Opinion Archives

Discredited and distrusted: It is time to clip some senior wings at the CAA

November 29, 2021

So far, there has been little sign of anyone in New Zealand General Aviation losing sleep over the Civil Aviation Bill. But it will change the Civil Aviation Act, which governs everyone involved in flight here, and submissions close one minute before midnight on December 2. So, for anyone genuinely interested in changing the status quo, it may be time to burn the midnight …

How confirmation bias at the CAA created a pilot’s five-year nightmare

November 9, 2021

When what looks like a whistle-blower warns our CAA that an airline captain is mentally unstable and could be a suicide-murder risk, alarm bells ring – very loudly. Particularly when the claim, in April 2016, comes soon after pilot Andreas Lubitz flew a Germanwings Airbus A320 with 144 passengers and six crew to oblivion on a mountainside in the French Alps, on 24 March …

Whose tail is wagging the dog? And why fear the compliant puppies at the CAA?

September 18, 2021

You wake up in the morning with a splitting headache that won’t go away, or a pain in the guts that no amount of Gaviscon can relieve. What do you do? Simple answer: get checked out by your general practitioner. In these Covid days, that’s usually first done remotely, because your medical centre is painfully risk-averse, but no matter – it’s part of the …

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 …

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 …

Two years of private grief, more disgrace for the CAA, massive expense – for what? Nothing.

September 10, 2019

The case has finally closed on an episode that brought two years of misery to a pilot and piled more shame on a misguided Civil Aviation Authority. The pilot was charged with, and subsequently pleaded guilty to, careless operation of an aircraft. (Among the prosecution evidence in what we’ll call the Go-Pro Case was video footage taken in the cockpit. GAA supporters raised more …

Safety management is a clear and present danger. Why? And who can we blame?

August 10, 2019

We are human and we make mistakes. Mistakes cause accidents. After any aircraft accident, we want to know why. But when there are no witnesses, no survivors, no proof of mechanical failure, recklessness, malice or external interference, the conclusion of an accident report should say: “We may never know what caused it.” Accident investigators are ruthless and forensic; there are historical events, policies, procedures …

The CAA is seriously ill – but how can we tell the relatives?

July 22, 2019

If only we could ask The Average Kiwi to briefly pause and imagine what life would be like if, quite suddenly, all forms of general aviation disappeared. Everything, that is, below commercial airlines. If you could snap your fingers and make it happen, people on the street would realise what quietly and reliably had been going on all around them. Flying in New Zealand …

The tragedy of ZK LSV shows why ADS-B in GA must get cash support

June 18, 2019

Everyone who operates responsibly in the New Zealand aviation system knows that ADS-B surveillance could be a priceless enhancement to flight safety. This extends beyond the observation of aircraft within controlled airspace. The scope and potential of ADS-B reaches further into the realm of safety in uncontrolled airspace and, in particular, in the event of an accident. In June, an RV12 microlight crashed in …

Category: Opinion