New Year's Resolution - let's reform aviation in 2002

On a flying trip to New Zealand it was obvious that their regulations are far more simple than ours and their industry is booming. Let’s work on changing our costly and restrictive regulations to allow our industry to flourish.

Early last year I had two weeks of magnificent VFR flying by helicopter in New Zealand. I was with my wife and we were taking photographs for a new book we are producing.

It is extraordinary to see how advanced the New Zealanders are and how simple their air traffic system is.

I shipped the helicopter on a roll-on, roll-off vessel to New Zealand. This only took 4 days. I landed the helicopter on a small platform on the wharf at Darling Harbour, and took it off from the same platform at Auckland Harbour. There were very few formalities, although the cost was AUD $10,000 – pretty expensive.

Initially I flew to Ardmore Aerodrome, which is the main secondary airport for the Auckland area and is similar in traffic movements to Archerfield. In the past, the tower was manned by air traffic controllers from the New Zealand Airways Corporation – the equivalent body to our Airservices Australia. Now the tower is manned by flying instructors from Ardmore based flying schools. They provide a UNICOM service and it is excellent. The cost of providing the service seven days a week is about NZ$100,000 per annum – i.e. AUD$82,215. Compare this with the current cost of Archerfield of over AUD$2 million per annum. The lower cost of running the service means that charges can be kept to a minimum and more money can be spent on actually flying. The airfield was booming, with aircraft arriving and departing, and the New Zealand owned Catalina flying boat preparing for circuits.

Flying in New Zealand is mainly in Class G airspace. The eye-opener was the procedure for entering Class D zones. They follow the simple American procedure of just announcing your intentions and the controller comes back with a friendly call such as, “Join downwind for 07, traffic is a 737 on final.” It is very friendly and simple with no repeating of clearance requests or detailed departure calls as in Australia.

We flew right up around Mount Cook and over the Abel Tasman and Franz Joseph Glaciers. There is a simple procedure for VFR aircraft to give calls at specific well-known landmarks, as the traffic density is enormous, with many helicopters and fixed wing aircraft giving joy flights. This is very different to the endless stream of meaningless VFR position reports broadcast we have here as all of the NZ pilots make the same call at the same location so all traffic is known.

The USA also has high aviation participation levels
New Zealand is not the only country benefiting from simple commonsense regulations. The following table shows some differences between aviation in Australia and the USA. It is interesting to note that compared with the USA we have only 5.6% of the number of pilots, yet we have 25% of the number of ATOs! I believe this may actually lead to a reduction in the standard of flight testing. The sad thing shown in the table is the dismally low percentage of aircraft, pilots and flight hours per year when compared with the USA. This is why it is so important to encourage participation in aviation, not just safety. If there were no aircraft flying in Australia we would without doubt be the safest aviation country in the world!

	USA	Australia	% of USA
Population	276 million	20 million	7.2%
Air carrier aircraft	19,145	483	2.5%
General aviation aircraft	206,530	10,042	4.9%
Pilots	640,000	35,640	5.6%
Flight hours per year	50 million	3 million	6%
Airports	13,642	599	4.4%
Control towers	545	28	5.1%
Enroute control centres	25	2	8%
Terminal radar facilities	236	6	2.5%
ILS	1,364	32	2.3%
VOR	1,566	93	5.9%
NDB	1,222	265	21.7%
Approved testing officers/Designated Examiners	1,035	259	25%

Sources: AOPA USA, Australian Department of Transport AVSTATS, Australian National Audit Office, Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Airservices Australia.

Australian procedures are more restrictive
Here is an example of our restrictive regulations compared to the USA. I was amazed to read the following comment on Coolangatta in the ERSA.

“Pilots wishing to enter CG CTR without submitting flight notification may expect delays due to heavy traffic.”

Can you imagine this? Our little Cooly airport with 89,000 movements per annum can’t accept a VFR aircraft calling in for landing without putting in a flight plan. In comparison, if you wanted to fly into Los Angeles International Airport, or even Atlanta (the busiest airport in the United States with 910,000 movements), it isn’t even possible to submit flight notification for a VFR flight. You simply call in and they slot you in where they can.

It seems that we have gone berserk about writing rule after rule. No wonder our level of participation is so low. Have a look at Ayers Rock in the ERSA – it makes it look like landing at Heathrow! The ERSA states that a minimum of 24 hours notice is required before landing at the airport (i.e. don’t go there for an emergency!) It appears that this requirement is there because of limited parking on the apron. Why not just say something nice and friendly like “There is limited parking so it pays to check before arriving that there is parking space available.” It even insists that pilots of jet and turbo prop aircraft “apply MIN power” when departing from the parking bay. This is just commonsense.

We are not going to have an aviation system as we know it in Australia unless we make some very tough changes and reduce every unnecessary cost. Compared with the rest of the world we have costly and restrictive regulations. Let’s encourage participation in aviation this year by working on aviation reform.

Participate in 2002 – Year of the Outback
There is a great way for all of us to participate in aviation in 2002. Remember that this is the Year of the Outback and there is no better way of seeing our great country than by air. Why not start planning now to fly in to Arkaroola in the Northern Flinders Ranges during the Year of the Outback celebrations and antique air show from 4 to 7 July? It is a great place to visit with remote waterholes, yellow footed rock wallabies, incredible scenery, an observatory, comfortable accommodation and wonderful flying. There will be many vintage and aerobatic aircraft flying in (including the Southern Cross replica) and it should be a great 4 days. I have been appointed an Ambassador for the Year of the Outback and will be going to Arkaroola in July as a guest of my friend Doug Sprigg. Chris Sperou and Jack Curtis also plan to drop in. Why not get a few friends together to share the costs and make the trip? For further information call Doug Sprigg at Arkaroola on (08) 8648 4848.

Happy flying in 2002.