New Zealand News

The remainder, flight standards, airworthiness and airport

security will remain within the Ministry of Transport.

The Airways Corporation will be an independent body functioning on normal commercial lines, subject to tax, raising its own revenue and paying its way, including a profit dividend.

The present civil aviation regional offices look like disappearing, with centralised control, vested in the Airways Corporation board and, for the remainder, in Wellington.

It is the lingering air of vagueness surrounding the move that is causing worry and a bad bout of low morale in the system. Old CAD hands are openly critical of the speed of change – six months from the announcement to creation.

Questions of demarcation and responsibilities have yet to be clearly defined and a financial structure for the new corporation established. A continuing need for regional administrations is seen by many if the system is to have the necessary flexibility.

The change comes at a particularly difficult time, with strong resistance to Government pressure to form airport companies in place of the old joint ownership system where control is vested in the CAD and a local authority.

At the country’s largest airport, Auckland, the scene threatens to become a hopeless tangle as the Auckland Regional Authority refuses to accept the company plan, claiming it would loose a substantial part of the NZ$100 million reserves it has accumulated with the division.

Pressures are building for a realization of the deadline time for the beginning of the new financial year, but the Ministry appears unmoved. Meanwhile, a seven-person airways board has been named. The chairman is Mr Carl Ryan, an executive director of the Fletcher Challenge Group. Other members are Lindsay Norrish (a Ministry telecommunications expert); Mrs Ann Harper (a former vice president of the Airfreight Forwarders’ Federation); Mr Bob Henare (who has a background in Railways and construction); Mr Ross Sayers (the chairman of the Railways Corporation); Mr Rod Trott (a lawyer and former adviser to the Airline Pilots’ Association and Mr Grant Adams (deputy chairman of Equiticorp Holdings Ltd. ).

Call for New Air Safety Board

If one positive outcome of CAD’s commercial restructuring is tipped, it is the probability of an independent and effective aviation safety watchdog. There is a rising clamour for such a body, especially among pilots and engineers and it has been helped along by a number of disquieting incidents in commercial aviation which have come to light.

The present Aviation Safety Board, which was established after the Mt Erebus crash, has achieved little despite its undoubted dedication and expertise.

The problem appears to lie in the fact that it was set up to advise the Minister and its ability to publicise and promulgate is almost non-existent. Its low profile does little to encourage the voluntary aviation incident reporting system (VARIS) on which it should feed.

Of late, the problem has been aired with telling effect by the publication, New Zealand Wings. Of special concern is the relaxed interpretation of the MEL (minimum equipment list) dispensation and claims that commercial pressures are forcing operational people and pilots to acquiesce to legal minimums rather than the optimum standards of former years.

Historically, the MEL system was designed to allow an aircraft to return safely to base when an item of equipment became unserviceable; but practicalities extended the legal scope for deferred rectification – occasionally to the point where aircraft are returned to flying from phase servicing with items still tagged inoperative.

According to Captain Peter Rhodes, technical adviser for the NZ Airline Pilots’ Association, the ploy of listing a main base as a transit base is also used if spares or manpower are not available.

Concern about MEL interpretations began to simmer in 1984 when a classic case of Murphy’s Law caught up with an Air New Zealand Boeing 747. On three flight phases earlier, while en route from Tokyo to Nadi, one of the aircraft’s four air-driven hydraulic pumps (ADP) had become inoperative. In effect, this only amounted to a quarter of what was essentially a back up system to the engine driven pumps.

However, on takeoff from Christchurch, the aircraft encountered a severe bird strike in three engines. One engine had to be shut down and another reduced to flight idle. An emergency was declared as the crew coped with severely reduced hydraulic pressure which slowed flap travel and undercarriage operation.

Pilots who broke the silence (belatedly) on this incident cite other worries stemming from the relaxed use of MEL, especially the recurring dispensation given inoperative reverse thrust and fuel dump equipment.

The need for an independent ‘watchdog’ (Captain Rhodes’ term) is particularly pressing where situations can exist within legal boundaries which are nevertheless considered less than prudent. Another example. , say pilots, is the overall low level of experience and seniority among F27 crews.

Their concern has been echoed by the Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and Technologists which wants the existing board restructured along overseas models. Civil Aviation Minister Richard Prebble has hinted that this may follow the CAD upheaval.

Bantam Ultralight Australia Bound

Microlight buff Max Clear reckoned on a limited demand when he designed the 822 Bantam with engineer John Smith. The idea was a safe and solid two-seater suitable for local conditions, easy to fly and with conventional controls.

Six months after gaining CAD-type approval with three prototypes,. The Clear Dairy Farm at Te Kowahi, near Hamilton has become a high pressure hatchery. The company, Micro Aviation turned out its 50th Bantam on Christmas Eve, with no holiday break as work continued on another 26 orders.

Demand for the Bantam is now coming from Australia. “We cannot keep up with orders and feel obliged to fill the home demand first”, says Clear.

The Bantam is of conventional light alloy structure, high wing with a 4-inch keel boom and a 50hp Austrian Rotax engine set above the mainplane and driving a wooden propeller through a 2. 5:1 reduction gearbox. The two side-by-side seats are enclosed in a lightweight fibreglass pod with a large windscreen.

The Bantam has a steerable nose wheel, flaperons and full dual control. It retails in New Zealand for NZ$12,850 (including the local 10% goods and services tax) complete except for instruments- which are offered in various fits by the company.

The latest variant, the 822AG is aimed at getting Civil Aviation to relax its ban on using microlights for aerial work. The ag Bantam is fitted with 1 O wind-driven Micron atomizers and a 20 gallon spray tank (filling the place of one pilot).

Clear says he has good reason in believing CAD will grant approval providing the pilot has a PPL licence with a chemical spray rating and that work is restricted to the owner’s property. The conversion of the aircraft to and from a two-seater to ag workhorse takes less than an hour.

For safety reasons, Clear refuses to market the Bantam in kit form, though it can be broken down for shipping. Deliveries so far have all been fly in, including a number to the South Island taking in the 30 mile hop across Cook Strait. On nine-hour delivery flights, the Bantam averages 46mph.

Skvship 600 for NZ Service

An Auckland company, Airship Ventures, is importing a Skyship 600 this year, for sightseeing, advertising and possibly surveillance work.

The man behind the scheme is Ossie James, founder of James Aviation and NZ Aerospace Industries, whose assets are now Saudi Arabian-owned. He has teamed up with marketing man Fred Dobbs to launch the venture.

The NZ$4. 4 million, 44 passenger airship was expected to arrive in parts in June and to begin flying in September. The helium-filled 600 has a 55 knot cruising speed, carries a 2. 8-tonne payload and can remain in the air for 48 hours.

News of the purchase sent a shiver of dismay through local interests who were well advanced in setting up a home-based airship industry. James was a force behind this scheme, with the former chief designer of NZ Aerospace, Pat Monk. In 1985, the couple set up a company called New Zealand Airships Ltd in which the British-based Wren Skyships held a majority holding.

Soon after the announcement of the Skyship 600 purchase, Wren issued an affirmation that it would continue manufacturing in the United Kingdom and this was interpreted as an indication it would drop the New Zealand initiative.

However, the issue was taken up by Parliamentarian, Mr Ralph Maxwell, who gained an undertaking from Wren that New Zealand manufacturing would be reconsidered early this year.

According to Mr Dobbs, Airship Ventures could not afford to wait about three years for ‘NZ-1’ to be built.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Breweries announced the purchase of a 34-metre Colt Thunder hot air blimp, for advertising and to act as a television platform for sporting events. The two-seater has a maximum speed of 20 knots, an endurance of four hours and is powered by a 500cc Honda motorcycle engine. It will be known as the Steinlager Blimp.

A smaller (28 metre, one seat) Colt Thunder blimp has become a frequent sight over Auckland, jockeyed by a colorful RAF Wing Commander, Gerry Turnbull. Technical problems have forced two unplanned landings, one of them on a school rugby field – undeterred, Gerry makes repairs and carries on. His expertise- 45 years in lighter-than-air-flight- is being utilised by the CAD to draft rules on the regulation of airships and their registration

First Kiwi Vari-Eze Takes to the Air

About the time Bert Rutan’s incredible Voyager was nearing the end of its non-stop circumnavigation, his little Vari-Eze canard design was making its first flight in New Zealand. The aircraft was several years in the building by New Plymouth Polytechnic instructor Bob Taylor.

An earlier Vari-Eze came to grief some years ago when it failed to attain takeoff speed on its first flight, at Rotorua. The owner has nearly finished rebuilding this machine and another four are nearing completion around the country.

The canard is built almost entirely of polystyrene foam, polyurethane and fibreglass skinning. Rutan, a friend of Taylor’s, has latterly withdrawn the sale of plans because of America’s horrendous rate of liability litigation.

Taylor was delighted with the 650Ib canard which whistles along at 145 knots and climbs at 2000ft a minute. It is almost impossible to stall the Vari-Eze and, as Taylor points out, provides the owner-pilot with a cross-country performance little short of that provided by turbine-equipped airlines. He has fitted a Continental Rolls Royce 0200 100.

Ansett/Air New Zealand Begins to Heat Up

Months before the scheduled start of Ansett New Zealand services, competitive point scoring ascended to Gilbertian levels.

A nationwide press conference thrown by Ansett in Wellington to unveil plans and the airline livery was necessarily foreshortened when Air New Zealand sprung a last-minute conference nearby to show off its first Koru Club lounge for frequent travellers.

Ansett is starting from scratch by building its own passenger terminals at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The move has been fought tooth and nail at airport level by Air New Zealand which claims ample space is already available in existing terminals. The New Zealand airline won a limited victory at Christchurch when it filed an injunction claiming it already had a lease on part of the Ansett site. It won, but it didn’t stop Ansett from pressing ahead on the remaining land.

In Auckland, Ansett’s builders turned up to begin work on the new terminal and found the area blocked off with Air New Zealand containers. When editorials disparaged ‘stupid and petty games’ the airline responded that it was an established storage area and labour had not been available to shift the containers. Nevertheless, they were gone within 24 hours.

Briefs

• The first BAe 125-800 imported for corporate service arrived in Auckland early this year. The machine owned by a merchant bank is being operated by Corporate Flight Services, a subsidiary of Dennis Thompson International. Graham Marriot, general manager of the British Aircraft Company, the New Zealand agents for British Aerospace, said another local BAe 125- 800 sale was imminent.

• Intrepid duo Joe Cowan and Earl Long whose Beech C-45 ferry flight from Plains, Wichita to Dairy Flat, Auckland, nearly deposited them in the Pacific (AA Jan 87) finally made it to Auckland, on December 14. However, despite a new engine they still had problems when navigation equipment went inoperative while flying in limited visibility from Hawaii to Christmas Island. Nevertheless, the couple spotted the island and the 16th Wing (New Zealand) of the Confederate Air Force got its flagship.