News

It’s official: The CAA has a virtual licence to extract unlimited money

July 28, 2018

A group of operators has failed in a complaint to the Regulations Review Committee about the Civil Aviation (Safety) levies Amendment Order 2017 and the Civil Aviation Charges Regulations (No2) 1991 Amendment Regulations 2017. The committee considered the written and oral evidence and the responses of the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority. It has made an interim decision not to draw …

The global pilot crisis. At last, people are waking up

July 16, 2018

Boeing, one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, estimates an additional 640,000 pilots will be needed worldwide over the next 20 years, 40 per cent of them in the Asia Pacific region. Air New Zealand has announced that it’s working on the issue behind the scenes with the Airline Pilots Association, and there is agreement that trainee pilots need better support and more funding. …

Remember Geoff Kitto

New Zealand’s GA agricultural industry has lost another respected pilot. We express our sincere condolences to Geoff Kitto’s wife Andrina and their son Tom. With Geoff’s passing, we have also lost a great mentor of young agricultural pilots. In the last decade, Geoff’s focus was on training – to the extent that, over the years, he trained 37 agricultural pilots. He was very good …

The cockpit video and audio recording case

The result of the hearing by District Court Judge Cunningham has been published. Her decision has gone against the case presented by counsel for the pilot involved. The issue for the Court in the application for a pre-trial hearing was about the status of the evidence presented. The prosecution, with the assistance of the police, had compiled a DVD which included footage from the …

Farewell to stalwart aviator Walter Wagtendonk

May 18, 2018

Walter J Wagtendonk passed away peacefully at the Waipuna Hospice in the Tauranga area in the early hours of 18 May, aged 88. He was a former RNZAF Flight Leiutenant, a highly respected flying instructor and the author of many books on aviation. He came to New Zealand as a 21-year-old in late 1951 and the following year was accepted for pilot training in …

No apologies for acting in the public interest, says the CAA

April 5, 2018

The CAA has now had the opportunity to consider the material presented by the Des Lines and Brian Mackie including their “Overview” document and the results of their “Client Satisfaction” survey. The CAA welcomes feedback on its performance. As a responsible state sector entity, the CAA must – and does – operate in an environment of accountability to the public, whose interests it ultimately …

Shocking, insane and incompetent: Customers condemn the ‘toxic’ CAA

The full results of the GAA’s independent survey of CAA client satisfaction have been published. The report reveals significant disapproval and disquiet. On virtually all questions seeking a rating of 0 (no satisfaction) to 10 (very high), the Authority scored below 5 and in some cases, such as cost control, less than 2. The CAA is described by some GA customers as “shocking”, “insane”, …

We’re calling for a public inquiry into the CAA

The GAA is seeking a public inquiry into the Civil Aviation Authority. On 5 April, the GAA released a report detailing known and alleged CAA failures and shortcomings and another showing the results of the independent CAA client satisfaction survey. The dossier of failures and shortcomings has taken about six years to compile. It contains evidence of failures by the Authority and its governing …

Welcome to the new-look website

April 1, 2018

We have redesigned the website’s ‘look and feel’, for quicker access to the headline news and easier use of other features. At the same time, we’ve changed the typeface to make everything more readable. After being in the air for six years, we thought the website needed a refresh. And we’ve quietly changed from being ‘the General Aviation Advocacy group of New Zealand’ to …

A startling near-miss, but the CAA’s still nowhere in sight

March 29, 2018

This cockpit video recording shows a close shave between two light aircraft, operating somewhere in uncontrolled airspace in New Zealand*. It was taken on a GoPro-type camera in a club aircraft. The two aircraft involved were on a collision course at virtually the same altitude. The near-miss mightily alarmed the crew with the camera, who reported it on a CA005 incident form. But what’s …