[Peetwo]

The Last Minute Hitch: 15 November 2019
15 November 2019
    

– Steve Hitchen

An era ended this week with the final issue of Flightpath magazine being distributed. Australian Flying's sister title was in production for 31 years, rising as it did in concert with the burgeoning antique and warbird communities in this country. Flightpath tapped into a passion for old flying machines and a deep love of aviation history, and gave enthusiasts a conduit to connect themselves with the inner sanctum of a movement that most readers were relegated to worshipping from afar. It also found favour with the intimates of the antique and warbird communities, thanks to a reputation for accuracy and the integrity and street cred of editor Rob Fox and his cohort of expert contributors. Flightpath fell victim to an economic reality that hangs in Damoclean style over all aviation print titles. Since 2012, no less than seven have folded, three of them in 2019 alone. And so we must, reluctantly, farewell Flightpath, not because it wasn't a quality magazine, but because the numbers were simply against it as they were for all those other titles. To Foxy, MJC, James, Ron, Andy and all those others who made the magazine the best in its field, I say, well done. The aviation community is better off for your work.

"..schools don't want to cover the cost of that and the instructors can't.."

Are we seeing the first burning signs of aviation's very own climate change? Regional Express this week announced they had been given permission to import pilots, instructors and engineers ... and this is an airline that has its own academy! Surely if you want more pilots, you simply expand your academy and make more places open to students? Well, no, the problem isn't a lack of students. Students get nowhere without instructors, and that is where the real shortage lies. New regulations introduced with Part 61 and the impact of FEE-HELP positions at schools have had a beaver-dam affect on the flow of new instructors into the industry. Before the government-funded short-cut to airlines was introduced, new CPLs got themselves an instructor's rating (IR) and spent time teaching in schools, building hours whilst they waited on their chance to impress the airline recruiters. That's not the way it happens any more; those CPLs are going straight to the airlines without passing through the GA stream first. Where Part 61 has queered everything for Australia is that it introduces significant new costs for instructors that don't earn a lot to start with. The new regs require flight examination for just about every teaching discipline, with the associated costs. An instructor may have an IR and an instrument rating, but Part 61 says they can't teach IFR unless they've passed an extra examination to get an approval to do so. The schools don't want to cover the cost of that and the instructors can't, so it doesn't happen. What good to an academy is an instructor who can't teach a CPL to fly on instruments? No instructors means no new airline pilots, so Rex's hand was really forced; they have little option but to bring in people who have been trained outside the crucible of the changing training climate in Australia. This is probably just the start.
When Essendon Airport P/L (EAPL) drew up their draft master plan in April this year, they were pretty sure that Melbourne Airport's third runway was going to be a parallel 09/27 built south of the current apron and terminal. All indications pointed to that. Now Melbourne Airport has opted to prioritise another north-south runway built west of the ATC tower, there is less potential for conflict with Essendon's 17/35 ... at least for the next 20 years. The third runway is expected to be approved, built and operational by 2025, but then Melbourne's operators will be turning their eyes toward the fourth runway, a parallel east-west which will complete the "hashtag" layout. Then the problems with 17/35 at Essendon will re-emerge. However, we're now talking about sometime around 2040, so let's not get het-up about it just yet. Right now the change is a bit inconvenient for EAPL, who based their master plan on the assumption that MEL would put in the east-west runway first. Back to the drawing board?

Is this the end of Mooney, again? Since being rebirthed in 2013, the iconic US manufacturer has struggled with new aircraft sales, which is almost a death knell for any aircraft builder. The shutdown this week is mysterious as it wasn't announced and the media found out through an answering machine message left on the company phone. It could be that the company is simply in abeyance whilst they work things out, or it could be the end. Or ... the Chinese owners could be about to transfer manufacture to China. Most interesting is that apparently there is no sign of the company applying for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, yet. This means there is still hope that the shutdown is not forever. But, since getting back into building new aeroplanes, Mooney has sold only 34 of them. That's not an encouraging basis for a future business plan, even if you are backed by a seemingly bottomless pit of Yen.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/the-l...UlBTHCz.99

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And comment from Sandy...

Sandy Reith • 10 hours ago

Flying training is the bedrock of aviation and the mainstream of General Aviation. Hitch is correct to pin the worst aspects of Part 61 on the pilot shortage but the downward slide began many years before. CASA has been putting on it’s bureaucratic screws and ‘user pays’ regime onto the flying school industry from the early 90s. I can relate this trajectory to my own experience as CFI and principal of my own GA business which began in 1968 and with training added in ‘72. New fees and burgeoning paperwork really got underway with the conversion of the Department of Civil Aviation, under Ministerial control, into an independent Commonwealth corporate body, CAA then name changed to CASA. This experimental form of governance has been a massive failure, without the responsibility of a Minister back to Parliament and the people CASA is virtually a power unto itself for itself and hence the rules which are not fit for purpose and which have killed off thousands of GA jobs. We’ve lost $millions in GA aircraft capital value, particularly with the inappropriate mandating of Cessna Special Instruction Documents and dozens, if not hundreds, of Cessnas are languishing unused and simply rotting away. Aircraft are being exported, capital goods that we can ill afford to lose.

How is it in the USA? No instructor gradings, no extra permit which might cost here $50,000 or much more, get your rating and start training immediately. No formal syllabus must be followed, just have your student reach the standard. Much of the US rules if transgressed are not treated as criminal offences (strict liability). Own up here to even minor mistakes or omissions and you risk copping a criminal conviction. Try getting a visa for international travel, or a job or ASIC with that around your neck. Some such matters don’t even rate a mention in the USA. The upshot is that Aussies can go to the USA and learn to fly much faster and for a lot less money than here. Only the Parliament can alter the disgraceful state of General Aviation in Australia by allowing it to discard the straight jacket and grow freely like any other industry.

MTF...P2