Queensland Government

[neville_nobody]

If its government employees in government aircraft why would they need an AOC? You'd be crazy to go down that path if you didn't have to.

[holdingagain]

Crazy yes, but as explained to me a great way to create a new empire within the Govt and Casa were also keen to expand their control over large private operators. Win win for stupidity

[oscar duce]

I’m told it is the worst it has ever been now they have JG in control
He was responsible for more than enough damage in his previous positions.

[440]

Yep they have an AOC, issued in August I’m told. Now I hear that JG is even over ruling engineers. What a cluster.

[601]

Holder Name: STATE OF QUEENSLAND REPRESENTED BY PUBLIC SAFETY BUSINESS AGENCY
Town/City: PINKENBA
State: QLD
AOC Holder Country: Australia
Type of AOC: Aerial Work, Aircraft Charter, CASR 142
AOC Application Status: Issued
Issue Date: 21/05/2020
Expiry Date: 30/04/2022
Holder Name: STATE OF QUEENSLAND REPRESENTED BY PUBLIC SAFETY BUSINESS AGENCY
Town/City: PINKENBA
State: QLD
Type of AOC: Aircraft Charter
AOC Application Status: Issued
Issue Date: 26/08/2020
Expiry Date: 31/08/2021

[megle2]

New rumour is air wing is now part of police so I guess AOC will have to be corrected

[Stationair8]

Advertising for flight crew on AFAP website.

[limbang]

Cairns - B1900 maintenance assigned to third party. Sign of things to come?

[CAVOK92]

They have been hiring crew and aircraft from a third party organisation as well. Would make a lot of sense to just contract the whole thing.

[Al Fentanyl]

Originally Posted by CAVOK92

They have been hiring crew and aircraft from a third party organisation as well. Would make a lot of sense to just contract the whole thing.

They've managed to privatise (sorry contract) helicopter rescue in Qld, at 30% more cost than the Gov rescue setup with the exact same aircraft and crewing. Would be interesting to see how much a private operator could screw out of the Gov for FW services as well. Possibly even the same profit-driven private operator. Love that Government money! Bottomless well to supply the endless trough.

[havick]

Originally Posted by Al Fentanyl

They've managed to privatise (sorry contract) helicopter rescue in Qld, at 30% more cost than the Gov rescue setup with the exact same aircraft and crewing. Would be interesting to see how much a private operator could screw out of the Gov for FW services as well. Possibly even the same profit-driven private operator. Love that Government money! Bottomless well to supply the endless trough.

Do you know the actual overall costs of the government operation, or are you just floating this to get a rise?

Also, how much downtime has the government operation had without penalties applied? How much aircraft downtime has the contracted company had by comparison due MX/crewing/whatever?

I don’t work for either but just curious.

[Al Fentanyl]

RW services were recently reviewed by the Govt. Info from that.

[havick]

Originally Posted by Al Fentanyl

RW services were recently reviewed by the Govt. Info from that.

That’s a pretty vague deflection. I know government rotary wing assets often have sat grounded for extremely long periods in years gone by with little to no recourse.

Had that have been a contracted operator, penalties would have been huge.

I’m not for, or against either model. Just pointing out what has happened in the past.

[CAVOK92]

Looking at the fixed wing section they appear to be run reasonably efficiently. And given the nature of the work when there is a break down chartering out the work isn’t an issue. The only questionable part is, quite often when they are short of their own pilots they bring in contract crew from a 3rd party who are not QG air employees. How they manage to call it private ops is beyond me. CASA are unofficially turning a blind eye to the whole thing.

[megan]

How they manage to call it private ops is beyond me

Not sure of the point you're trying to make, unless things have changed, flew for a private operator, maintenance, C & T etc was all done by the operators employees, pilots brought in from a commercial operator were a feature for many years to fill slots alongside the in house company pilots.

[Al Fentanyl]

Originally Posted by havick

That’s a pretty vague deflection. I know government rotary wing assets often have sat grounded for extremely long periods in years gone by with little to no recourse.

Had that have been a contracted operator, penalties would have been huge.

I’m not for, or against either model. Just pointing out what has happened in the past.

Not deflection, just not seeing any need to go chapter and verse on a Rumour Forum. You want more info, it's easy enough to find.

The contracted commercial profit making operator is subject to performance obligations and failure penalties BECAUSE they are a contracted, commercial, profit making operator. The Govt operator clearly is not and their KPIs suggest they do at least as good a job for a lot less tax payer money.

[oscar duce]

Rumour that funds for up to 4 new aircraft to be announced in the Qld budget.

[440]

Well that may or may not be true, time will tell. Things are only going from bad to worse, in the last few months 3 engineers and 2 pilots have departed from the FW side of house. Can’t stand the toxic environment any longer apparently. So who is going to drive and maintain the current fleet let alone any new cabs.

[601]

Would make a lot of sense to just contract the whole thing.

How would a commercial operator do this.
Fly a minister to Longreach and arrive midafternoon.
Settle in for the night. Get a call that the aircraft is required for a heart/lung retrieval from Nelson in NZ.

Plan and fly back empty to BN.

New crew plan the NZ flight.
Fly to Nelson.
Wait a minimum of 6 hours on the ground.
Sleep in the aircraft.
Fly to Auckland for fuel and Customs.
Fly back to Brisbane.

The NZ flight is way over the duty limits for any AOC operations.

How would an AOC holder conduct that flight.
Private operations is the only way to conduct that flight unless you positioned a crew in Nelson.
Organ retrievals do not give time to position crew.

The above is not fantasy. It does happen.

[lucille]

Could they not arrange for road transport of the organs to CHC to meet the aircraft as it lands? Makes more sense on every level when you take the constraints that you mention into account. Contrary to popular opinion, crews on Private Ops also suffer from fatigue.