New Zealand News

Its situation appeared to breach the assurance originally given by the Government of equal access to the market, so the airline gave ten days notice of a pullout from New Zealand unless the Government acted to offset this disadvantage. This apparently infuriated the Minister of Civil Aviation, Bill Jeffries, who lashed out (quite unfairly as it turned out) over the airline’s perceived omissions and then washed his hands of the affair by flying off on a 13 day visit to Japan.

A more constructive mood prevailed in a series of meetings between Sir Peter Abeles and Prime Minister David Lange. The impression that Ansett had become the whipping boy for factions within the strife-ridden Goverment diminished. The ultimatum was withdrawn after a loose-knit arrangement was cobbled together including a 21 month extension of the Qantas passenger flow-on and a vague but fairly binding acknowledgement that even if Ansett was not allowed by the Australian Government to fly the Tasman, it would be able to launch itself as an international carrier from New Zealand.

The latter, reiterated by Lange, is based on the Government’s 1985 External Civil Aviation Policy. It allows for more than one designated carrier to bid for the country’s international air rights. The stipulation is that Ansett, as an overseas owned company. would have to gain a 65% New Zealand partnership should it launch internationally.

Emboldened by the situation, Ansett NZ promptly registered the name Ansett New Zealand International Ltd and announced it was applying to the Ministry of Transport for an international operating licence. The new ‘airline” however will only be able to apply for routes where traffic growth exceeds the 1988 average. Thus the possibility of a plethora of new services is unlikely at best.

Air New Zealand Will Fight

Air New Zealand’s reaction to the expectation of Ansett NZ becoming a locally based international carrier was vigorous. Chief executive, Mr Jim Scott, flew off to Wellington for a meeting with the Prime Minister saying the company was determined not to have anyone muscling in on its overseas rights.

Much of the company’s concern centred on a report that Mr Lange had “specified the availability of unused capacity” on certain routes. These included services to Thailand, Indonesia and Argentina. The New Zealand company argued that outsiders given access to these routes would be riding on a huge amount of preparatory work done by Air New Zealand and its permanent general sales agents.

The unspoken worry for Air New Zealand centres on the form in which overseas rights could be handed out. While the policy allows for multiple designated carriers (presumably similar to the open system existing in the United States), there were persistent reports coming out of Wellington that the Treasury was pressing the Government to introduce a system whereby overseas rights were put up for tender and were awarded to the highest bidder. Cockeyed and fraught with problems as this scheme might sound, it was seen by the airline as a possible ‘goer’. Treasury exerts a huge influence on the present Government and the extreme free market philosophies espoused fit in well with the tender plan.

As for a New Zealand partner, one was being mentioned even before the ink dried on the new company registration signatures. Mr Bob Owens, former Air New Zealand chairman (1981-1984) and head of his own transport and investment empire (the Owens Group), said he would like to be involved with Ansett. He had encouraged Ansett to come to New Zealand originally and “could be interested in a shareholding in Ansett New Zealand International.

Finally-Corporation Backs Off

A year of threats, abuse and stony stand-offs was coming to an end in May between the beleaguered Airways Corporation and the aviation industry. But even the Corporation’s flourish in ‘unveiling the new formula for setting airways charges had its irony. In all major respects, the new charges (which corporation chief executive, Mr Frank Baldwin, said would not inhibit aviation growth and would benefit pilot and recreational flying) were pretty well the same as those suggested by the industry backed task force and outlined in Australian Aviation in May. Which all goes to show that the most obdurate government body can be made to eat humble pie if its charges are exorbitant and opposition well organised.

As Dennis Thompson, task force leader and chairman of the Aviation Industry Association’s air transport division, put it: since charges for light aircraft will be up to 70% less than those originally set by the Corporation, one could assume the corporation “was prone to a measure of over-charging”.

The best thing about the yet to be ratified agreement, said Thompson, was that it would remove the temptation for pilots to elect to fly visually when IFR was the prudent way and even to avoid filing flight plans. These ‘bad habits’ were already showing up.

But all was not over for the luckless corporation. Air New Zea- land (whose big aircraft escaped the huge charge increases originally proposed) asked that acceptance of the new system be deferred while the industry got down to the business of discussing the corporation’s lack of bookkeeping skills.

The airline (according to our sources) then produced its own computer readout of its airways charges over the past year. It showed the corporation had over-billed it – by $10m. Air NZ and the bigger companies decided that in future they would bill themselves.

Controller Saves Lost Pilot

Auckland control tower staff held their breath for 12 minutes in April as deputy watch supervisor Paul Knox talked to safety a trainee pilot who had become disoriented in a squally raincloud and who at one stage lost control of his aircraft.

The 38 year old student pilot took off from Ardmore Airport, south of Auckland, on what was to be a 45 minute solo cross country. He decided to return to base because of heavy rain squalls and then inadvertently entered cloud. Local controllers called up Auckland and by the time Paul Knox identified the lost Cherokee on radar, it was plugging steadily at 1,000ft towards the 1,500ft high Hunua range.

Knox told the pilot to climb to 2,800ft and then asked him to turn east towards a patch of clear. Despite Knox’s caution to take it easy’, the inexperienced pilot managed to lose control of the machine in the turn and only regained control at a heart-stopping 1,400ft. Again Knox got him on course and into a hurried climb. He then located an instructor equipped aircraft which was able to formate on the Cherokee and accompany it back to Ardmore.

Knox, who holds a commercial pilots licence and has logged 400 hours, told Australian Aviation much of his effort went into keeping the radio dialogue calm – if necessary with humour. “Fortunately, he didn’t panic and that saved his life – we joked that he was having his first lesson in instrument flying.

1 kept on thinking that if he went in, they’d play back the tapes and every word of mine would come under scrutiny, after it was over I went outside and drove around the airport to cool off. ”

Convairs for Night Service

Undergoing airworthiness certification in May was the first of two Convair CV-580 turboprops imported for night freight and courier services along the main trunk. (Also refer Traffic this issue. ) The aircraft form the base for a new airline, Air Freight New Zealand, formed in partnership by Palmerston North’s Fieldair Holdings and Parceline Express of Auckland.

The Convairs -the second was due at the end of May – were purchased from the British Columbia based operator, Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter Ltd, at a cost of about $2m each.

The aircraft began life as piston engined machines. The rugged airframes were later adapted to take the Allison 3,750shp T56 turboprops in the 1960s. Both imports are dedicated freight machines with large cargo doors.

The two aircraft will fly five nights a week on an Auckland/ Palmerston North/Christchurch route a midnight to 6am curfew prohibits landing at Wellington. The service will build on the experience of a Fieldair Freight DC-3 operation which has been flying between Wellington and the northern South Island centres of Nelson and Blenheim.

At least eight tonnes of the freight consigned every night out of Auckland will be courier parcels and Parceline’s manager David Dalziell said he reckoned the burgeoning courier demand would be similarly felt in other ports.

Fleet Expansion – Lucky Eight

Air New Zealand is entering a new fleet expansion phase with the acquisition of two more Boeing 767s, bringing the type number to eight. The aircraft are being acquired under an operating lease from China Airlines of Taiwan, meaning the New Zealand airline will also get the chance to purchase them. The contract was arranged through London based Aerospace Finance Ltd.

The first of the -200 series aircraft was to arrive in November, with the second following next April. On arrival they will go into the hangar for two weeks to be converted into extended range (ER) 7678. (Also refer Traffic this issue. ) In May the airline, with the approval of the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority and the American FAA began flying the 767 on Auckland/Nad/Honolulu services, thus extending the 120 minute rule for twin engined aircraft over water to 138 minutes.

The first of the airline’s Boeing 747-400s (Rolls-Royce RB211-524G) was to arrive in October, with a second in August 1990 and a third in 1992-giving the airline eight jumbos.

Meanwhile, Ansett New Zealand on top of its $280m order for seven British Aerospace BAe146s, announced in May that it had increased the number to eight and that the eighth would be the Quick Change (QC) variant. The first of the two -200 series 1468 was to be on service into Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, Queenstown and Rotorua on July 30. The six remaining -300 series were to arrive between October and January.

Near Miss for Jumbo

Nine controller mistakes occurred in little more than a year in the same facility responsible for controlling an Air New Zealand 747 which was nearly involved in a disaster in May.

The jumbo, en route to Los Angeles, was forced to veer and dive so suddenly in order to avoid a collision with a light aircraft that a crew member and a passenger were injured. Witnesses estimate the two machines passed well within 100 metres of each other.

The near miss happened east of Santa Catalina Island off the Californian coast while the aircraft was under the surveillance of the Coast Terminal Radar Approach Control. Just over a week earlier, National Transportation Safety Board investigators finished a special study which found numerous problems in the coast control room. Apart from the controller mistakes, they found the control facility was cramped, poorly ventilated and suffered from chronic staffing problems.

An NTSB spokeswoman, Drucella Anderson, said both aircraft were on the air traffic controllers’ radar screens and a controller twice advised the New Zealand captain there was conflicting traffic ahead. The incident was under investigation.

A Spate of Runaways

Meanwhile, inexperience or plain forgetfulness seem to be behind a spate of unusual, but similar, general aviation accidents all involving engine control clamps. They began when a part-time commercial pilot at Rotorua failed to stop his Cessna and runaway engine heading off across the field and demolishing itself on a fuel pump.

Then a bush pilot parked his “ding’ helicopter on a creek bed near the Haast River and forgetting to lock the collective leaver down jumped out to pursue a wounded deer. Some 15 minutes later and still into the chase he heard the engine revs increasing. He was too late to prevent the machine lifting off, then making a chaotic touchdown and bursting into flames.

Finally there was a microlight buff near Huntly who had noticed a loose throttle clamp, but nevertheless hopped out to hand swing start the engine. The machine burst into a full throated roar immediately and set off down the strip with the would be pilot hanging onto the tailplane. He had the presence of mind to let go when it lifted off and watched as it climbed to 100ft, executed a graceful 180° stall turn and then dived full tilt into a bank.

Captain Honoured

Captain David Cronin, the captain of the United Airlines Boeing 747 which lost a door and part of its forward fuselage from explosive decompression early this year, has been awarded the Royal New Zealand Aero Club’s Notable Achievement Award.

The citation said the award was in recognition of Captain Cronin’s expertise and capable handling in successfully return- ing the crippled 747 to Honolulu. He displayed airmanship of the highest order in that with a well disciplined application of emergency procedures plus the experience of years of flying, he, with the close co-operation of his crew, First Officer Al Slader and Flight Engineer Mark Thomas, flew the badly damaged plane back to a safe landing at Honolulu 18 minutes later. ”

Briefs

• Six RNZAF A4-K Skyhawks are to be based at the Royal Australian Naval Air Station, Nowra from later this year. The trans-Tasman deployment of the No. 75 Squadron flight follows negotiations with the RNZAF to provide Skyhawks for simulated missile attacks on RAN vessels in order to coordinate radar and defence systems. The cost of the joint maritime training programme will be shared between the two services. (Refer p. 10 May 89 AA. )

• The city of New Plymouth plans an around New Zealand air race in February 1991, as part of celebrations for the city’s 150th birthday. Planning is being undertaken by the New Plymouth Aero Club and support has been promised from the Civil Aviation Authority and the Airways Corporation.

• The Italian contender for the RNZAF’s Strikemaster replacement, Agusta, is offering a re-engined version of the Siai Mar- chets S. 211. The S. 211A test flown with a PWC JT15D-5 turbo-fan provides an extra 28% thrust (bringing it to 3,200lbs). The modified aircraft also has a stronger wing and increased fuel capacity.