The rules have changed

Some of the changes are worth noting. For a CPL test the candidate will need to have a class 1 medical certificate at the time of the test. In the past it was not a requirement. The candidate could have had a class 2. It is worth pushing students early to get a class 1 as it will ensure that they are not told that they have a medical issue after spending a lot of someone’s money on CPL flight training that they cannot use.

The new regulations will mean changes to how we do things rather than what we do in flight training

Part of the changeover will mean that sticky labels in logbooks are no longer issued and instead the flight examiner will write up an entry on the candidate’s licence and forward a form to CASA to advise what endorsement the candidate has obtained. When they do this they will also need to advise CASA what approvals the candidate has obtained in the past. To do this means that the candidate will need to obtain certified copies of all of those approvals and have them available at the time the flight examiner conducts a test or even a flight review.

The key here is to have the candidate obtain those approval copies before the flight test or flight review so there is no ping-pong correspondence between the candidate and the examiner. The examiner only has limited time to forward the paperwork to CASA after the test. That in turn brings me to a further note. CASA is progressively going to a paperless office. Things are being digitised. In turn this means it can be good to have an ARN number on all correspondence sent in to CASA so that it cannot end up in that room marked ‘Lost Paperwork’.

And there is more. With the new Part 61 regulations there is no student licence. The first licence level is the Recreational or RPL or full PPL. The GFPT is no more.

Further, it may be that the candidate needs to fly into or operate from a security airport and that means an ASIC is required to be displayed by the pilot in question. The regulations advise that one cannot apply for an ASIC unless they hold or are applying for a licence. Hmm! That creates an issue. The way around this is to write a covering letter with the application explaining why the candidate needs an ASIC before obtaining the licence.

For CPL or ATPL candidates note that we are back to a two-year sunset clause on obtaining the theory subjects. Dick Smith got rid of this in the early ’90s but it is now back in the new regulations. Three successive fails of a theory subject will require a three-month wait before a resit. The role of the chief flying instructor will be phased out and be replaced by the head of operations or HOO. No doubt the average pilot will still use the expression of CFI for years to come in the same way that they talk of the BFR or biennial flight review instead of just FR or flight review. The only constant is change.

Handheld VHF radios

Every flight instructor should have one! Some years back I was given one by a grateful student (thank you Geoff) and since then I wonder how I did without it before that time.

From an instructor’s point of view they are just good kit. I can monitor the ATIS before a flight, call the tower and ask for a start-up clearance for circuit work, monitor low-time circuit solo students, call ground if need be to tell said student to ‘make the next landing a full stop’ if the weather changes and have a VHF radio in my nav bag as part of my SAR kit.

On two occasions I have had nil comms at a tower airport and the portable VHF gave breathing space while we sorted out the avionics issue. I have had two inflight electrical failures and loss of avionics that were not heralded by a warning light. The portable VHF came to the rescue on both occasions.

Remember the old advert for traveller’s cheques that went along the lines of ‘Don’t leave home without one’?