Opinion Archives - Page 4 of 5

Medicals: CAA rewrites history, but they’re still way behind the times

December 17, 2015

Authoritarian regimes have a bad habit of rewriting history. The CAA’s shameless U-turn over the medical certification fee is a classic example. When we presented the GAA case against increases in fees and charges to the Regulations Review Committee in March 2013, we submitted that the CAA was viewing the medical certification fee only as a “private good” and therefore the costs were to …

Announcing the GAA’s alliance with the NZAIG

October 20, 2015

Des Lines and Brian Mackie, who manage the GAA social network on behalf of you and more than 1500 other supporters, have agreed to work in alliance with the New Zealand Aviation Industry Group. This cooperation is intended to better address issues that affect professional and private participants in the New Zealand general aviation system. Both groups will maintain their freedom of independent action, …

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 …

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 …

The CAA funding review, Stage 1 – or was it Faze 1?

November 25, 2014

When two opposing mindsets approach collision, they may mirror the laws of magnetism; the closer they get, the more strongly they’ll repel one another. We are talking about – on the one hand – pen-pushing and bean-counting bureaucrats who do not fly but instead toil and fret beneath leaden Wellington skies and – on the other – free-thinking aviators who rejoice in loosing the …

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 …

The 2014 GAA User Survey results, Part 2: Aviators are sick of the ‘arrogant’ Medical Unit

April 11, 2014

Thanks to the $300-plus medical application fee, general aviators are voting with their shrinking wallets and abandoning the Class 2 medical in favour of the Recreational Pilot’s Licence or microlighting, according to our survey of users. But the core message they are sending to the CAA is one of continuing outrage at the authority’s seemingly invulnerable Medical Unit and its more than $2 million …

The 2014 GAA User Survey results, Part 1: MetFlight is a disaster

March 9, 2014

The first GAA user survey of 2014 reveals strong evidence of the shocking state of weather forecasting services for recreational aviators in New Zealand. It shows beyond doubt that the move to paid subscriptions for MetFlight has: ♦ dramatically reduced the number of people seeking MetFlight forecasts ♦ sent former MetFlight/IFIS users to less reliable sources ♦ probably contributed insignificant revenue towards offsetting MetService costs, and ♦ failed …

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 …

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 …

Category: Opinion