You are not wrong, but the flying school would be the main beneficiary of the ILS. It enhanced their sales presentation to their potential Chinese Airline customers and would save them money having it at their home base OCTA.


Other beneficiaries would be training organisations in Ballarat, Bendigo, Melbourne, Adelaide and others places that would flock to Mildura, creating airspace congestion and hazards for all GA & RPT flights.

The Federal Government money was promised at election time by the Nationals desperate to hold onto a safe seat after Sugar Daddy & Old Daddy’s controversial behaviour. Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said “It happened because Anne Webster, The Nationals' Candidate did not let up. It happened because she continually rang me and rang me and rang me and phoned me and said, "For goodness' sake, we need this. We need this not just for our region, we need it for our future. We need it for the young pilots who need to be able to train here. We need it so that pilot training schools can relocate to Mildura."

$2 million from the Feds, $1 million from the council owned Airport & the other $1 Million from the council. Everyone is happy, Anne gets her seat in the House of Representatives, Nationals Keep the Mallee and IAA can close the deal with the Chinese Airlines.

But are they, local GA community don’t want it, Airlines don’t want it local residents don’t want it. The economic benefit is highly debateable the flying school shareholders are probably the Chinese owner or Chinese companies. How much money ends up in the local economy. How much will Mildura Tourism suffer because of this foreign owned entity.

The only hurdle left was to get the last $1 million from the council, when you have lots of money even it is allegedly embezzled that is easy, you just buy a Mayor. So, the MRCC Mayor Simon Clemence became the CEO of a flight school.

Anne Webster had previously announced the Fed money stating that the CAT I ILS would allow aircraft to land in fog, so it must be true because at the council meeting the Councillors that spoke for the ILS said this is about safety Aircraft will be able to land in Fog.

Deal done a couple of farmers think it is a good idea, no research or consultation let’s spend $1 Million of taxpayer's money.

I heard there’s a few 172s up for sale

Yup, 10 I believe

Only 10? There were initially 8 172s with an additional 48 ordered for progressive delivery over 2020/21. They clearly don't want to flood the market and depress prices.

Not to mention there was no community consultation. Deals done behind closed doors.

Community consultation about what?

About the International Flying School starting at MQL which is owned by the council - hence ratepayers. All hidden agenda

You need to take off that tin foil hat.

I smell disgruntled (sacked) employees!!

Not really. They are disgruntled for a reason. The truth is coming out.

Certainly, looks that way, but someone mentioned 35 instructors, 6 HOOs and a company name change every 3 months in the last 10 months. Must be something going on there.

Mildura flight school operations Compliance
 

Can anyone on here explain how an instructor can fly 90 or so hours at night without NVFR and not lose their license or attract a severe penalty(including whomever authorised him to do so). A couple of hours I get, but the amount this individual flew is a blatant breach and makes a mockery of the legislation surely?

That's a question for CASA, assuming this place was audited surely they would have picked up on this? If so did they choose to ignore it (imo I highly doubt CASA would choose to just ignore it) or this actually wasn't a case and is just baseless accusations?

They obviously knew what they were doing as the aircraft didn’t fall from the sky!

It’s still VFR, but it’s at night... you can hardly lock them up for that. Sounds like a paperwork thing rather than someone not possessing the required skills and or experience.

Anyone who holds a licence should know that flying VFR at night without NVFR Rating or IR is ..... totally illegal

Dude...........FFS, are you serious?

So does anyone here know if the instructor in question had an IFR rating?

Like I said and Strainer has eluded to, it sounds more likely to be a paperwork type error.

The poster doesn’t mention if the instructor was flying at night or instructing at night either.

I get told a lot of things in aviation, the most surprising ones are: “the regulations are grey about xxxx”, or “ I know the regulation says X but you can do Y”, or “the regulator doesn’t really mind”, or “I know it’s technically wrong, but just do it anyway”.
‘
To that I now add “it’s just a paperwork thing”.

Not being a sky god and considering that these are ultimately matters of criminal law, I find this deeply unsettling.

Sunfish et al, read the above. It says that the instructor did not lose their license or receive a severe penalty. If it was “totally illegal” etc, then perhaps what the poster (I note their first post in pprune) has written, then maybe it was BS, or indeed as I said, “just a paperwork” issue. By paperwork I mean signed off to do so.

There’s a big difference between not actually holding a NVFR rating, versus holding one and teaching others to do so!

Many instructors incorrectly presume that just because they hold an Instrument Rating and an Instructor Rating they are permitted under the regulations to teach NVFR. To teach NVFR an instructor must also hold the FIR - NVFR Training Endorsement. CASA is aware of this misconception regarding NVFR teaching and is currently taking more of an educative approach to breaches rather than a punitive approach, which is sensible and pragmatic.

I was told by a disgruntled employee that the NVFR thing came to light from a CASA audit. The instructor in question did not hold the required training endorsement.

Thankyou Lexair. Correct.

So a couple of decades or so and a lazy few hundred millions or so spent on regulatory reform, and:

• there's confusion about whether a rating is required to deliver NVFR training, and
• it’s just a paperwork issue for people who are holders of both instructor ratings and IFR ratings.

Confusion and pointless paperwork. Big thumbs up CASA!

Thank you lexair.

That is a worry, Lexair. Instructors work under a HOO whose job it is to ensure that incorrect presumptions aren't made and that instructors are allocated jobs they are qualified to do.

I once worked at a school where they had an unsupervised Grade Three teaching night VFR at a remote base with no suitable alternates within an hours flight time, so this sort of thing did happen.

In this case it could be legal if the guy is doing supervised night circuits. People do 5 hours of this so they can do IFR at night, but 90 hours? Surely 90 hours of night circuits would drive anyone insane however badly they want that ATPL.

If CASA were capable of pragmatism, instructors could instruct for any skill that they themselves have demonstrated. Can fly a night circuit? Yes, should now be able to teach night circuits. Flew cross-country at night for the NVFR or IFR test? Can now teach. Why not? Often, the best time to teach something is soon after you have been examined in that skill yourself.
Some airlines recognized this and had a policy of selecting training captains from newly promoted captains, while the extensive work involved in command upgrade or transition to a new type was still fresh in their minds.
Our licencing system has far too many layers of BS.

Thanks MEAvelli, ++1 here.

One of the HOO's up there is a very interesting character, I'll bet it was under his watch ;) :O

This was the case for quite a few things under CAR 5. The Part 61 regs have added a significant amount of cost to an instructor (or organisation) who'd like to or has to add training approvals to their rating. Whilst the 'new' instructor rating has stripped a bit of cost, it doesn't make up for the added approvals cost.

Any idea if this is how it works in USA? If not I'd like to know where they pulled this idea from...

Dude, it is so far removed from the States that it's unrecognisable.

"sensible and pragmatic.", I wanted to puke when I read that.
This statement, apparently floated by CASA, is pure propaganda.
Its a reaction their escalating bureaucratic nightmare of ratings upon ratings
and the NVFR is a classic example.

No wonder instructors leave Australia and don't return.

I heard that 7 instructors walked out today

Is this from a reliable source?

Where will they be going?

I assume to the back of the centrelink line. Hard to see where these instructors could get employed during these times

7 Instructors walking out on the same day, knowing it is extremely hard to find a new job during this Covid pandemic is a clear example that the company shouldn't be operating the way it is operating now. It is a disaster waiting to happen

There are rumours that IAA Mildura will be shutting down soon. Because all their Instructors walked out recently IAA is unable to complete the pilot training before the dead line given by the airlines. They are desperately looking for other 142 operators to take over their cadets to complete their training inorder to keep the contract. If that happens, I wonder what happens to all their brand new aeroplanes??. Maybe set them on fire for insurance money??

The amount of brand new accounts all set with their location to Mildura is astonishing :ugh: