Geotourism by air in Aus/NZ
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Geotourism by air in Aus/NZ
I was wondering what the feeling is among aerial operators in Aus and NZ about the opportunities / barriers / to geotourism by air in the region?
I'll throw the following into the ring myself:
1. When I asked operators I was flying with when here last about 10 years, there appeared to be a cautious optimism that the field could be exploited a bit more, especially considering the distances and accessibility issues for people wanting to visit some of the more spectacular sights.
2. From what I can see, there are a number of operations in place, although has there been any noticeable growth in the past decade? Of course, the expense of getting to some of these bases by commercial in the first place (especially in WA) can be a real blocker
3. The operators I spoke to in more detail seemed to suggest what they were lacking was actually the natural history expertise in form of guides or becoming better tellers of the stories themselves. In fact, what they really wanted was geoscientists / natural scientists who also happened to be CPL's
4. I was at a big Earth Science conference recently that had a dedicated session on Geotourism, which is seen as a burgeoning field. One of the headline messages from the session was that an aerial component was going to play a big part in certain regions, e.g. Aus, where there is high-net worth tourists, the aspect of access as well as flightseeing and abundant VFR.
5. There is presumably some contact already between the aviation and science communities through certain existing activities, but I wonder how often the idea of aerial geotourism gets mentioned over a pint as a "wouldn't that be cool" but dismissed (too complicated, don't know right people, too risky?).....
Would be great to hear your thoughts and please feel free to PM me.
To be clear - I have a foot in both camps, so happy to translate
Cheers
BFA
I'll throw the following into the ring myself:
1. When I asked operators I was flying with when here last about 10 years, there appeared to be a cautious optimism that the field could be exploited a bit more, especially considering the distances and accessibility issues for people wanting to visit some of the more spectacular sights.
2. From what I can see, there are a number of operations in place, although has there been any noticeable growth in the past decade? Of course, the expense of getting to some of these bases by commercial in the first place (especially in WA) can be a real blocker
3. The operators I spoke to in more detail seemed to suggest what they were lacking was actually the natural history expertise in form of guides or becoming better tellers of the stories themselves. In fact, what they really wanted was geoscientists / natural scientists who also happened to be CPL's
4. I was at a big Earth Science conference recently that had a dedicated session on Geotourism, which is seen as a burgeoning field. One of the headline messages from the session was that an aerial component was going to play a big part in certain regions, e.g. Aus, where there is high-net worth tourists, the aspect of access as well as flightseeing and abundant VFR.
5. There is presumably some contact already between the aviation and science communities through certain existing activities, but I wonder how often the idea of aerial geotourism gets mentioned over a pint as a "wouldn't that be cool" but dismissed (too complicated, don't know right people, too risky?).....
Would be great to hear your thoughts and please feel free to PM me.
To be clear - I have a foot in both camps, so happy to translate
Cheers
BFA
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Can't comment on Australian side, but in NZ part 135 operators are quite thinly stretched. 135 certificate is fairly expensive to maintain and having a good aircraft or two, in decent cosmetic state would make quite a dent in the owner's pocket. Tourism in NZ is not known to be heavy small-aeroplanes hit so my uneducated guess would be - possible but expensive, risky and prone to go belly up in a very short time.
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In Australia they have rules that prevent aviation. If by some chance someone actually risked their money trying to start some sort of aviation they would very quickly devise rules that prevented it, unless of course you could do it with drones.
Priceless 
But, sadly, all too accurate.
And mounting a startup Part 135 in NZ, is a fraction of the cost and time, compared to Australia, where, regardless of expenditure of both time and money, you stand a good chance of never getting the required AOC.
Tootle pip!!
A bit, ..sorry ..very bizarre.. CAsA wants yr financial status, projected ( mythical) figures of revenue, expenses and etc, etc. Time wasting stuff made up as they went along !
By the time the AOC came thru 14 months later, the 'operator' was broke, having to pay rent, feed a family and all the usual expenses while waiting...and waiting. !
Scrapped along for a few years on the bones of his backside, and decided there were more profitable enterprises to be had OUT of aviation all together.
True story. He was a very experienced pilot, loved his flying, but was mortally wounded at the first hurdle.
Yes, dynamic Oz.. the lucky country. Jobs and growth and all that crap.
By the time the AOC came thru 14 months later, the 'operator' was broke, having to pay rent, feed a family and all the usual expenses while waiting...and waiting. !
Scrapped along for a few years on the bones of his backside, and decided there were more profitable enterprises to be had OUT of aviation all together.
True story. He was a very experienced pilot, loved his flying, but was mortally wounded at the first hurdle.
Yes, dynamic Oz.. the lucky country. Jobs and growth and all that crap.
Aviation tourism ie overseas pilots coming here for flying holidays/safaris was booming until CASA moved the Certificate of Validation process to CLARC in Canberra. What used to take a couple of hours to validate an overseas licence can now take several months, if it gets done at all. No reason that I can see why anyone in CASA should be involved in this at all, but for as long as they are, self-fly aviation tourism will be a distant memory. 
I see the site in the post above makes no mention of this or the requirements for an ASIC etc. Good luck to them.
I see the site in the post above makes no mention of this or the requirements for an ASIC etc. Good luck to them.
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If you check in the testimonials section of the website above you'll see that customers/visitors needed to obtain an ASIC card and did 8 hours or more of ground school and in one instance decided it was all too hard and hired an Aussie pilot as a guide.
