44 | Flight International | 17-23 February 2015 flightglobal.com
AUSTRALIA
SPECIAL REPORT
hard-line philosophy, which in the Pan-
el’s view, is not appropriate for an advanced
aviation nation such as Australia. As a result,
relationships between industry and CASA
have, in many cases, become adversarial.”
CRITICISM
The report also criticised the regulatory re-
form programme – which “has been ongoing
for over two decades and has changed direc-
tion several times”, resulting in “widespread
‘reform fatigue’ within the industry”.
Australian helicopter operators are facing a
“tsunami of new rules”, explains Rich, which
are often completely different from previous
versions in both content and language, “sup-
posedly to align with International Civil Avia-
tion Organisation procedures”, although the
result is often regulations that are “overly com-
plicated, verbose legalese and in some cases far
from clear intent”. Rich says: “Operators are
angry that workers at the ‘coal face’ have to try
and understand thousands of pages of difficult-
to-understand rules. All major aviation associ-
ations are promoting the simple and plain Eng-
lish legislation used by New Zealand.”
Rich says a number regulatory issues are
causing high workloads for commercial heli-
copter operators, including new rules concern-
ing fatigue management for flight crew, which
came into effect in April 2013 and which op-
erators have until 30 April 2016 to implement.
Integrated and multi-crew pilot flight train-
ing and contracted recurrent training and
checking (Part 142) rules are also causing
problems. Rich says they are a set of complex
rules providing structured flight training ac-
tivities that lead to the issue of multi-crew li-
cences and integrated courses for the issue of
a private or commercial pilot licence.
The regulator has adopted a
hard-line philosophy, which
is not appropriate for an
advanced aviation nation
AVIATION SAFETY REGULATION REVIEW
HeliwestThe AHIA is also concerned about the
Australian Air Transport Operators – Rotor-
craft (Part 133) rules. Rich says that in October
2014, Europe switched to similar “restrictive
rules” introducing a single standard when
using helicopters for passenger-carrying air
transport operations. “Pushing the helicopter
industry up into the compliance levels used
by airlines has resulted in much angst,” says
Rich, adding that amended multi-engine per-
formance standards under development in
Australia are causing “considerable debate”.
Aerial Work Operations – Rotorcraft (Part
138) rules are also causing concern, especially
in aircrew licensing matters, he says.
The AHIA has been particularly vocal in its
criticisms of new Flight Crew Licensing (Part
61) requirements, which it believes include
complex requirements for flying schools that it
expects will have a negative effect on that sec-
tor, says Rich. “Current trends show a retrac-
tion in the training market – fewer students –
as industry awaits the final rewrite of CASR
Part 61 [instrument and manual of standards],”
he says, predicting the number of helicopterflying schools could drop from 30 to below 20.
The AHIA last year called on the government
to delay the planned September 2014 imple-
mentation of Part 61, believing the regulations
would add further costs to industry, are too
complex, offer no perceived safety benefits and
could adversely impact the helicopter indus-
try. However, Part 61 became effective on 1
September, with a four-year transition period.
The AHIA was established precisely to give
the sector a voice when it comes to issues
such as regulatory changes. The sector had
been without a representative body since the
demise of the Helicopter Association of Aus-
tralasia in 2007 during the global financial
crisis. “Since then, continuing steady growth
and increasing pressure from the regulator in-
troducing more complex, costly and poorly
understood Civil Aviation Safety RegulationsThe AHIA is aiming for a significant
helicopter presence at this year’s
Australian International Airshow, which
will take place at Avalon Airport, Victoria,
from 27 February to 1 March.
The AHIA will run a technical
conference at the show, with presenta-
tions from Airservices Australia CASA on
regulatory changes affecting the sector,
AHIA working groups and companies
including Australian coaxial helicopter
design company Coax Helicopters.
Local operators will be able to display
their helicopters at no cost during the
show in an AHIA heli-park.STATE OF THE INDUSTRY❯❯
Heliwest operates a rotorcraft fleet including the Bell 427 and Bell 212/412 helicopters
Coax Helicopters is expected to present at Avalon this year