Presidents report
There was an ICAO Asia Pacific region ADSB conference in Christchurch in April that I was asked to give a presentation at from GA perspective. This was on the day before the official workshop but was well attended by all the delegates. I followed a good presentation by Andrew Andersen from AOPA Australia and he gave an idea of the coverage in outback Australia with particular emphasis on around Alice Springs. There is no doubt about it that ADSB can give remarkable coverage down to low level in Australia. They are about to install another 13 receivers to improve the coverage even more. New Zealand is way behind on convincing me that they are planning a coverage that will make GA VFR trip over themselves to install the equipment needed. The vast majority of aircraft in NZ are not capable and cannot be made capable without a serious upgrade to their avionics.
There are some suppliers that are working on products that will reduce the cost if they can be accepted by our CAA. There is a fair way to go yet to get this sorted with AC91-21 not ready until December 2015. This is the AC that will tell us what we need to comply with the rules. Interestingly Airbus said at the seminar that they recommend that users of their aircraft should go for an exemption from the FAA rule because they do not comply as it is written.
The CAA WX Matters safety seminars are underway so go along and see what they have to tell you about weather. They go to a lot of effort on these road shows so support them.
Our Magazine relies on articles by members about members. We do not try to be another public magazine for sale on the newsstands. It is about our members and their activities no matter what they may be. Four times a year we need articles and profiles on you that will be of interest to the other 1000 members out there. Please send in contributions with good high quality pictures of what you have been up to in your area. It is the same old contributors time after time that keep it going and we need some fresh ideas. Send it to Angela at admin@aopa.co.nz and we will take it from there.
There is a fly-in at Hammer this weekend subject to weather of course and I hope to see you there. Then it is not long until the winter super fly-in at Omarama 10th July but watch the website for any others that may be organised spontaneously.
Finally thanks to Guy Sanders who has organised the Z energy discount to go up to 10 cents per litre from 1st May for registered AOPA customers. It is well worth the effort to register and if you are in doubt give Guy a call. We do hear stories that other suppliers are only a few cents dearer at some locations but we need to support Z or there won’t be any competition. Prices vary but for AOPA Z should always be cheaper.
Safe flying
Ian Andrews
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