[Peetwo]

And today from Ironsider in the Oz..  :

Flight training transition pain
ROBYN IRONSIDE
More than 240 flight training schools have been granted licensing approval under new Civil Aviation Safety regulations

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More than 240 flight training schools in Australia have been granted licensing approval under new Civil Aviation Safety regulations after a four year transition period.

The changeover has not been without its challenges for the schools, some of whom have closed rather than take on the extra administrative work imposed by the new system.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority confirmed 22 had not made the transition for various reasons, including unstable demand or a lack of resources.

However the 242 schools with approval included 39 newcomers to the industry, and ten more were in the process of making the transition.

Ben Wyndham, who operates Airspeed Aviation at Scone in NSW, said nothing had changed about how they taught people to fly, but “layers of administration and legal complexity” had been added.

“They ensure CASA can fulfil its safety oversight obligation by audit rather than expertise in the field,” Mr Wyndham said.

“If your documentation is up to scratch you’re fine, but as one aircraft engineer said ‘the turbo could be hanging off an aeroplane but if the paperwork says it was installed in accordance with the manual, it’s OK’.”

An example of the increased paperwork, was the basic lesson plan which now extended to five or six pages, rather than two.

“For a commercial licence you’re going to do about 250 flying lessons, so you can imagine how much paperwork you’ll end up with,” Mr Wyndham said.

“They’re about to do this to the charter industry as well and make it go through the same process.”

He said his flight training school had been forced to hire a safety manager because as the chief pilot and CEO he was not allowed to continue in that role.

“I’m possibly the most highly qualified safety manager in general aviation that I know of, but I’m not allowed to be a safety manager of my own business,” Mr Wyndham said.

“It’s tough because we’re not a large margin business, we only make enough to live.”

CASA’s acting CEO and director of aviation safety Graeme Crawford said the flight training transition was an important achievement for the aviation community and CASA.

“This was a considerable body of work and I would like to thank the flight training operators for their efforts in meeting the transition deadline,” Mr Crawford said.

“I appreciate this work on top of day-to-day business required an extra commitment.”

He said CASA provided a package of support to assist operators, including training syllabuses, sample manuals and expositions.

“The Manual Authoring and Assessment Tool helped to minimise the administration of the approval process, reducing the burden on the aviation community,” Mr Crawford said.

“I would like to thank CASA’s staff who worked hard to support flight training organisations through the transition.”

A study is currently under way to get a better picture of the true state of general aviation in ­Australia.

Azimuth Partners is conducting the research to provide an understanding of the size of the general aviation industry, its economic impact and employment rates.

The research will also address the health of the sector.

Plus:

LMH 7 Sept 2018: Process errors, training transition and Show Me the Mooney.

Via the Yaffa...  

The Last Minute Hitch: 7 September 2018
7 September 2018

– Steve Hitchen
Aviation is an activity based on process and procedure. We have checklists for most of the things we do; either committed to memory or physical cards. The idea of following processes and procedures is to ensure that we don't forget to do something that is critical to safe flight, or to make sure we get the outcome we want. Pre-start checklists have to be done in a specific order or you might not get the right outcome: an engine start. The customary TMPFISCH focuses our attention on the putting the aircraft in the right condition for take-off, but doesn't necessarily have to be done in that sequence if you can come up with a better mnemonic. Where it all comes apart is if something happens to distract us during the procedure. An instructor who wants to talk to you about something right now. A passenger who wants to ask what that protrusion at the back is while you're still checking the prop. Ground staff who want to tell you not to park here when you get back because they want to mow the lawn. When that happens (and it happens often), the most important thing you can do is recognise that the sequence has been disturbed and already have a strategy for dealing with it. You might go back to the last thing you remember checking and check it again, then go on; you might admonish the instructor and demand you finish the vital actions first. Last weekend my processes were broken twice and both times something was overlooked. Neither was dangerous; both were embarrassing. The worst part was that I failed to recognise the danger of interruption and went ahead as if everything was hunky-dory. That was the biggest mistake I made (twice!), not the actual oversights themselves. I got away with it cheap; next time I might not.

Flying schools have been dying-off for years

There are two ways of looking at the statistics that CASA released on the number of schools making the transition to Part 141/142. You could say that 235 organisations made the switch, which proves the new regulations are capable of being adhered to, or you could say that Part 141/142 killed 22 flying schools and has another 10 hanging in there. No doubt the colour of your general opinion of regulatory reform will impact your perception of the announcement. It would be tough to say that Part 141/142 killed off 22 schools. Flying schools have been dying-off for years well before the transition to the new rules began, and these 22 could be natural attrition. However, speaking to several school owners, the impost of conforming to the new rules was mountainous, so there's no way it could not have had some impact on the decision to close their doors. Schools already under financial stress would have found this a very large straw to be loading on the company camel; it was so even for those that made the move successfully.

Congratulations to Team Show Me the Mooney out of Coffs Harbour, firstly for having a great team name; and secondly, for taking line honours in the 2018 Outback Air Race. The honour of top fundraiser went to Tait Auto Group who alone raised more than 10% of the total. All 38 teams put in this year and poured over $500,000 into the RFDS coffers; money that is very much needed and very well placed. All 90 competitors and the organisers can rightfully be proud of such a great effort. Onwards to the next one!

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

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

 

MTF...P2