VTOL news updates - Australia
What will the new FISCAL Year bring?
The Australian FISCAL year starts on 1 July. This is when many rotorcraft and drone operators begin to plan carefully for the coming year’s activities. By comparison, the northern hemisphere vertical flight operators are now enjoying their summer holidays, which explains why it is harder to contact OEMs in the USA and Europe.
Looking back at the previous year, Australians had some significant challenges, to provide enough rotorcraft resources to overcome setbacks the Australian community suffered due to bushfires, floods, cyclones and drought relief, just to mention a few of the natural disasters Mother Nature tossed our way. It was during these responses by emergency services, drones began emerging as a highly effective supplement to other airborne agencies; when appropriate coordination was in place. The search and surveying capabilities has been totally underestimated; and now most emergency services are vigorously pursuing the new RPAS technology now coming onto the market.
Despite past community support operations now being distant memories; the last six months has been a time of insecurity for many Australian operators due to the regulatory reform processes being imposed upon the general aviation (GA) helicopter industry and to a lesser extent the emerging drone industry. The pre-election polling was predicting a federal election which would result in a change of government.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), with the best of intentions, has embarked on an enormous change to the generally accepted long-standing rules; which probably is of little bother to the airlines. However, the aeroplane general aviation industry had to make enormous adjustments in matters relating to the training of flight crew and technical maintenance staff.
Although helicopters only make up 15% of the Australian civil register, operators’ expressions of concern often received little attention. But with the passing of time, the aviation community clearly understood the helicopter industry has undergone more changes than their aeroplane cousins. Several regulatory matters are still to be sorted but are being delayed by the fact industry and the regulator are both suffering skill shortages, especially in areas where revision of the complex legislation is required.
It has been claimed the complex legislation was written by lawyers to brief judges on aviation issues during court proceedings. Fortunately, CASA has noted many operators are having trouble with the new hard to understand legislation. As a result, CEO of CASA has taken action to have some parts of the regulations rewritten in plain English, so those on the flight line and can implement the new rules.
The primary cause of the insecurity being felt as the election approached, was that working committees are often linked to the federal Minister responsible for aviation and CEO of CASA. But a change of government would cause an enormous amount of disruption to this process. Industry would have to wait while the new minister became familiar with the problems he was inheriting and the work in progress by committees. Many volunteers assisting on committees thought much work would be lost; or proposed solutions would be further delayed causing their businesses to suffer further.
No doubt the VTOL industry breathed a sigh of relief when the previous government was re-elected. As history shows, the then opposition was touted to take over the government as their social welfare offerings and promises of increased spending on social reforms would be considered more popular than the incumbent government’s more conservative business aligned approach to the economy.
The future of the VTOL industry is now much brighter now CEO of CASA has restructured his Aviation Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP). The recent restructuring of the panel is an important step forward to further improve communication between the industry and CASA. The ASAP provides the DAS/CEO with informed and objective advice on current and potential issues and the way CASA performs its functions.
In order to move closer to the coalface, three new and respected members were appointed, they are: Adrianne Fleming, Ray Cronin and Dr Reece Clothier. The highly regarded newcomers are from the light aircraft, helicopter and drone segments of the industry. Professor Pat Murray, of the University of Southern Queensland, is all the independent Chair of the Panel. Three current members of the ASAP continue to serve - John Gissing, Jim Davis and Michael Monck – as well as CASA’s two representatives, Graeme Crawford and Rob Walker.
In conclusion, the Australian VTOL community is being offered better access to CASA at the highest level; and the economy is undergoing significant changes which are now being approved by the Senate in Canberra.
The future, in fact, looks good!
At a guess, the general aviation industry itself will soon undergo significant changes due to the new air taxi UAM technology being trialled soon in Australia. International experts warn the new air taxi industry will attract many helicopter pilots who will be pioneers in this new industry, further increasing shortages in the helicopter industry segment.
Enjoy - Rickshaw