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Keith ManchFrom the Director of Civil Aviation, Keith Manch

Welcome to the second CAA Briefing for 2024. As we approach June, I’m pleased to share some of the CAA’s recent activities. 

This past quarter has been productive and brought with it a variety of industry visits and regular engagements. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with many of you, gaining a deeper understanding of the common themes and interests within the industry. 

Since February, notable engagements have included: 

  • Warbirds on Parade 2024 at Ardmore
  • Visits with various participants in Hamilton
  • The New Southern Skies Showcase in Wellington 
  • Meeting participants in Napier with the Authority’s Board members
  • Part 149 organisations’ forums
  • New Zealand Air line Pilots’ Association meeting
  • Aviation Community Advisory Group meeting 
  • Aviation Security Stewardship Group meeting. 

Your passion for aviation is evident and I sincerely appreciate the open and honest conversations, especially when it’s about matters that are important to you. 

While engagement with the CAA is said to be generally positive, I often hear concerns about the timeliness of certain processes. In this briefing, we address what we’re doing to support with amendments and renewals. This also includes working towards drawing on the knowledge and experience from industry, trusting delegated participants, and taking a risk-based approach to reduce the regulatory burden for those with good quality safety systems. There’s a strong desire within the CAA to keep things moving to help with your plans. 

I trust you will find the briefing useful and look forward to engaging directly with you or your representative organisations.

Keith Manch

In this update

Civil Aviation Act 2023 implementation update

Progress continues towards the Civil Aviation Act 2023 coming into effect on 5 April 2025. To help you easily identify where sections you work with in the 1990 Act are represented in the 2023 Act, we have published a quick reference guide on the CAA website.

Our Act implementation web page is regularly updated, and two aspects of the work are highlighted below.

Rules realignment explanation available

All 50 Rule Parts must be aligned with the 2023 Act, to enable the new Act to be functional when it comes into effect on 5 April 2025. Most of the changes are minor, to ensure that the wording is in line with the new Act and to improve clarity and intent.

So you can understand the extent of the changes, we have put an explanation of how existing Aviation rules are being aligned with the Act on our website, and the sector will have the opportunity to see the draft rules before they are finalised.

Drug and Alcohol Management Plans (DAMPs)

Friday 10th May ended nearly seven weeks of formal public consultation on draft Aviation Rule Part 99 which will give effect to the Act’s DAMP provisions. The new 2023 Act requires DAMP operators to have drug and alcohol management plans, including random drug testing for employees undertaking safety sensitive work – these plans will need to be approved and in place by 5 April 2027.

We received very helpful and thoughtful submissions which we are now working through. Thank you to all those who took the time to be involved. Further information is on the CAA website: Drug and alcohol management.

Applying for a Part 61, 65 or 66 licence? Do it online!

We’ve been encouraged by the number of participants signing up for and using the MyAviation portal to submit their applications. The portal makes it quicker and easier to complete your fit and proper person declaration, and you no longer need to write your CAA participant number on every page.

Join your aviation peers

Use the new MyAviation portal to:

  • Submit your licence application
  • View the status of your applications
  • Access documents you've uploaded
  • See what licences you hold

The portal guides you though the process with prompts on required documents and sends you notifications to help you track your application status.

Getting started

Create an account with the online registration portal. Please ensure we have your current email address so you can register successfully. If it’s an old email address, update it using the change of address form. The registration process requires two factor authentication, if you’re new to this visit our request help with online services page for helpful videos and FAQs.

As more people successfully use the new online service, we will gradually remove paper application forms from our aviation.govt.nz website.

Reminder

Your CAA participant number and your MyAviation number are different. Use your MyAviation number for registration and your CAA participant number for all other correspondence.

Coming up for Work Together, Stay Apart

The Work Together, Stay Apart safety campaign continues with more seminars on the schedule and growing support for our Statement of Commitment.

Circuit Certainty seminars kick off at the end of July and will be held at aerodromes, aero clubs, and schools across the country during August, September, and October. The seminars will focus on the roll out of our new Good Aviation Practice video about operations in the circuit and will discuss how to make the circuit work for everyone, predictability, standard procedures, collaboration, and working together. 

Our remaining seminars for aerodrome users will take place in June at Omaka, North Shore, Wānaka, and Kaikoura.

Check our website for all the dates and times near you.

Circuit Certainty social media promo - Aaron Pearce

Reminder to apply early for operator certificate amendments and renewals

Our Certification teams are consistently carrying heavy workloads alongside current resourcing pressures. For this reason, there will be delays with applications.

We’re doing what we can to manage work requests and are continuing to put in place measures to actively manage certification timeframes and delays. This includes:

  • significantly reducing involvement in less time critical internal work so our Certification teams can focus on their core tasks
  • providing extra support from other teams within the CAA
  • reallocating resources and work
  • continuing to explore different and innovative ways to manage workload.

If you’re submitting an application, we need your help. Plan ahead, get it in early, ensure that it’s on the current (not outdated) form, and that it’s complete.

Here’s a checklist to ensure your application is processed as smoothly as possible:

  • complete all relevant sections of the form. Incomplete forms will be returned to the submitter
  • use the correct form; these are on our website. Always use the form on our website as these are the most up-to-date versions
  • plan ahead to get applications in early
  • check the Certification pages on our website to ensure you know what you need
  • engage with us early when applications are complex, for example the introduction of a new aircraft type to your operation
  • submit all documents, reports, and details at the same time, rather than over a prolonged period.

In addition to certification work, our teams have other responsibilities that need to be met. We understand this has been an ongoing issue and apologise for any unexpected delays to your plans. We’ll continue to explore and adopt different ways to help manage workload within the resources available – as always, our priority is on aviation safety and security. In the meantime, if you have any questions or queries, please contact certification@caa.govt.nz.

From our legal team: aviation documents not transferable

CAR 19.11 prohibits the transfer of aviation documents*. While this may seem obvious in the case of a pilot, occasionally there is some confusion with operators who operate multiple companies and want to restructure or reorganise their corporate set-up.

Only one company can hold the aviation document and it can’t be transferred to another company, even if part of the same business group and/or owned by the same people. 

Operating a new company (NewCo) under the previous company’s aviation document has no legal effect and exposes you to a number of problems. 

If a business group wants to restructure and incorporate or operate under a NewCo, we recommend considering the options and getting legal and professional advice.

If it’s necessary to move to a NewCo, be aware that this will mean a fresh application under the NewCo. It may be a shorter less expensive process if the senior people and facilities are the same, but it is a full certification process and therefore the time for the CAA to process the application needs to be allowed for.

It may be easier to transfer to a NewCo at the expiry of an existing company’s certificate.

Changing the company name requires an application for the existing certificate to be re-issued in the new name, and for an update to the exposition and CAA records.

* Aviation document is the collective term for all the various licences or certificates issued by the Director of Civil Aviation. This includes pilot licences and air operator certificates.

Reduced and Zero Emissions Project (RZEP) launched

We recently announced the Reduced and Zero Emissions Project, as part of our Emerging Technologies Programme, which will support the introduction of Reduced and Zero Emission Aircraft (RZEA) into New Zealand’s Aviation system.

Reduced and Zero Emission Aircraft (RZEA) technologies are currently being developed globally which will eventually require entry into service in New Zealand’s aviation system. Various New Zealand Air Transport operators have already shown an interest in RZEA operations, with Air New Zealand emerging with the firmest plans. Air New Zealand is planning to fly commercial demonstrator flights from 2026 using BETA Technologies’ ALIA CX300 electric aeroplane, and to replace the Q300 domestic fleet with a more sustainable aircraft from 2030.

You can learn more about the project on our website: Reduced and Zero Emissions Project.

Medical certificate processing under our new software platform

The CAA is replacing its core internal regulatory platform as our current platform, ASMS, is end-of-life. This involves moving the management of core regulatory functions to new software.

This project has recently come under the spotlight on RNZ, with specific regard to the software’s use for issuing medical certificates. We’ve provided comprehensive information to RNZ about the project and the process, but some of their reporting has wrongly given the impression that there are questions of safety with the new software.

The safety and security of New Zealand’s aviation system is our number one priority and we want to assure you that there are not, and have never been, any concerns about safety regarding processing medical certificates.

The misunderstanding has arisen due to a consultation process with Medical Examiners (MEs), in which we explored an opportunity for them to use the new software, rather than the status quo in which they submit medical certification documentation by PDF or through SkyCert.

We demonstrated how the new software could be used by them, but it lacked some preferred features and, in their view, may have compromised safety. Based on their feedback, we’ve decided not to proceed further, and CAA will just use the new software’s medical components internally to record key information from the documentation received from MEs.

The latest in safety education

Our safety education team has been busy as always! See below recent updates for educational publications. Order our educational resources here.

Recent Good Aviation Practice (GAP) booklet revisions

Read online or request printed copies using our online order form.

  • Wake turbulence – February 2024
  • Secure your aircraft – February 2024
  • VFR MET – April 2024
  • In, out, and around the Manawatū – April 2024

Read the latest Vector magazine here

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Email: briefing@caa.govt.nz
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