[Peetwo]

Chester & the Avalon GAAG motion -

An update for 4D, hot off the Avalon press cycle...

Via FlightGlobal.. : 

AVALON: Government grapples with decline of general aviation

• 01 March, 2017
  
• SOURCE: Flightglobal.com
  
• BY: Emma Kelly
  
• Melbourne
  

The Australian Government’s recently-established General Aviation Advisory Group was due to meet for the first time during the Avalon air show as the country’s GA industry grapples with its ongoing decline.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester announced formation of the group in February in an effort to improve consultation with the GA sector. “The GA Advisory Group will ensure the industry has a voice at the heart of government by providing advice directly to me on matters affecting the sector,” says Chester.

The group is headed by Martin Laverty, chief executive officer of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and includes representatives from companies involved in GA maintenance, manufacture and training.

The group will feed into the government’s ongoing GA Study that was launched last year, and which is due to be completed by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics in June. The study is looking at the current state of the Australian GA sector, identifying challenges and potential opportunities.

The government’s focus on GA follows concerns raised by the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association (AOPA) and the Australian Aviation Associations Forum (TAAAF) on the decline of the once vibrant sector. AOPA says that the country’s once flourishing GA industry “is now slowly dying” and “collapsing under the weight of regulation”.

In order to arrest its decline, AOPA has proposed policies and initiatives to revitalise the industry in its Project Eureka brief to government issued last year. AOPA has identified nine areas that need “bold and innovative policy reform” in order to revitalise the industry, including flight regulations and operations; industry funding and taxes; flight training; aviation medicine; airspace management; engineering/manufacturing and future technologies.

Amongst its recommendations, AOPA calls for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to be absorbed back into the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development for oversight purposes; an airports policy to prevent loss and degradation of GA industries and infrastructure; US FAA-style rules to replace Civil Aviation Orders and regulations; inexpensive pathways for aviation apprenticeships; and harmonised medical certification between recreational and GA pilots.

(P2  - How come no comment or focus on the much more credible and representative TAAAF and their TAAAF Policy 2016?) 

Also from FlghtGlobal at Avalon, it would appear that besides a good news story Mahindra will not be gagged at the Minister's GAAG fest and has a very pertinent message for Minister 4D (in bold):

AVALON: Mahindra confident of imminent Airvan 10 certification

• 01 March, 2017
  
• SOURCE: Flight International
  
• BY: Emma Kelly
  
• Melbourne
  

Mahindra Aerospace is confident of type certification for its long-delayed Airvan 10 from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority in March, with US Federal Aviation Administration certification expected to follow shortly after.

Mahindra’s Australia-based aircraft manufacturer - formerly GippsAero - has been working on the stretched 10-seat version of the successful Airvan 8 utility aircraft since 2011, with its first flight completed in 2012. The design has changed a number of times, concedes Mahindra's business development manager Marguerite Morgan. The manufacturer was trying to achieve a family of aircraft concept, with the Airvan 10 being a natural progression from the Airvan 8.

The manufacturer has not started to take orders for the Airvan 10, but there is “good, solid interest”, adds Morgan.

Going through Australian and US certification concurrently has highlighted the increased costs faced by Australian manufacturers, says Morgan, with the manufacturer long complaining that Australian companies are not on a level playing field with overseas counterparts when it comes to certification.

She will be highlighting this fact in her new role as a member of the Australian Government’s General Aviation Advisory Group which was set up in February in an effort to improve consultation with the country’s GA sector and arrest the sector’s decline.

Meanwhile, no firm plans have been made for a third Airvan family member, with Mahindra originally planning to upgrade the former Nomad aircraft and relaunch it as an 18-seat Airvan 18.

“The total focus is currently on the Airvan 10,” says Morgan.

Some 240 Airvan 8s are currently in service. Deliveries of the type to China recently started, with the first five going to local dealer Shaanxi Jinggong General Aviation Company and already operating on tourist flights and freight work.

Mahindra remains hopeful of deliveries this year to Indian customers once it overcomes regulatory hurdles.

Alaska is proving a strong market for the type, with nine aircraft going to the country over the last two years, while five aircraft are being operated by the Californian Highway Patrol.

Morgan concedes that some component manufacturer has moved from the Australian facility to Mahindra’s aerospace component manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, India, but aircraft production remains at the Latrobe Valley, Victoria facility where 125 people are employed. Mahindra remains committed to the Australian facility, adds Morgan.

Chocfrog for Mahindra's Marguerite Morgan...


MTF...P2