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Keith Manch
From the Director of Civil Aviation, Keith Manch

Reflecting on from the United Nations 26th Climate Change Conference and significant commitments made by world leaders to reduce global warming, I can share a local perspective on all that mahi that took place over in Glasgow.
 
While we hear a lot about aviation’s contribution to global warming – ATAG (Air Transport Action Group) estimates the aviation industry contributes around 2% of all human induced CO2 global emissions and 12% from all sources of transport – in comparison, road accounts for 74%.  It might not seem like much from our industry, but if we all do what we can it goes a long way to reduce the impact and the rate of the earth’s steadily rising temperature.
 

Reducing emissions from aviation

 
With global warming a real ongoing concern, it was great see the release of the recent report developed as a collaboration between the industry and our New Southern Sky (NSS) programme.
 
With the CAA led NSS programme aimed to modernise the NZ aviation system, the report is a solid example of us working with industry to consider new ways to reduce emissions right here in Aotearoa New Zealand. It identifies enhancements to the current aviation system that would enable operators to reduce aircraft emissions, plus enjoy the additional financial benefits of minimising waste operating time.
 
In its consultation on the Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP), the government proposed to support the establishment of an industry led advisory body on decarbonising aviation. Given the broad representation proposed for this group and its mandate, this forum could present the opportunity to collaborate across the industry and government to advance the findings of the NSS study once established.
 
With the ERP due to be finalised in May 2022, we anticipate the opportunities identified in the NSS study could be advanced in the first half of next year.
 
This likely outcome builds on earlier work undertaken by Air New Zealand who presented their plans for emissions reduction to an NSS Working Group Meeting, early this year. They identified climate change as the biggest challenge for the aviation industry.
 

Background


The NSS team has been looking at the possibility of improving the immediate environmental benefits that could be delivered beyond the 4,182 tonnes of CO2 per annum saving already being delivered by Performance Based Navigation (PBN).
 
The report ‘Collaborating to Reduce Emissions from Aviation’ is well worth a read. It identifies system congestion (too many aircraft trying to enter/leave an airport in a given time slot) as the key cause of unnecessary fuel burn and that ground delays need to be managed prior to engine start, to prevent congestion.
 
The report also presents the logic for reframing the current airline/airport incentivisation and focus on departure punctuality. It suggests this focus needs to change to departure time, becoming dynamic, to achieve ‘on-time performance’ arrivals and proposed more robust levels of national collaboration between airports, airlines and air traffic control to focus on delivering reduced emissions from aviation. It also contains detailed guidance for implementation.
 

My best wishes to you


As the holiday season rapidly descends upon us, all of us at the CAA would like to take this opportunity to wish our aviation industry stakeholders and participants peace, joy and safe flying in all its forms, in the year ahead.

Keith Manch
Director of Civil Aviation

CAA emerging technologies programme and focus


The Authority has established the position of Director Emerging Technologies, and appointed Steve Smyth to the role.

The purpose of the role is to help coordinate the Authority’s interaction with the emerging technologies sector and other parts of government (for example MBIE) with respect to the Authority’s regulatory role and functions. Emerging technologies provide a fantastic opportunity for NZ to be at the forefront of the development of some technologies — many of which our current regulatory system was not designed to cope with. 

As time and opportunity provides, the Authority will look to bolster its resourcing to better support the sector.

The Civil Aviation Bill


The first reading of the proposed new Aviation Bill, which is designed to modernise our legislation was on 30 September and people can still watch the speeches online.

Submissions to the Committee on the Bill closed early December.

Nearly 100 submissions were received by the Committee. All submissions are published online.

Select Committee public hearings are likely to be held in February next year. Some submitters may be invited to attend select committee, to be heard in person.

It’s likely that the Bill will be enacted later in the year in 2022. But this doesn’t mean that provisions will immediately come into force.

There will be a transition period. This is necessary for Civil Aviation Rules to be updated where necessary, as well as ensuring time for all parties to prepare for any changes.

The Authority will be providing guidance and communications where relevant.

ADS-B mandate creeps ever closer


With almost exactly 12 months until it becomes mandatory to be equipped with ADS-B in controlled airspace, this seems an ideal time to remind everyone of the need to plan well in advance to ensure that you are not ‘locked out’ of the airspace you want to fly in.

We have received reports that avionic workshops are filling up quickly, and with a limited capacity there is a real possibility of a bottleneck in the final 6 months before 31 December 2022 – that being insufficient workshop capacity to satisfy the demand of aircraft owners wanting to get their aircraft equipped. Couple this with the reports that there are delays to manufacturing of a number of popular ADS-B units, and it should encourage those that are not yet equipped to book in as soon as possible.

Don’t forget that the ADS-B Grant Scheme remains available for those equipping with ADS-B, with plenty of funds still to be claimed. For further information on ADS-B and the Grant Scheme see here, or email adsb@caa.govt.nz.

CAA stakeholder survey


We are pleased to hear your views of the wider aviation community and, early in the new year, you will be invited to complete a short survey which is designed to help the Civil Aviation Authority establish a better understanding of your views of the performance of Aotearoa New Zealand’s aviation regulator.

We plan to repeat the survey at least every two years to help align our stakeholder engagement activity to meet the needs of the aviation community. The survey will have a unique link just for you to avoid any duplications.

We hope you will find the 10 minutes or so to complete it – we really want to hear your views.

We are pleased to welcome Mike Hill, our newest Deputy Chief Executive


Mike Hill joined our leadership team as Deputy Chief Executive - Aviation Security and Infrastructure in September after acting in the role on secondment from Maritime NZ since November 2020.
 
Now three months into the role, Mike is currently working on a range of issues connecting and communicating what the changing COVID-19 requirements look like for our aviation industry participants, to ensure we maintain security and safety across the aviation system.

We asked Mike for his initial impressions of working at the CAA. Here's what he had to say:

“This role has a great mix of the aviation safety and security aspects. In my mind they are closely linked and overlap nicely. Security incidents can have a negative impact on safety. They are not opposites. Despite the current COVID-19 situation – our security threat has not reduced. 
 
Our group deals with a wide range of document holders across many rule parts.  In any day we can be dealing with airlines, a Regulated Air Cargo Agent (RACA), an airport, Airways, Met Service or a crane operator. We also maintain close working relationships with the US Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) based in both the US and Sydney, the Australian Department of Home Affairs and Transport Canada.
 
Our ‘national security’ work sees us working closely with the Ministry of Transport, the Police, and the Combined Treat Assessment Group (CTAG) who are based within the Security Intelligence Service (SIS). We have one of our group seconded into CTAG.
 
I am also the sponsor of the EMPIC Project. This is a $16.4M project over the next three years to replace ‘ASMS’ our current regulatory computer application. A project and technical team is being assembled with further recruitment in the New Year. As well as improving internal safety regulation needs, we’re looking forward to being able to provide a better end-to-end service for aviation participants and delegation holders to be able to meet their regulatory requirements.
 
The project is being led by the CAA and will be completed in four stages. Engagement with key stakeholders will begin shortly and will continue into 2022 as the project progresses. The project and the decommissioning of the current ASMS system is expected to conclude by late 2024.
 
During 2021 I’ve also been coordinating our Authority approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-organisational team have been focused on keeping our staff safe, making sure we are communicating regularly with our aviation sector participants and that we are connected with and contributing to the all of government response. This continues to be a very dynamic period and has called for us all to demonstrate high levels of agility and patience.
 
I spent 26 years in the police and the past 6 years working for Maritime NZ running the Rescue Coordination Centre with accountabilities for the maritime radio network and maritime aids to navigation.  I come from a background of developing strong partnerships and relationships, so I’m really enjoying the relationship aspect within our aviation sector. It’s a tough time for many but I see a lot of optimism and determination that is very much the Kiwi way.
 
I have a good feeling about 2022 and I share the optimism of industry. As an avid reader of history, we’ve been through major shocks before and we have bounced back through adapting, rules and systems (e.g. creating ICAO and the World bank in 1944) or science. We might look a wee bit different in 2022 - and beyond - but as humans we are very adaptable.
 
I look forward to working more closely with you in the year ahead.”
 
Mike Hill

Summer flying


We appreciate that many of you may not have flown for a wee while – here’s some tips that may be handy…

As pilots climb back into the cockpit this summer, some of them won’t have flown for many months.

If you suspect some of your flying skills may have been dulled by such a break, consider a dual flight with an instructor, before your summer flying takes off.

Listen to this Vector online article, ‘Currency and competency’ as to why a dual flight is so important. There’s information there for instructors and aero clubs as well as for pilots.

Also check out our information on COVID-19 human factors considerations for more advice.

Vector magazine ran a very good story on Summer Flying last November and we encourage you to read it.

A word of thanks


Thank you to those of you who provided shared feedback and suggestions on how we can improve the quality of Advisory Circulars (ACs). The survey found 87.5% of respondents indicated the ACs were useful and easy to read. There were also several excellent suggestions for improvement.

So far, we have:
  1. Inserted a hyperlinked Table of Contents in all ACs to help you navigate them quicker.
  2. Improved the layout of AC66-2.32, Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Licence - Certificate of Inspection Authorisation: Subject 025 and will use the new format for similar syllabus-based ACs.
Please feel free to contact us - we welcome any other suggestions: Advisory Circular Feedback

Recent CAA safety investigation statements


Our safety investigators look into the circumstances surrounding an aviation accident.

The most important reason to do that is to learn any lessons the accident may have for the rest of the aviation community. It’s not to blame anyone or make them liable for what happened.

Here are the most recently released accident investigation reports:

CAA email notification service


How to keep up to date with changes – opt in to one or all the topics that interest you and we will send alerts direct to your inbox. It takes a few minutes to set up and is a free service. Sign up here.

Vector article archive - now available!


We’ve recently published the Vector article archive on our website. It includes over 400 articles across 30 subjects, dating back to 2015. We'll keep it updated as each issue of Vector is published.
 
This joins our existing Vector magazine archive which has every issue of Vector since 1998.

An update on our Wellington location


Our National Office staff will be operating from different locations for at least the next 12 months while seismic strengthening takes place on Asteron House.

You shouldn’t notice any difference to our service and business will continue around COVID-19 restrictions.

You can still reach us via phone and email for any inquiries, but a physical reception area will not be available.

You can contact our reception team on +64 4 560 9400 or at info@caa.govt.nz or visit our contact us page for other ways to get in touch.
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