Presidents Blog
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June already and Winter is on us. Frosty mornings with beautiful calm flying conditions. I have to confess to doing just that this morning. I picked up the Piper Dakota at Fielding last week after Avcraft Engineering had spent countless hours (and dollars) upgrading the panel with a G500, GTN650, GNC255, GMA 340 audio panel, ADSB Trig transponder and an Electronics International CGR 30P engine analyser. They have done a great job and everything worked well. I won’t go into it here but will write an article for the next magazine. The PA 28 236 is going to be a good strip machine with the same performance as a C182 so I am looking forward to getting out and about. This morning I went and flew a couple of approaches at Takaka to check out the old Century autopilot and blow me down, it works with GPS steering all the way including the missed approach. One of the benefits of this exercise is following it through the CAA process of getting PBN RNP approval. Already we have identified some hiccups and are working to get the red tape reduction process in action.
The PPL medical review is well underway with submissions being called for by CAA. If you have not already done so please go to our website www.aopa.co.nz/page.php?id=183 and look at what we are proposing, then put a submission into CAA. You can do this just by emailing the CAA at consultation@caa.govt.nz and saying that you support the AOPA submission in total or if you want to fill the complete document in the link is on the website as above.
Steve Brown, (who at this minute is 20 minutes out of Lord Howe Island with Peter Glaister in the Cherokee 6), has done a fantastic job on this medical review. We had the chance to brief the CAA medical team on it at the last medical meeting and they listened but made no comment. It will be interesting to see the submissions which close on 19th June.
New Southern Sky (NSS) is progressing well with some new stuff about to go up on their website. I think we have made a lot of progress for GA and it is great to have Ashok Padoval from Aviation NZ along with Qwilton Beal from ACAG at the table defending the GA side of the program. I also had a chat with Tom Ashton last week who flies the medical evac twin for Garden City. It is input from people like Tom, who have the practical experience, that gives us the ammunition we need to make a difference for GA at the NSS Working Group.
The ADSB Cost Benefit Analysis Is well underway and being complete by Earnst Young or EY as they are called. I have to say that Adam who is doing the work has developed a good understanding of what the issues are. I look forward to the completed product.
AOPA has been assisting NSS Working Group with developing a simple explanation of PBN and this will be released in the next few days. Hopefully it will cut through the screeds of paper and present it on one page.
The Fuel for Thought CAA seminars ore on at the moment so go along and have a listen. They put a lot of work into these sessions which are well worth the time to attend.
The international AOPA World Assembly planning is well underway with a lot of registrations already. I can only stress that if you want to attend get registered and then book the hotel room as these are going to be hard to get for next Easter. www.iaopa2018.com will give you all the information you need.
We have our next exec meeting on the 30th June in Christchurch. Mary Bruce is going to be on holiday somewhere in Northern Queensland for the next three weeks so replies from admin may be a little slow. I guess it depends on the strength of the Gin Slings. She deserves a break.
The Aon PLB competition is still on so see below for the details.
By the way, Steve and Peter have landed at Lord Howe Island. A great little place in the Tasman sea and well worth a visit.
Fly safely
Ian Andrews
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