’s Tale

July 31, 2013

Pity the poverty-stricken New Zealand helicopter pilot. Jobs are very hard to find these days, unless you flee the country for Canada’s Arctic North – or other hostile territory. The only upside to New Zealand’s short winter days and even shorter wages is the onset of the frost-protection season, with the prospect of lucrative pre-dawn work to keep a few logs on the wood-burning …

Dear Air New Zealand, I’m 19, I’m a Kiwi, and I want to fly for you…

July 27, 2013

As a trainee commercial pilot at the International Aviation Academy, when I finish my course (Diploma in Aviation – Airline Preparation) I will have PPL, CPL, MEIR (around 200hrs), ATPL subjects, a CPL night rating – and a $100,000 student loan. But in order to get into the airlines, I need ATPL subjects (frozen ATPL), 100hrs Air Ops, 25 night hours and 500hrs total …

Pilot ‘shortage’: Air New Zealand replies (and the mystery deepens)

July 25, 2013

Air New Zealand has responded to GAA, following the uproar about its proposal to have Aeroplane Pilot added to the list of skills it alleges to be in short supply. Captain David Morgan, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Pilot, told GAA today (July 25): Your correspondence to [CEO] Christopher Luxon regarding the skills shortage list refers. Can I advise you that Air New Zealand’s …

Attention all NZ CPL holders – this concerns You!

July 23, 2013

How could anyone think of hiring airline pilots from offshore when our training system provides more pilots than our shrinking GA industry can find jobs for? That’s precisely what Air New Zealand is planning. And probably not only planning but already actively recruiting, because we have discovered advertising that can only have come from Air NZ, on Pilot Hiring, an international recruitment website. The …

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