AIA Conference 2008

The 2008 annual conference of the New Zealand Aviation Industry Association (AIA) was held at Tauranga on 21–23 July. As part of a week titled “New Zealand Aviation Industry Week”, the conference preceded the Agricultural Aviation Association’s (AAA) conference at the same Tauranga venue—the first time the two associations had run back-to-back events.

The AIA had been through a difficult period in the previous year, but the large number of conference delegates suggested that any such difficulties had definitely been “put to bed”. The Association’s president, John Sinclair, gave a positive opening presentation to the conference, in which he stressed that the association was a membership organisation and not a lobbying one—while accepting that a degree of lobbying was necessary in promoting professionalism and flight safety.

Mr Sinclair outlined the changes to the AIA’s organisational structure, which returned the focus to members and proposed the establishment of a number of self-sustaining operating divisions—like the NZAAA—to deal with division-specific issues.

He made it clear that the AIA’s relationship with the CAA was an important one, because safety was the most important consideration and something that the AIA should be doing everything in its power to promote to the aviation community.

Mr Sinclair was the first of several speakers to discuss recent controversial incidents that he felt potentially compromised relationships between the CAA and industry, and thus, potentially, aviation safety.

The CAA’s Director, Mr Steve Douglas, made it clear that the CAA could not do its job effectively unless it received safety information from all industry participants. He also said that he saw the AIA conference as an opportunity to take stock of industry issues.

He outlined the changes to the way the CAA used “social cost” as a performance measure in relation to accidents and said this would be replaced by a range of measures that included simple rate measures such as the numbers of accidents and incidents per 100,000 flying hours.

Mr Douglas expressed satisfaction that despite a recent “spike” in accident numbers during the past summer, the overall accident rate continues to decline, as it has done for the past 10 years.

In relation to what some have perceived as an apparent lack of action in relation to recreational pilot licences, Mr Douglas explained that the medical certification process was not working as intended. He said that some GPs were apparently not adhering to guidelines and that some applicants had not been making full disclosure of information as required.

He highlighted the importance of the CAA’s relationship with the industry as a whole, and the need to communicate effectively with each other on a range of issues. He concluded by saying that the CAA’s success would not be measured by an absence of “issues” but rather, by the way it addressed such issues as they arose.

A number of other speakers gave addresses on the opening day of the conference, including: MPs Harry Duynhoven and Maurice Williamson; the Chief Coroner, Judge Neil MacLean; the Director of Australia’s CASA, Bruce Byron; Brendon O’Donovan (Westpac’s chief economist); and Gerry Te Kapa Coates, who spoke on future options for aviation industry sustainability.

Following the opening presentations by the various speakers, the conference broke into numerous workshops throughout the Sebel Trinity Wharf venue. As with previous conferences, the difficulty for delegates was in deciding which workshops to attend, as all were pertinent, interesting and important.

Included as one of the workshops at the conference was Bob Feerst’s globally recognised presentation on “Flying in the Wire and Obstruction Environment”. This is an outstanding presentation of inestimable value to anyone who operates an aircraft (particularly a helicopter) at low level on a regular basis. It is a comprehensive and interesting “human factors” presentation that every helicopter pilot should attend. The AIA is to be congratulated for securing Bob Feerst for this presentation at the conference, as it will, in all probability, “save” the lives of at least one or more of those fortunate enough to attend it.

A great deal of thought went into the subjects for the various workshops—most of which related either to effective aviation business management or safety issues—as all of them contributed materially to the good of the industry. Typical subjects included quality assurance programmes, training methods, safety management systems and a range of specific technical issues.

At the conclusion of the AIA conference, a number of awards were presented to industry participants, including: the annual CAA “Director’s Award”, which went to Real Journeys’ Part 145 maintenance organisation; the CAA Flight Instructor Award, which went to Paul Kearney of Massey University School of Aviation; two AIA awards—one to Brian Sutherland of Flightline Aviation in recognition of his 40 years’ service at Flightline Aviation, and one to Alan Peacock of Independent Signs for his contribution to the development of an export strategy for the aviation industry. The ATTTO’s Achievement Award for Excellence in Workplace Training went to the RNZAF.

The 2009 AIA conference will be held at Blenheim.