casa Archives - The Rotary Wing Show Podcast

This is a recording from a session at the Rotortech 2016 expo on the Sunshine Coast. Vice President of the Australian Helicopter Industry Association (AHIA), Ray Cronin leads a discussion about regulation change and recent progress.

This audio is what you can call an extra from our normal interview series that I’m going to slip into the podcast feed and I’ll tell you why in a moment.

I’ll jump into a disclaimer right up front – the audio quality in parts is not great as I recorded it sitting in the audience but my suggestion is to persevere in the rough bits as there is some really interesting stuff in the discussion.

To set the scene, this is recorded on Sunday 29 May 2016, on the last day of the Rotortech Expo on the Sunshine Coast.

Johanna Osborne, Chief Pilot and Chief Flying Instructor (Rotary) at Airways Aviation speaking during the session prior.

Johanna Osborne, Chief Pilot and Chief Flying Instructor Rotary at Airways Aviation has just presented a talk titled “Global vision and an insight into the writing of our Part 142 application.” – about Airways Aviation’s approach to training and their experience in trying to conform with new regulatory requirements that are being rolled out in Australia that govern flying training, in particular the writing of an operations manual to meet the new CASA requirements.

So this will mainly be be of interest to Australian listeners, however those of you overseas I’m sure can take away some insights that you can apply closer to home in your own industries.

It is a really interesting insight into some of the background things that are happening at the industry representation level and at the regulator – if the discussion just stayed in the room and we didn’t share it further then there would be a lot more people in the dark about some of the things that are happening at the moment and perhaps some pessimism that things weren’t getting better when they do seem to be moving forward, if slowly, for the Australian industry.

Part of the aircraft parking area at Rotortech

The main voices you’ll hear, in order are:

Ray Cronin
Vice President, Australian helicopter industry association
Founder and managing director of Kestral Aviation

Rob Walker, Stakeholder Engagement Group Manager from CASA

and Rob Rich, AHIA secretary.

There are a couple of abbreviations or industry speak mentioned that I’ll give you a heads up on.

Part 141 and 142 are the regulations that cover flight training organisations – with the difference in very broad terms being the complexity of training offered – with Part 142 schools being able to provide additional ratings.

NPRMs – Notice of proposed rulemaking

MOS – Manual of Standards

Part 61 – Part of the Australian regulations that prescribes the requirements and standards for the issue of flight crew licences, ratings, authorisations, and rules for the logging of flight time.

So with all that out of the way, we pass over to Ray Cronin, Vice president AHIA as he takes the microphone for an impromptu session on regulation in the Australian flying industry.

A shoutout to the team at the Australian Helicopter Industry association though for what was a pretty good event running Rotortech 2016 this weekend. I had a great time and look forward to being able to get back for the next Rotortech expo in 2017.

The publication of this interview is with permission of the main speakers involved.

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Links from this week’s episode:
Australian Helicopter Industry Association
#rotortech hashtag Twitter stream

Be part of the conversation about this interview by leaving a comment below.

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around world helicopter solo dick smith — Dick Smith has set a number of records and world firsts in aviation

This is Episode 47 of The Rotary Wing Show and our main interview today is Dick Smith, the first person to fly a helicopter solo around the world plus a bunch of other aviation first and records.

For Australians, Dick Smith is someone that doesn’t need too much of an introduction. He is very active in a number of areas and for such a long time such that most people in Australia would at least know who he is but I’m sure don’t know many of his aviation feats.

For the sake of our international audience though I’ll give you a bit more of an extended version of Dick’s bio.

Dick and his wife Pip built up and sold two quite large businesses here in Australia – Dick Smith Electronics and Australian Geographic.

As you’ll hear about coming up Dick was the first person to fly solo around the world in a helicopter which included the first crossing of the Atlantic in a helicopter. Then later on the first person to fly a helicopter around the world from East to West against the prevailing winds.

He was the first person to fly a helicopter to the North pole and has also flown around the south pole in a fixed wing. In the hot-air balloon world he was first to complete a non-stop crossing of the Australian continent and to pilot a balloon from New Zealand to Australia.

The helicopter that Dick Smith flew around the world is now part of the Powerhouse Museum collection in Sydney.

[Tweet “If the cloud gets too low you just land and have a cup of tea”]

Some additional dot points…

1986 Australian of the Year
2015 Companion of the Order of Australia ‘community services and devotion to flying’
‘awarded for eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or humanity at large’
2nd highest appointment in order of Australia honours system
1992 – United States’ (Charles) Lindbergh award. The Award, “is given annually to individuals whose work over many years has made significant contributions toward the Lindbergh’s concept of balancing technology and nature.
http://lindberghfoundation.org/lindbergh-award Other notable awardees – Harrison Ford, Burt Rutan, David Suzuki, Neil Armstrong, Edmund Hillary, James Doolittle, Jacques Cousteau
1990 -1992 Chairman of the Board of the Civil Aviation Authority
1997 – 1999 Deputy-Chairman and Chairman of the Board CASA

At time we go to air in May 2016 – Dick has recently attended an industry meeting in Tamworth about the state of general aviation regulation and Part 61 here in Australia so we get to chat about that too.

[Tweet “The helicopter lanes in Sydney were copied from those in London”]

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In this week’s episode:

01:20 Goal of the Rotary Wing Show
02:20 iTunes review feedback
03:33 Dick Smith Bio
07:30 Getting into helicopters
08:30 Trying to learn to fly a helicopter
10:00 First solo circuit
11:20 Selecting the engine to take around the world
13:40 Australian helicopters had to operate as fixed wing traffic
15:40 Planning the around the world route
17:15 Ross Perot, Jr. and Jay Coburn, Spirit of Texas + Hercules support first around the world
18:30 Finding a container ship in the fog for refuel
22:50 Refueling on a rolling ship deck
25:00 Close calls and frights
27:40 Monsoons through Burma, beach landing
30:00 What was trying to achieve at CAA/CASA position
35:10 Average age of the Australian general aviation business owner
36:30 Part 61 reform process
37:50 Cost of doing aviation business in Australia
40:30 Biannual flight review requirements increased
42:20 Changes are not addressing any known safety issue
45:40 GA airfields sold off and being used for non-aviation activities for revenue streams
47:20 Dick’s current helicopters and flying
49:50 Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel – opening of the roof top helipad
52:00 Flying under the Sydney Harbour bridge
56:00 World Helicopter Day

56:40 Episode Sponsors trainmorepilots.com

Links from this week’s episode:
Dick Smith biographical details
April Fools joke – Iceberg in Sydney harbour

BBC documentary with film that Dick Smith recorded during the first solo circumnavigation of the globe in a helicopter
[leadplayer_vid id=”573E8B9CCFB06″]

Grabbing some 'crew rest' on way around the world. — Grabbing some ‘crew rest’ on way around the world.

[Tweet “Had to cut through Cold War Russian buffer zone due to fuel “]

Dick is still a frequent flyer getting behind the controls of several fixed and rotary wing types to get around Australia.

[Tweet “Atlantic crossing done without heater to save weight”]

Be part of the conversation about this interview by leaving a comment below. What would be the part of the world that you would most like to fly over?

Tag: casa

Extra – Impromptu Session at Rotortech 2016 About AHIA and Regulation Progress

RWS 47 – First Around the World Solo and Australian Regulations with Dick Smith