FLIGHT TEST

Aerospool WT9 Dynamic

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General Aviation’s Brighter Days ahead

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Contents

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Features

16 22

In the Wake of the Pandemic Angela Stevenson goes back to the general aviation community to gauge the level optimism and thoughts about the future as the pandemic continues to make itself felt.

Flight Test: WT9 Dynamic The WT9 Dynamic is one of the great unknown LSAs in Australia. With a demonstrator of the latest version now here, the type is set to get exposure like it never has before. Steve Hitchen flew the new WT9 and found a lot to get enthusiastic about.

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Pilots on Call

30 36

Collective Effort RotorTech 2022 comes only one year after the previous event. Our staff writers examine what drives the popularity of the rotary aviation industry’s main showcase and what impact it’s having in challenging times.

Training the Trainers As the GA industry struggles with a dearth of flying instructors, Monica Kade investigates what is drawing Grade 1s and 2s out of the ranks of instructors and the steps being mooted to correct a situation quickly becoming critical.

Of all the general aviation sectors impacted by COVID-19, it seems the one that fared best is the charter sector. Paul Southwick looks at the opportunities generated by increased demand and what sort of pilot is likely to be needed to bridge the gap.

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Doing the Maths Is there still a place in the modern GA cockpit for the faithful old whizz wheel? With the advent of EFBs and the proliferation of GPS, the whizz wheel’s place in general aviation is being challenged like never before. Kreisha Ballantyne reports on this endangered species.

Regulars

42

Lessons from a Logbook Jim Davis looks at the problem of fast fingers in the cockpit and tells some yarns about his days as a commando officer in South Africa.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

Editorial AirMail News Products Rotors Down to Business Safety Matters A Spot of Recreation What Can We Learn? Kreisha of Habit Short Final

6 8 10 60 62 66 68 69 70 72 74 Cover: Aerospool’s nimble WT9 Dynamic.

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6

Editorial

STEVE HITCHEN

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The final report of the senate inquiry into the GA industry has been postponed again, which has not pleased an industry that needs actions more than words, and the cynics are starting to find their voices.

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Why are We Waiting? ou have an advantage over me, reader. You are reading this armed with knowledge I don't have as I am tapping away at my keyboard. You know the contents of the senate committee's interim report on the GA inquiry. It was slated for 30 March, about a week after deadlines committed me to writing this editorial. I am, therefore, writing blind. That's only the interim report. The final report is up for its third D-day, this time 22 October. By the time we hear the slap of paper on desk, the inquiry will have been going for near enough to three years. Granting concessions for COVID, it's still a long time, and it leaves me wondering if the senators really have anything left to learn. The three heavy-lifters of the inquiry have been Senators McDonald, Patrick and Sterle, with others play cameo roles in various different hearings. The big three didn't come into the inquiry ignorant of the problems plaguing general aviation; they had a solid knowledge base already. In many cases, the inquiry would have been nothing more than formalising that which was already known to be true. For some matters, the senators were rightly seeking supporting evidence rather than just accepting the opinion or experience of one person. And

a lot of evidence they got. If you followed the hearings on line you would have seen the changes in demeanor as the senators started to understand the extent of the issues and the direct causes. Then they had to battle with frustration caused by simple questions being taken on notice rather than answered with a straight bat. Perhaps more than anything, their own experiences with CASA in particular reflected one of GA's most galling issues: unclear and inconsistent information provided

but it's enough to say the cynics are starting to warm up their voices for the I-told-you-so chorus. However, I'm not ready to go there just yet, confounded as I am about the decision to go with a report date in October. Surely they have enough material and evidence now to come up with some conclusions and recommendations, especially when they've been given some serious hints in the Aviation Recovery Framework about what the GA industry needs to become bouyant again.

The big three didn’t come into the inquiry ignorant of the problems in response to basic questions. CASA could have unwittingly incriminated themselves, providing powerful evidence to the committee that the GA industry is not just blowing smoke. But is it getting us anywhere? GA has never been short on cynicism, which came to the fore in 2019 when not only was another inquiry announced, but also it was given two years to report. As waste of time, they said. What is the point?, they asked. Nothing's going to change, they lamented. There is probably some mathematical algorithm somewhere that explains that the magnitude of the cynicism expands to fill the time distance between information and action,

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

So, what are the senators waiting for? There's an inkling running around the room that says the senators may need the time because they've something big in the offing that needs to be consolidated before it's made public. Something that was not part of their knowledge base when they embarked on the inquiry. If so, it's fair that we give them until 22 October to get this done. But not one day more. May your gauges always be in the green,

Steve Hitchen – Editor

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8

YOUR COMMENTS

AirMail

Got something to get off your chest? Australian Flying welcomes your input. Send your AirMail, with your name and contacts (which can be withheld from publishing upon request) to: stevehitchen@ yaffa.com.au or write to: Australian Flying, GPO Box 606 Sydney NSW 2001.

Crosswind Options

Hi, Steve. Re: the March-April 2022 edition of Australian Flying and the excellent article on cross wind landings. As a new PPL, I never had much confidence in my crosswinds, then I got my own Foxbat and did an RAAus conversion. I had an instructor who said he had to take me in hand. First he advised me to forget the crab approach (for recreational), just concentrate on one method option and get that right. Then we did a few circuits, he told me to handle the yoke while he did the rudder pedals, when I got that right we changed over and he did

the wing down into wind while I kept the nose straight. Then he told me to put it all together – and I have been much better since then. I just needed the right instructor! Thanks for the excellent mag and the very useful article on crosswinds. Regards, David Houston

Hi, David. Thank you for your letter about your crosswind experiences. Great job by your instructor to recognise how to help you see the picture and train your muscles to handle it. The crab method down final is the most comfortable for a

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

plane-load of passengers, but the wing-down method must be used for touchdown in all light aircraft. So its a great idea during your training to practice the wing-down method all the way down final so that you get proficient with it before you get to fill the plane with passengers and demonstrate your prowess at crabbing. Happy flying Sheldon Jones Merit Aviation – Moruya

More Bats in the Sky Dear Steve. Your “Vixen versus Virus” article [Australian Flying January-February 2022]

was a great read! I have not flown in a Vixen before–it sounds like a really nice LSA– but I own a 2018 Virus SW with the 912 injected FADEC Rotax 100-hp engine and CSU. I've been able to fly nonstop between Bankstown and Moorabbin in 3 hours and 10 minutes, and a thin inflatable cushion helps on those longer flights. Ergonomically, it's probably best suited for pilot/paxup to 6 feet in height, and I have put foam reinforcement around the spar you referred to, to help protect in turbulence. Mine does an average cruise at 117 KTAS using 12-14 lph mogas or avgas, and a fast cruise of 140 KTAS, with a standard climb of 1200 fpm. It's true range on 92 l usable at average cruise is around 1500 km. The cockpit is a glass dual touch-screen masterpiece, including TCAS, and this one is CASA-approved for night VFR too. It has two generous mid-wing airbrakes for rapid descents and deceleration, and a handy ballistic parachute that can be deployed as low as 300 feet AGL, as a last resort. I was told it would be a fantastic aircraft and it is. I think ATCs and pilots in SE Australia are getting more used to hearing

"Pipistrel" (bat; from the company's gliding roots) and "Virus" (well, that still brings a chuckle or two). Blue Skies! Dr Vini Khurana

Is that Safe? Dear Steve, I have not got half way through the March-April edition of Australian Flying but one article concerns me. Whilst the “Taming a Turbo-prop” story is very interesting, the photograph of someone refueling the plane is distressing! The way the refueler is positioned on the totally inappropriate, for the job at hand, ladder is a recipe for disaster and a nightmare for any OH&S officer! Yours Faithfully, Ted Rees Donnybrook WA

You Said What? Steve, With the greatest of respect, "they (CASA) effectively invented the ASAO idea" is simply not true. Then Minister John Sharp's CASA Review Program Advisory Panel (PAP) decided to borrow the idea from the New Zealanders including even the Part 149 name. This was 1997.

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RIGHT: Not invented here: a letter-writer points out that the GFA and others were successfully operating under self-administration long before CASA instigated CASR Part 149. OPPOSITE PAGE: A side-slip approach is good for handling crosswinds, but not if you have passengers on board.

“CASA largely turned Part 149 into a vehicle for the rigid bureaucratic intervention and control” It is a measure of CASA's enthusiasm for the idea that, 25 years later, we still have not got a workable Part 149, largely because CASA has changed the original intent and complicated and bureaucratised it almost beyond belief –with associated imposed costs and restrictions. CASA largely turned

Part 149 into a vehicle for the rigid bureaucratic intervention and control of organisations that have already proved their worth over many decades, without heavy-handed intervention by CASA and their predecessors. You mention the GFA. They have been around since shortly after WWII, RAAus/AUF for 40-

odd years. All the longexisting SAOs, all the members of ASAC, have commendable records. If the CASA CEO is fair dinkum, she will go back and look at the original concept in 1997, and the original draft Part 149. The answers to the problems of the present Part 149 are all there. Regards,

Bill Hamilton Vice Chairman, CASA Review and PAP, 1997-1999.

Bill, You can slap me for that one. What I meant to say was that CASA effectively instigated Part 149, but tiredness wrote something different that the spell and grammar checker was fine

with. Yes, Part 149 came out of NZ in 1997 and CASA did not invent it. I was trying to get across that without Part 149, CASA would be is deep regulatory cow-dung, which is why they are pursuing it so hard, even if, as you say, it deviates a long way from the original intent. Cheers, Hitch

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May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

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FLYING LATEST NEWS

News

RECOVERY FRAMEWORK PIPISTREL PG 10

PG 12

No Recovery without Airport Fix: AOPA AOPA Australia’s Ben Morgan says the Aviation Recovery Framework pays only lip service to a key issue holding back general aviation. due to sunset in 2024, the timeframe has not impressed AOPA, which has a dim view of the government's ability to turn promises in to action. “The problems are now! How many years is it going to take the government to get this done?,” Morgan asks. “I've seen nothing over the past six years that tells me the Department of Infrastructure can produce anything within a meaningful time frame.” Morgan says that the heart of the problem is the companies that lease the airports and the disparity between the way they deal with commercial companies and aviation companies. “The airport lessees are extremely predatory, they're gouging the businesses and aren't even maintaining the aviation assets at a lot of these sites anymore,” he says. “They hide behind

GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE

AOPA Australia CEO Ben Morgan believes the general aviation industry has no hope of recovery until the government does something about problems at federally-leased airports. Commenting on the Aviation Recovery Framework released last December, Morgan said the framework was disappointing because it failed to address what he saw as key issues, and singled out the impact of privatised and councilowned airports on the decline of GA. “If you want to address the decline of GA and create a rapid response to get aviation moving, at the top of the list you need to tackle privatised airports, as tough as that one is,” he told Australian Flying. Although the framework included a review of the Airports Act 1996, which is

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

runway and taxiway re-seals and lighting upgrades as examples of their superb management of airports, and yet the truth and the facts remain the same: GA businesses at privatised airports are being forced out. “The truth is that these companies are property developers backed by superannuation firms that just don't care about aviation.” According to AOPA, maintenance on assets leased to GA companies was cosmetic only and genuine structural repairs aren’t being done. At the same time, the value of leases were being increased to the point that they were no longer sustainable. “Just about every major capital city [GA] airport is suffering enormously, and these property developers are syphoning the life out of the businesses that remain,” Morgan said. “Jandakot is one of the most expensive airports in the country to base your business at. The property developers who control it have earned a lot of money, whilst aviation has endured uncontrolled increases in costs. “How is it that you can go to an airport as a non-aviation business and get a 30-year lease, but an aviation business can't get more than a five-year lease with an option for five more? “We're told at Bankstown that there's no

space to build new aviation facilities, yet they just tore up more land on the northern side of the airport for non-aviation businesses. Apparently there's space for non-aviation, just nothing for aviation.” Morgan said that recovery of general aviation is impossible, unless the government addresses the affordability problem that has been caused by airport privatisation. He cited the case of one school at Camden has been handed a lease renewal with an 80% increase and told to sign the new lease or vacate. The school has been hardhit by the pandemic and is leaning towards closing. “The problem is escalating,” Morgan

believes. “We're losing the stability, the longevity, the confidence of the industry. It's just been destroyed.”

Putting on the fix Morgan said that he and other industry advocates had met with the Airports Division of the Department of Infrastructure, but came away believing that the division didn't understand the problems or were unwilling to dig into issues. According to AOPA, the solution no longer lies within the bureaucracy, but in parliament. “This is not a Department of Infrastructure fix; this is a parliamentary fix,” Morgan believes. “Our elected

australianflying.com.au

CSF RULES PG 12

SENATE INQUIRY PG 14

SKYCOURIER

PG 15

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BREAKING NEWS FEATURED ON WWW. AUSTRALIANFLYING. COM.AU RECENTLY

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fly’n for Fun ready at the Holding Point

LEFT: AOPA says that maintenance of aviation facilities at leased airports is not being done properly. OPPOSITE PAGE: Jandakot Airport: Ben Morgan says that it is now one of the most expensive capital city GA airport in Australia to base a business at.

officials need to put a bill before the Commonwealth and change the laws and require problems to be fixed and fixed quickly. “At the end of the day, the Commonwealth sets the laws. They privatised the airports and the developers have run rough-shod. The minister approves

government has to become extremely firm in dealing with the companies and send out building auditors and immediately issue work repair orders and demand copies of leases, and if there is any business that has been treated in a predatory fashion, the government should intervene.

recovery framework will identify that. People will say I'm pessimistic; I think it's just a truthful answer.” “I think aviation would grow if, as a business, you could get tenure at the privatised airports with leases that aren't draining your business of every last dollar. “We need the Deputy Prime Minister to stand on the floor of parliament and introduce a private member's bill to take on the airport owners and de-power them. “If you could make the capital city airports affordable again, you

Minister opens Third Round of Regional Grant Program RFDS to base King Air Simulator in Bundaberg Bell delivers 429 WLG to Australia AMCT 4 Proposal to decrease Safety: AMROBA CASA addresses Part 149

RAAA throws Weight behind Moorabbin GA Operators Australian Gliding loses a Legend ATSB targets Stall in Powerline Survey Crash The Mystery of the Missing Angel Flight Costs

SIGN UP TO KEEP UP! The Australian Flying website is updated daily with the latest GA news stories. Visit us online now at www. australianflying.com.au to also check out our free classifieds section, photo and video galleries, blogs, flying tips articles and comprehensive Warbird coverage. And be sure to register for our FREE weekly electronic newsletter, which delivers the latest news FREE to your inbox every Friday morning. This is the perfect way to stay up to date with the latest news in between print issue of Australian Flying.

This is not a Department of Infrastructure fix; this is a parliamentary fix the master plans and the minister can decline a master plan and intervene. “Unfortunately they've let the situation fester to such a point that the scale of the problem is large they're scared to do it. “You've got to address the privatisation issue, and the

“These companies have made millions from nonaviation development, and now if they're pillaging the aviation industry, there needs to be punishment; there's got to be a punitive process to start reining them in.” “I don't think the

would see aviation start to re-focus on major population areas, and with strong capital-city network of aviation, you would find that regional aviation would actually get stronger as well. “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

E-NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP AT WWW.AUSTRALIANFLYING.COM.AU May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

12 News

australianflying.com.au

Textron Aviation buys Pipistrel Aviation giant Textron Aviation, which owns the Cessna, Beechcraft and Bell brands, has agreed to acquire Slovenian LSA and electric aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel, the two companies announced in March Pipistrel counts within its product range the Virus SW LSA, Alpha Electro trainer, Velis Electro and the 200-KTAS Panthera retractable GA single. According to Textron, Pipistrel will now have greater resources, technical and regulatory expertise and a global support network, enabling it to

accelerate its development and certification of electric and hybrid electric aircraft. Once completed, Pipistrel will become part of a new business segment: Textron eAviation, which will focus on developing sustainable aviation systems. “Pipistrel puts Textron in a uniquely strong position to develop technologies for the sustainable aviation market and develop a variety of new aircraft to meet a wide range of customer missions,” said Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly. “Today’s announcement supports Textron’s longterm strategy to offer a

PIPISTREL

US conglomerate seeks entry into the electric power market.

Pipistrel, manufacturer of the Explorer, is now part of the Textron stable.

family of sustainable aircraft for urban air mobility, general aviation, cargo and special mission roles. “Pipistrel has been celebrated as one of the world’s most important and successful manufacturers of electric aircraft.Textron is committed to maintaining Pipistrel’s brand, headquarters, research

and development, and manufacturing in Slovenia and Italy, while making additional investments in Pipistrel for the development and production of future products.” Pipistrel founder and CEO Ivo Boscarol will retain a minority shareholding in Pipistrel as well as consulting role

for the next two years. With the Pipistrel Virus SW now among their brands, Textron will have an LSA in its stable for the first time since the disappointing C162 Skycatcher was made defunct in 2013. Both Textron and Pipistrel expect to complete the buy-out before the second half of 2022.

CASA relaxes Community Service Flight Rules Review of restrictions creates greater pool of pilots and aircraft. Aircraft used on CSFs can now be maintained to private operations standards.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority amended the contentious regulations covering community service flights (CSF) in March this year. CASA released the modified rules after a community survey and consultations with Angel Flight and Little Wings. Key changes to the requirements for pilots and aircraft conducting CSFs are: • removal of an additional 100-hourly maintenance

requirement for aircraft conducting CSF flights above that required for private flights • the requirement for a pilot to have completed a landing within the previous 30 days in an aircraft of the type being used for the CSF has been clarified. The original intent that a landing can be done on the same day as the CSF has been incorporated • pilots that hold a medical

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

exemption for a Class 1 or Class 2 medical certificate are now able to conduct CSFs • CPL holders who are not also ATPL holders now need 150 hours as pilot-in-command of an aeroplane or helicopter • flight notifications need to be in a “written” form such as via the internet or an electronic form to ensure all CSF data is captured. The amended

instrument now permits CSFs to also carry other passengers that are needed to communicate with the patient, pilot mentors and other pilots observing the flight before conducting their own CSF. Angel Flight CEO Marjorie Pagani told Australian Flying that the organisation felt the new rules were an improvement over the original, but work still needed to be done. “We have had extensive negotiations with CASA in respect of the new instrument,” she said. “We're not satisfied with

all of its terms; however, we are heartened by their acceptance of their being no need for aerial-work category maintenance on private flights, and the somewhat expanded definition of passengers that can be carried. “Angel Flight continues to negotiate with CASA for an exemption to the instrument and a lot of progress has been made. “In the interim, pilots flying for Angel Flight should apply the new instrument until the exemption agreement has been finalised.”

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14 News

Senate Inquiry postpones Final Report

JJ / FLICKRCC

Further delay pushes report out until October.

The senate inquiry into Australia's general aviation industry has pushed out its final reporting date to 22 October 2022. The inquiry, which has

been underway since late 2019 was due to table its final report on 17 March. Instead, the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional

Affairs and Transport (RRAT) elected to issue an interim report on their findings on 30 March, with the inquiry set to continue taking evidence.

Initially, the inquiry was due to report on 30 November 2021 after two years of hearings and submissions, but the pandemic restricted the ability to conduct business, so the final report date was extended to 17 March 2022, which was also not met. Since the report was self-referred in December 2019, the committee has received 74 submissions both public and confidential and conducted four sets of hearings, mainly by video link due to pandemic restrictions. An interim report was first due in December 2020, but with the pandemic causing issues, no hearings had been done by August that year and

the GA community had made only 19 submissions. Although the committee was able to hold the first hearings in November 2020 and the number of submissions had grown, the interim report was a one-sentence document that reported that the committee had, in fact, nothing to report. The inquiry has taken evidence from airlines, flight training organisations, individuals and associations covering many issues from medicals, training, over-regulation, lack of support and incompatibility with international conventions. The senate inquiry has been unable to hold many public hearings in Canberra due to pandemic restrictions.

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FAA certifies Cessna’s SkyCourier Textron Aviation announced in March that the Federal Aviation Administration had issued the type certificate for the new Cessna C408 SkyCourier. Textron started the twin turbo-prop utility as a clean-sheet design in 2017, and was awarded the TC after 2100 hours in testing. "Achieving FAA certification for the Cessna SkyCourier demonstrates the expertise and hard work of our employees, as well as Textron Aviation’s continued investment in providing solutions for

our customers,” said Ron Draper, president and CEO, Textron Aviation. “Our clean-sheet design brings to this segment what customers said they need: the ability to load, fly, unload and repeat with low operating costs and maximum cabin flexibility and efficiency. "We expect the SkyCourier to be a workhorse of the fleet for FedEx and many other customers around the globe for decades to come.” Launch customer FedEx has order 50 C408s in

TEXTRON AVIATION

Type certificate awarded to new twin turbo-prop.

Cessna’s C408 is now ready to be delivered to customers.

cargo configuration with an option for another 50. The aircraft is also being offered in 19-seat passenger configuration. SkyCourier production has been underway in Wichita, Kansas, since the production TC was

issued earlier this year. The C408 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PT6A-65SC turbo-prop engines driving McCauley C779 propellers, The cockpit features Garmin G1000 NXi avionics and has a maximum cruise

speed of more than 200 KTAS and a 900-nm maximum range. The cabin features a large door and a flat floor, and the freighter version can hold up to three LD3 shipping containers with 2700 kg of payload capability.

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May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

16

COVID Impacts

ANGELA STEVENSON

In the Wake of the

Pandemic Following on from her 2020 award-winning article on the impacts of COVID on GA, Angela Stevenson does a health check on an industry facing a long battle to recover from the pandemic.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

eneral aviation operations have always been a mixed bag of personal and business fortunes (or misfortunes). In attempting to provide an overview of what COVID has done to that mixed bag, well, it appears, there’s the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Australia is a big country; girt by sea. Two years of COVID relentlessly battering the system, has exposed just how big, and how girt, it really is, and how much we rely on the aviation network to keep this big country connected and moving. But did the country rely on

aviation, or general aviation? With federal financial assistance as a measure, you’d be inclined to believe it was the airline industry. Sure, it was gravely ill, but was the government handing money to an unconscious patient to spend whilst all the doctors, nurses, cleaners, and healthcare workers ploughed on, working double shifts without so much as a pay rise? Airlines have thus far received $5.2 billion in federal assistance with some schemes continuing until the end of March. General aviation, aside from Jobkeeper and, for some organisations, the Booster Apprenticeship Scheme, essentially

australianflying.com.au

STEVE HITCHEN

ANDREW SMITH PH

OTOGRAPHY

LEFT: 15-year-old Brianna Smith at Lesson 6. She’s one of many keen to get a licence and are considering their career options.

not a cent, unless you count the airport upgrade program. Mostly left to its own devices for two years, general aviation has survived. But, it appears, some of the festering, Bandaid-ed sores already inherent in the system have become bleedingly obvious gaping wounds to all in the industry. Wounds that may require some drastic or innovative measures moving forward, in order to heal.

Student pilots Certainly, COVID has caused most, if not all, in the industry to take a long, hard look at

themselves. But none perhaps more so than those about to launch into an aerospace career. Graduating just as state borders shut, with CPL and degree in hand, Marshall Hennessy was one such person. Older, possibly a little burned by the experience, Hennessy is circumspect. “I’ve had to ask myself what I really wanted out of it all," he mused. "I’ve spent two years in other jobs deciding what to do and come to the conclusion that the Air Force represents a great option. "I don’t have to spend huge wads of money getting current again and trying to get a job with low hours against all those furloughed from the bigger set-ups. I’ll do my time there and then hopefully get into the airlines, which, when I was looking at the mirror, it told me that’s where I have always, always wanted to be. GA’s not the path for me anymore.” Others had disturbing conversations with their parents: "you’d be mad, absolutely mad to want to be a pilot." Some pushed on and in their reassessment of the end game decided GA was their best option. Tom Brown, 23, a recentlysoloed student pilot at Par Avion in Hobart, said “I was passionate enough to realise that even with the industry at an all time low, I was going to make it work and was confident it would all bounce back eventually. But my sights are now set firmly on GA, at least for the foreseeable future.”

Regardless of where a student wants to end up, some instructors think students asking hard questions, and having to justify their decision, either to themselves or their parents, can only be a good thing.

Instructors Other, recently CPL'd, students turned to instructing to stay in the industry, and their fortunes at doing so during the pandemic have been mixed. Flight schools and training institutions, in an effort to be recovery-ready, have kept more highly-trained staff and let many, more junior, instructors go. Inherently more difficult to replace, senior instructors have been at times, crazy busy, or grounded, utilising their IT skills developing online theory courses.

OPPOSITE PAGE: COVID has delivered stormy skies to GA in Australia.

Instructors, too, are reassessing their futures, with more than a few deciding to take their CPLs offshore; part of what is being called "the great skill suck." Most departed to American budget regional airlines, and some Grade 2 instructors have had contracts signed before their interview.

Flying schools And in the same way students and instructors are reassessing, so, it appears, are furloughed RPT pilots. Looking to get back into a more family-friendly career, Flight Training Organisations (FTO) are receiving an unprecedented number of unsolicited approaches. Is this realignment of values timely for GA? Private training schools suffered far more in terms of shutdowns than commercial schools, and are, by all accounts, rebounding strongly. Commercial schools, however, are currently stymied by the inertia of no new overseas students into the system for nearly two years and a reduced pool of Grade 2 and 3 instructors.

“The operators that stayed flexible survived” An unanticipated consequence of Jobkeeper was that while it kept instructors financial when laid off during the harshest lockdown period, it also put cash in the pockets of potential students wanting to learn between lockdowns. One school saw their student-instructor ratio go from 3-1 to 12-1, although the operator noted: "we’ve not seen many of those pilots return. Maybe they were full of the fantasy to fly and short on the passion to stick with it?" Or perhaps the money just simply ran out?

Compounded by a number of larger school base closures or outfits closing entirely (not necessarily COVID-related), on top of Part 61 changes, some estimate around 250 instructor jobs were lost. This sector is poised to boom, although likely squeezed through an even smaller straw. What percentage of the lost instructors will be recouped by RPT pilots returning into the commercial training system is yet to be discovered. For some, the potential squeeze

May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

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australianflying.com.au

COVID Impacts

LEFT: Par Avion’s Tom Brown expects to stick with GA after he qualifies. BELOW: Jabiru has experienced a leap in demand for their J230 LSA.

SUE WOODS

KELLIE EASTHER

Manufacturing

of students into their own space from a reduced FTO landscape is exciting. For others, COVIDsavvy students reassessing the high cost of a VET pathway into a fraught industry that initially repays them very little, represents a challenge to intake. Others are actively ramping up for intakes from overseas. Still others worry about the university system, stating "the university squeezes the training school, the students end up with all the debt … it’s only the institution that wins." It appears Australian private training is experiencing a surge of activity that may eventually settle down. Commercial training, however, is on the cusp of recovering with a huge surge of demand looming. Systemic issues

in this sector, highlighted and/or compounded by COVID, reveal a complex industry landscape illequipped to keep up in the short to medium term.

The charter operator “The operators that stayed flexible survived.” – Charter operator, NT. Unlike RPT activity, where the graph line dropped like a pilot’s heart upon spying a CASA ramp inspector, the Australian domestic private charter graph reveals major fibrillations and a more nuanced story. For some operators, an airline industry not moving their share of freight had become a god-send. Others moved more time-critical

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

health supplies and services. Others moved more prisoners, miners, and essential workers, or ferried pets around the country to new owners or for medical reasons. Private charter became a sector of niche transport industries. More recently, some operators, at least those based in cities, report far more leisure than business travel returning, reflecting the US post-COVID trend. One company has experienced unprecedented demand for its sport-related offering since restrictions eased; how long this will last is not clear. Still, the operation has ordered more aircraft for what it sees as a continuing trend of increased demand for private charter. In early 2020, one private charter booking organisation seriously considered shelving its operations for the foreseeable future. However, after enquiries picked up, they ploughed on and found themselves with a 150% increase in bookings and a four-fold increase in revenue from December 2020 to December 2021. Some operators expressed concern that charter is yet to really feel the full effect of experienced pilot shortage due to that great skill suck, suggesting this will occur as the airline industry ramps up recruitment.

Among the most-affected by supply chain issues, aircraft manufacturing in Australia has rebounded for some and continued strongly for others. Brumby has been regularly receiving new aircraft from China; mainly the 610 high-wing, but also with the development of the new 760-kg, 141hp Rotax version - which, Brumby's Paul Goard believes “will be a showstopper!” Sue Woods of Jabiru Aircraft says the company has managed to survive well by being flexible. Engine orders have increased and “inquiries for J230s became very constant, which is something we hadn’t seen for some time”. The experiences of partssupply businesses have been most mixed, from "it’s been an absolute disaster" to "we’ve been flat out!" One operator said he’d never been busier. “COVID hasn’t affected my business, not one little bit. Homebuilts have gone nuts – I’ve never sold so many parts! There might be a few months’ wait, but waiting and not getting are two different things." Delays for some parts have blown out from a month to nearly six months, and in some cases, over a year, especially from the US. Moving component parts from different areas of the world for final manufacture, he said, was a pipeline of delays. Of which the largest is shipping to Australia itself.

Maintenance And it was the disastrous supply chain that was also the biggest COVID challenge for maintenance facilities. Every second a business aircraft lies waiting for a part is money down the drain for its owner. Jordan Poretti, Istria Corp GA Maintenance, says that getting

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20

COVID Impacts

ANGELA STEVEN

SON

LEFT: AvWright Maintenance’s Jai Wright.

parts continues to be a "huge hitand-miss scenario, but things are finally starting to improve.” For maintenance facility operators it’s also been the uncertainty around assistance going forward that appears to be fraught. Dealing with the dearth of work in lockdowns, or surge of work between lockdowns and post lockdowns, has been a constant challenge. Said one operator: "It’s been

OPPOSITE PAGE: US low-costs carriers have been blamed for the “great skill suck” that has lured instructors away from teaching in Australia.

a yo-yo. We could have hired at times, but didn’t, simply because we couldn’t offer certainty. We’re still worried about it, even though we are currently at about 130% of pre-pandemic work level." Thankfully for maintenance facilities, but perhaps unfortunately for aircraft owners, everyone still had to get their annual done, and, says one operator, a lot of people got other, extra things done while their aircraft was laid up.

The wider industry With a largely skilled workforce difficult to replace in times of trouble, COVID has highlighted the importance of multi-skilling throughout the industry; talents such as marketing, social media, publishing or IT skills, are being viewed by employers very differently. Vaccine refusal may well be one of the key drivers of skills loss. Nearly every organisation spoken to by Australian Flying had eventually parted ways with an employee, sometimes from a senior position, due to vaccine refusal. If Australia’s COVID unvaccinated rate is indicative, at 5% to 10% of the workforce, that’s significant, and difficult to replace in a specialised workforce. Our parts shipping woes are compounded by a driver shortage in the national freight network and, at the parts installation end, by entire maintenance workforce crews sick or isolating

with COVID. Waiting for parts, aircraft lying idle lose money for operators and do not keep pilots and associated staff in jobs. And, the big country effect? One operator in a regional town was closed entirely for four weeks, not just because a couple of key employees were quite sick and others isolating for a few days, but because unlike hospitality or tourism, there was no-one available in the region who could pick up the tools or lead the troops. A couple of COVID cases caused a whole world of trouble for the business and the local organisations that relied on that business. Prices are expected to increase throughout the system due to trickle up and trickle down of market forces. Skills pressures? Higher wages. Parts supply? Increased freight costs. Fuel shortage? Increased cost of operation. Commercial operations aircraft idle? Money, money, money. Jai Wright of Yarrawonga’s

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australianflying.com.au

TOMAS DEL TORO / FLICKRCC

Rainy days

AVWright Maintenance: “From local freight to international freight, the system has been consistently difficult – moving a shipping container is disproportionately more expensive in 2022 to what it was in 2019. Prior to COVID we were able to airfreight an engine for $1500. Now that’s $4000.” However, in an ironic twist of the pandemic, money normally spent on RPT has sometimes been diverted to GA, perhaps unwittingly contributing to its survival. Some aircraft owners, used to expensive annual

holidays, and with an aircraft laid-up, were spending money within the industry; upgrading to a glass cockpit, getting those seats reupholstered, replacing that propeller just a little earlier. Welcome revenue for many. And, throughout the industry, it’s not all doom and gloom. Thankfully, it appears that most GA pilots were sensible about returning to the skies and heeded warnings to get checked out before throttling up, with instructors reporting an uptick in refresher check rides. Good news for instructor incomes too!

And, despite all the ills, everyone that this small, anecdotal article has touched seems ultimately, quite positive. Most believe the general aviation industry is suffering, but is resilient in many ways. General consensus is that throughout aviation history, crises happen, recovery happens, and GA ploughs on through it. In part because Australia’s enormousness makes GA the critical bones in the aviation body. In part because those bones are primarily made up of aviators and not officebound executives. In part because it’s relied upon as the upstream pipeline of the airline industry, and in part because its passionate, beating heart has an extraordinary will to live. Perhaps GA’s resilience stems from learned patience. Pilots, very early in their training, are taught to make decisions about things not within their control, and how to respond

calmly, sensibly, and with a factfinding, cautionary approach to those things. A culture of risk management is the antibody flooding through their veins. Adrianne Fleming, owner of Tristar Aviation says that “there are a lot of very strong-on-theory pilots out there at the moment, and COVID has enabled that. There’s a lot of good in that.” The weather affects GA far more than the airlines. With a century of dealing with the weather and other crises requiring risk management, comes practised flexibility. And practising flexibility breeds resilience. The mixed bag that makes up the Australian aviation ecosystem, it appears, has weathered the worst of COVID. Not with a new set of wounds, just the same old sores laid bare. As it stands, the diagnosis is Long COVID. Without serious intervention and investment in the coming years, GA will need all the resilience it can muster.

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May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

21

22

Flight Test

STEVE HITCHEN

Dynamic Impression Aerospool’s WT9 Dynamic LSA has struggled to gain traction in Australia, but has been given a boost with a new agent and a 2021 demonstrator. Steve Hitchen checked out the new Dynamic and came away enormously impressed with its sportscar-style and performance.

I

In aviation, very few good things happen after someone says "watch this!" So I was a touch apprehensive when instructor Michael Xeni took over the controls of WT9 1783 and proceeded to configure the aircraft for a rate of descent a dive-bomber would be proud of. We went

down at ear-busting speed, but the aircraft was stable and pliable through the whole exercise. I learnt that the latest embodiment of this speedy Slovakian LSA is as docile as it is fast; an impressive combination at a time when people are looking for LSAs to perform better without

Xeni opted for Dynon D1000 avionics and a built-in iPad mount and cooler. It makes for a sparse panel.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

sacrificing the ease of handling. My first encounter with an Aerospool WT9 Dynamic was in 2013, when I did a flight test for Australian Flying. Had you told me then that it would take nine years for the second aircraft to be delivered to this county I would have laughed in your face. The WT9 Dynamic contains a lot of what new LSA customers were looking for, so why wouldn't the type be adopted here in numbers? But reality is sometimes very different from perception, and a lack-lustre marketing campaign kept the Dynamic in the LSA shadows. That was until Aerospool handed the agency to Xeni's company AvXen. For the first time, Australia has an agency of its own and a demonstrator to back it up. It was that demonstrator that I strapped myself into in February this year, full of excitement to see how Aerospool could possibly have made a better aeroplane in 2021 than the machine I tested in 2013.

Settling in For those new to the Dynamic, the WT9 is a composite, low-wing tricycle undercart aeroplane with fixed or retractable gear pulled along by a Rotax 912 ULS, 912 iS or 914 engine. The sleek, flowing fuselage lines are attributed to the glass and carbon-fibre sandwich construction layered on either side of a core of hard foam panels. What comes from that design is an LSA that can get along at 135

australianflying.com.au

There’s plenty of room in the cockpit and enough built-in comfort to keep you happy on a long flight.

KTAS, has a useful load of up to 290 kg and plenty of room inside the cockpit. It comes from the factory in Prievidza, Slovakia in either Club (fixed gear) or Speed (retractable) models. There is also a Turbo Tow version for launching gliders that employs only the 115hp 914 engine. The demonstrator wheeled out of the hangar at Lilydale Airport in front of me was 23-1783, a Club version with a Woodcomp constant-speed propeller and

Dynon Skyview avionics. "It's not like other low wings regardless of what people think," Xeni said as I walked around the aircraft. "Yes, it's a goodlooking aeroplane, but it has the performance and handling characteristics that you need. It's fun to fly, but it's also stable and not something that's going to be arduous on a cross-country flight. "But, it's also something that's going to be fun to take friends and family up. So it suits many purposes."

Not a lot looked different with the new model; slight alterations to wing span and fuselage length are not the sort of things apparent to the eye. The most obvious was the winglets, which were not part of the previous design. Vortex generators had also been added to the leading edge of the wing and the air intakes redesigned. Naturally for a manufacturer's representative, Xeni enthused over the Dynamic. "I really love the canopy and the

space you've got in the cockpit," said with conviction. "There's more room in there than there is in a Warrior or an Archer; you're not rubbing shoulders with each other. Then you've got the canopy that makes you feel like you're in a convertible. You're looking straight through it; the visibility is awesome." At Xeni's invitation I lowered myself into the left seat, quickly buckling the three-point harness and stowing my camera in the cavernous baggage compartment

May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

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australianflying.com.au

Flight Test

behind the seats. Xeni was dead accurate with his assessment of the space. The soaring canopy screen provided plenty of head clearance and the seats were of generous proportions with an armchair feel to them. The pedals were at first out of my foot reach, but the pedals were adjusted to suit more easily than in any LSA I've ever flown. Pull the knob and a spring pushes the pedals your way. When they're at the perfect distance for you, release the knob. There is no seat adjustment. Now settled in, I noted the sparseness of 1783's panel. A Dynon D1000 Skyview EFIS dominated the panel along with an iPad holder with built-in cooler; Dynon autopilot and comm systems split the two, whilst a back-up ASI occupied the far left. A rank of rocker switches ran beneath the D1000, whilst the propeller control panel sat in the middle just above the centre console. The centre console was home to the throttle, fuel selector, parachute handle, choke, brake, trim and flap lever. Eying the flap lever gave me horrible flash-backs: a T-handle system that has to be slid along a groove around 250 mm from

zero to Stage Three. It's awkward to move and if done without warning can quickly trash your passenger's elbow. Xeni was very fast to mention they now have an electronic flap option.

Firing the Rotax One of the key advantages to running Rotax engines is that, all things being equal, they all start the same. Regardless, I asked Xeni to step me through the procedure. "Put the master switch on, then turn the key to the on position, you'll feel a click, then hit the Dynon switch," he instructed. "Wait for the screen to come on, then switch the fuel pump on until you have fuel pressure then turn it off. The pressure should stay in the green. "Magnetos go on and the choke if it's cold, then the key goes to start. Set the throttle to about 2800 RPM, which is about a quarter of a turn on the vernier throttle. The let the choke off and the RPM will settle to about 2200 or so. Avionics go on and the iPad cooler if you have an iPad in the mount." It all happened just that way, and after waiting the prerequisite time for the oil temp to move into the green, we taxied for Lilydale's

grass runway 18R. The Dynamic's nosewheel steering made ground navigation easy and I found the aircraft didn't bobble around like some LSAs can on grass. I ran through the pre-take-off checklist with Xeni pointing out the relevant bits to save me wasting time having to locate them in the unfamiliar cockpit. Some extra attention was needed when it came time to cycling the Woodcomp prop.

“The WT9 revealed her spirit early in the take-off roll, leaping forward with enthusiasm” The FlyBox prop controller has constant speed and manual modes, with an inc/dec switch to change the pitch angle. With Xeni's guidance I selected the CSU switch to manual, ran the RPM up to 5000 and reduced the pitch with the selector knob. Like any other CSU, the RPM dropped back and the manifold pressure (MAP) increased. "In the top right-hand corner of the CSU screen there is a figure that the prop is actually doing," Xeni said. "So if you're on base and you set the prop to 5700 then

It’s a beautiful machine to fly, with only slight pressures on the stick needed to change direction or pitch.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

back off the MAP, the prop is not actually going to be doing 5700, so that figure tells you what the prop RPM really is. This figure is also displayed on screen on the D1000." Happy that the prop was functioning correctly, I completed the checklist and asked Xeni to give me a take-off brief. Even though I was confident in my ability to get off the ground safely, every LSA performs a little

differently and only experience can find that sweet spot. "On take-off, wind in the vernier throttle to apply power–it doesn't take too much to get it to full–or you can press the button on top of the knob and push the knob in like a standard push throttle," he explained. "You'll get airborne with the ASI in the 40s or 50s, then get the nose down and get the speed into the 60s and climb away at 70 for best rate." Vernier throttles: you either love them or you hate them, and I have to say this one endeared itself to me very much. Unlike the stiff verniers fitted to most Bonanzas–where you seem to be winding forever–it took only three or four flips of the hand before the Dynamic throttle had reached the firewall. The WT9 revealed her spirit early in the take-off roll, leaping forward with enthusiasm and leaving the ground before the ASI had reached 50 knots. I didn't time the take-off roll, but it can't have been too long because I was still checking the temps and pressures when the wheels broke free. As coached, I lowered the nose to 60 knots, which seemed an irrelevant exercise as the ASI passed 70 almost immediately and it was time to assume the climb attitude. That should have given me some warning about the acceleration potential of this airframe and the need to make sure I bulls-eyed that 70 knot climb-out speed. At 250 feet I wound the prop

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26

australianflying.com.au

Flight Test

ABOVE: Michael Xeni runs the engine on 1783, which fitted with a Rotax 912 ULS and Woodcomp constantspeed prop. RIGHT: The centre console contains the trim, brake and THAT flap lever.

Specifications

back to 5500 RPM and soon learned that you can get very busy during a WT9 climb-out. "You wouldn't take off with two or three stages set: it's either one stage or none," Xeni said. "This aeroplane is easy to fly too fast with flap down on take-off." When I released the single stage of flap we had set, the nose of 1783 pitched up snappily. That put us into a very nosehigh climb at 70 knots, caused by the streamlined nature of the fuselage. Hitting the numbers is also important to make sure the MAP doesn't redline on you. "You'll also notice that if you don't get the nose up on climb out and you're climbing at around 85 knots the MAP will go into the yellow," Xeni pointed out, "so get the nose up so the speed drops back to 70 and the MAP will go back into the green."

Wing Span

8.92 m

Overall Length

6.46 m

Overall Height

1.85 m

Engine

Rotax 912 ULS / 912 iS / 914 UL

Typical Empty Weight

310-340 kg

MTOW

600 kg

Max Useful Load

290 kg

Fuel Capacity

100 l / 126 l

Airwork

Take-off Roll

142 m

Landing roll

123 m

Max Climb Rate

1190 fpm

Cruise Speed

110-135 kt

VNE

148 kt

Max. Crosswind

24 kt

I turned eastwards and set-up decent rate of climb, achieved with the throttle wide open and the prop at 5500. That returned an ROC of 1100 fpm. It can get better, but only by keeping the prop RPM at 5700, which is the maximum limit for the Rotax and can be sustained for only

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

five minutes. Still, 1100 fpm was nothing to sneeze at and we saw flashes of 1300 fpm on the VSI. We chose 4500 feet to run the TAS check and set power at 24.5/5250. The D1000 revealed a TAS of 129 at density altitude of 6523 feet. It was one of those impossibly sultry days that Victoria endured in February: QNH 1011, OAT at 4500 was 23°C. The fuel flow with those conditions was 19 lph. "If you keep a constant MAP and change the RPM between 5000-5300 it doesn't make too much difference to the speed of the aircraft," Xeni said, "but it will make a difference if you change the MAP. "The cruise settings for 18-20 lph will give you 125 KTAS at 4000 feet, or 135 KTAS at 7500 feet. They are slippery, but they can be very draggy once you get the flaps down. You've got to think ahead like any high-performance aeroplane." I gave myself just a few moments to soak in the WT9 cockpit for awhile before getting back to work. Xeni was right about the convertible-style feel. The view was almost completely unobstructed and there was nothing rubbing against me anywhere. The trim system is the stick-setter type rather than aerodynamic and the grips on the joystick-style controls that protrude from the front of the seats are turned slightly inward to match the more natural position of your wrist. Behind the seat bulkhead there are two cavernous cargo compartments, which I soon found can actually be problematic. I stored my camera there on takeoff, and in the cruise realised the cargo compartment was so deep I couldn't reach the bottom of it from the seated position. Some forward planning here would not go astray if you want to access anything in flight. Steep turns in 1783 were just delightful. The stick doesn't demand a lot of effort before the ailerons respond and if you apply any discernible back pressure you'll be climbing before you understand what's happening. The responsiveness was more like that of a helicopter cyclic: just thinking

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Flight Test seemed to come. The wings began somewhat of a see-saw action, but a touch of dancing on the pedals kept them level. Eventually the wings let go and the nose rotated slowly towards earth, breaking the stall. "They can be difficult to get the stall going," Xeni admitted as the ASI began to recover, "they don't want to stall, which is good. They're a pretty benign aeroplane."

Inbound ABOVE: The canopy hinges at the front and is supported by gas struts. The Dynamic can be taxied with it open, although forward visibility is restricted. OPPOSITE PAGE: Winglets are a new addition to the 2021 WT9 and generous ailerons contribute to the crisp handling.

about where you want to go has the aircraft starting to go there. I shy away from talking about fighterstyle response, but if the shoe fits ... In the clean stall the WT9 is interesting and almost comic in its reluctance, clinging onto the airflow for as long as it possibly could. With the power off and the nose pointing at the clouds, 1783 did a lot of wallowing and shuddering, with the innovative stick-shaker and audible alarm doing their best to warn us of something that never

I elected to cruise back to Lilydale for circuits, and I should have twigged that something was up when Xeni had me holding 3000 feet at an inbound point at which I'd normally be at 2000. At that point he asked for the controls. "In a 500 fpm descent, you can go for anything between 4000 and 5000 RPM," he briefed. "You'll have to bring the MAP back to 16 or even less and it will sit comfortably in the descent. "If you want a high rate of descent,

get the speed back into the white and drop three stages of flap. The speed will get back into the high 60s and the attitude will be very nosedown. You do have to hold the nose down and get the trim right. There's a lot of drag on the flaps, so you'll slow down very quickly. "Watch this." Thus configured, 1783 wiped out that excess 1000 feet of altitude in moments without the ASI threatening the yellow arc. The Dynon registered an ROD of 1300 fpm as we headed earthward in a smooth, stable fashion, thanks largely to the impressive planklike wing flaps. It's a very handy back-stop capability if you have underestimated the cloud base and need to get under it quickly, or have simply made a hash of your top-of-descent calculations. We recovered back to straightand-level at a more appropriate altitude and entered the circuit for Lilydale's runway 18R. I set downwind power at 23/5000 and 1783 settled into 100 KIAS.

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TAKE TO THE AIR

COMMERCIAL PILOT TRAINING

After rattling off the customary pre-landing checks, Xeni delivered the landing brief. "You can set the prop to 5700 on downwind or as part of a PUFF check on base. Once you bring the power back to turn base the prop won't be doing 5700 RPM; you can see the RPM in the CSU panel screen or on the D1000. "Get the speed back to 70, which is pretty easy because the power will be back to about 13-14 MAP." After throwing out two stages of flap, I quickly understood I needed to get the nose down or 1783 would wash off speed to a dangerous level. That made me reluctant to use the last stage. "On final you can set a third stage of flap if you want to do a short-field landing, but otherwise two stages is fine," Xeni said. "With two stages you'll get 65 KIAS over the fence compared with, say, three stages and 59 KIAS. There's not too much difference." The Dynamic was a gentle as a falling leaf on final, but a lot more stable. I do have a tendency to completely destroy my first landing in any new LSA and carried too much speed, which gave the aircraft a formula it just couldn't live with. We got down in a very ugly fashion. Redemption occurred on the second circuit. My number discipline was better and the WT9 proven it could roll on to the runway with the best of them. After the debacle of the first landing, I found I could tune myself to the airframe quite quickly and more easily that, say,

an A32 Vixxen. We exited the taxiway with me feeling pretty good about the Dynamic.

Addressing the baggage Back in the hangar with our feet up, I confronted Xeni with the WT9s biggest head-scratcher: the baggage capacity. The WT9 has a large bags compartment in the back, but also can carry stuff in cargo bags under the legs of the pilot and passenger. Mathematics showed that we had departed on the test flight with two 85-kg people and 60 litres of fuel in the 100-litre tanks. The demonstrator has a basic empty weight of 333 kg, meaning there was still 54 kg until 1783 hit the 600-kg MTOW. But ... "This aircraft is designed to the German ultralight standard, which says that someone should be able to follow the maximum weights for bags in front and back and fuel, and shouldn't have to do a weight-and-balance," Xeni said. "Under those conditions, the WT9 can be flown at up to 10 kg in the back and 20 kg in the front; 10 under each seat. If you get the WT9 certified to the EASA standard then you will have to do a W&B because the limit in the back is 40 kg and in the front is a total of 20 kg." The moral of the story is that if you want the full bags capacity you should tick the EASA certification box when you order your WT9. And electric flaps … get those too.

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RotorTech

STAFF WRITERS

Collective Effort Australia’s rotary aviation industry conference and exhibition, RotorTech 2022, is heavily tipped to be the biggest and best there has ever been. The secret to the success of the event is the desire of the industry to get together and work through issues to ensure a healthier future for all operators.

O

ptimism, it is said, is a force multiplier. If there is any truth in that, RotorTech 2022 will be the largest boost the Australian rotary aviation industry has ever had. The industry is still facing significant issues and challenges to a more stable future, but the success of the 2021 conference and exhibition is fueling a belief that getting the industry together in one place to thrash out solutions is

the best way forward; perhaps the only way forward. Slated for the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane 21-23 June, RotorTech is featuring on the aviation calendar for the second consecutive year, breaking the two-year cadence the event organisers have traditionally stuck with. Although there are pragmatic reasons for this, the

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

industry groundswell to repeat the success of 2021 as soon as practical can't be underestimated. At a time when the rotary aviation industry needs people to step up, they're coming in droves. It helps that the event, the major outing for both the Australian Helicopter Industry Association (AHIA) and the Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems (AAUS) is run by the

experienced team at AMDA Foundation, the sweat and tears behind the Avalon air show. AHIA president Ray Cronin told Australian Flying that the drive for another RotorTech in 2022 was the success experienced last year even though COVID restrictions kept the Queensland border closed to large parts of the country. “The trigger for this year being out of sync was the success of last year and the disappointment of having Victoria and Tasmania excluded from attending,” he said. “We missed a fair percentage of the audience that could have attended; we'd like to see those people be able to attend this year. It will open up opportunities for a sector of the

australianflying.com.au

The expo hall is not only a place for companies to show their wares, but also the site of extensive networking.

vying for the attention of conference delegates. Tracking systems, data systems, avionics, EFBs, manufacturers of supplemental type certificates (STC), regulators, service providers ... the list of products and services on display is endless. But, it's not all bling and bright colours; Cronin believes the industry itself has drawn huge benefits from the expo hall. “There's nothing like faceto-face contact and talking to a manufacturer about an STC or what benefit you'll get from putting in an aircraft tracking system,” he says. “There's nothing there in the exhibition hall that's not relevant to most operators. It creates a networking environment and I think from the development of RotorTech, it's become very professional and relevant. “The quality is first class, the venue is first class; there's no reason for people not to be totally focused

more for the public and RotorTech is not really for the public. “We saw that there was not a lot of value in putting it on for the complexity and cost of doing so.”

Thrashing the issues Australia's rotary aviation industry is represented by two distinct peak bodies: AHIA and the Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems (AAUS). AAUS is the association covering, to put it in simple form, drones. Helicopters and drones exist largely in low airspace where fixed-wings fear to tread, and in operations like filming and aerial photography, there's a lot of crossover between the two. RotorTech is an inclusive industry-wide event, but AHIA and AAUS have separate conference programs to enable them to tailor session topics to the concerns of each sector.

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industry with the confidence to forge ahead and plan the future collaboratively. And right now, the helicopter sector is going through survival pains as it looks to get back its mojo in the lee of pandemic restrictions. The conference program has been fashioned to enable operators to share problems and contribute to solutions that are common across the industry. Experts have been drafted in from the department, ATSB, CASA, operators, instructors, engineers and insurance companies to create a program of sessions to appeal to the wider helicopter community. In 2021, the AHIA conference sessions sparked a realisation that the industry's recovery could be in its own hands, and Cronin says another successful program in 2022 will be a highlight of RotorTech.

AMDA

“The issues we have are industry problems, they're not CASA problems”

industry that was excluded. “Whether is stays annual is a decision that will be made after this RotorTech. The normal sequence is that it's out of sync with Avalon, so the expertise and support that AMDA gives is available. In a normal Avalon year that probably would be too much for them to cope with the combined workload. “I will say that after we came out of the last AHIA conference, people were saying that RotorTech had the potential to be annual.”

on what the whole thing is about.” In the past, the exhibition has included an aircraft paddock, where helicopters were flown in for inspection by conference delegates. That will be missing at RotorTech in 2022. “The aircraft paddock is very expensive for what you actually get from it,” Cronin points out. “It's reliant on good conditions because it's out in the open and there were times at the last conference when rain hindered ability of people to walk around the paddock. “The other thing is that other than sales of new aircraft and promoting new products, the attendees are used to being around new aircraft. They're in their backyards, so really it's not something new to the industry; it's

Despite the challenges of COVID, RotorTech 2021 was a confirmed success. Compared with the 2018 event, it nearly doubled its total attendances over the three days (to 1806) and featured 40% more participating companies (140) in a 50% larger exhibition space. It provided the

“If you put a good conference program together and it's well supported the industry will back it,” he believes. “I suppose you could say the proof's in the pudding. And I think this year will be a litmus test for that as well. The vibe and expectation is that the attendance will exceed last year because

Showing off RIGHT: Nigel Austin (left) and Joe Urli of Ripper Corp talk about the development of their surf lifesaving UAVs as part of the AAUS conference last year.

AMDA

RotorTech is traditionally as much exhibition as it is conference. The expo halls are well patronised with companies

May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

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australianflying.com.au

RotorTech

international contingents will be able to attend. I think it's going to be very, very successful. “We want to make sure that the conference program is relevant to industry and has elements that are of interest to a broad cross-section of the industry. We can't achieve that totally, but we can focus on those issues like engineering. “We've incorporated a chief flying instructors conference, we've got a day of engineers and interested parties talking about how we can develop incentives to bring people into the industry; how to get out and market it better. “We'll be talking about the complexity of becoming an engineer, how to better engage

with the regulator so CASA can see what the issues really are. We can communicate that at a direct level. Something we really want to see happen is all the senior people attending the conferences, particularly the chief pilots, the chief engineers and the CFIs.” AHIA's conference will open with a keynote address from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Barnaby Joyce, presuming that he still holds that position post Federal Election. His Aviation Recovery Framework published in December last year has primed the helicopter industry to expect

What ails it “Tourism has been slaughtered,” Cronin told Australian Flying bluntly. “There are some operators in small niche markets, and some of them have gone exceptionally well because people haven't been able to travel. You look at an operator in the Barossa Valley that's doing flights over that area, they've actually had a boost in business because people from Adelaide can't go anywhere. “If they don't rely so much on interstate travel then they're doing OK, but if you look at north Queensland operators or others in the Kimberly where they rely heavily on foreign markets, they've been slaughtered; they've just shut down.” The pain the pandemic visited on Australia's tourism industry has been well documented, but it impacted all sectors by exacerbating problems that already existed; problems that the RotorTech conference roster is looking to solve as a collective.

AMDA

AMDA

Kate Furey, Airwork Helicopters Senior Instructor, addresses a panel session entitled The Future Of Our Industry Is In Good Hands – The Young Achievers in 2021.

Joyce to instigate concrete reforms to bolster those parts of the rotary aviation sector that are still ailing from the pandemic.

Ryan Aerospace’s HeliMod simulator has attracted a lot of attention at past RotorTechs.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

In stark contrast to the fixedwing community, AHIA is not laying all the blame at the feet of the regulator, but acknowledges that the answers lie within the helicopter industry itself. “The issues we have are industry problems, they're not CASA problems,” Cronin stresses. “We see CASA's role as the regulator and they regulate how we go about serving customers. Some clients have expectations that are not achievable, and that's where CASA comes in and balances what we aren't able to do. “Take night firefighting as an example. That was an industrydriven initiative that could be provided to the fire agencies, promoted by the industry and supported by the fire agencies. That took CASA right outside their box because it had never been done before in Australia. “We achieved it, and it's a classic example of an industrydriven outcome.” One issue that's sure to feature widely in the conference program is the response to the disastrous floods in Queensland and New South Wales early this year. The Federal Government has worn harsh criticism for its failure to respond with sufficient weight of assets in good time. AHIA has identified the problem as being one of communication, hoping effective action can come out of RotorTech. “We've seen from these recent floods in NSW and QLD the lack of access to the industry by the agencies responsible, that they're being criticised for,” Cronin says. “We think there's a communication gap, so this conference will be the perfect opportunity for people to come together and think about how we can communicate better with governments so that when the agencies are faced with big emergencies, the helicopter industry can provide essential services that are actually used, not sitting back in hangars like what happened earlier this year.” In December last year, CASA's suite of new operational regulations came into force,

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RotorTech

AMDA

But the major issues remain: giving Beyond Visual Line of Sight operators a detect-and-avoid capability, standardising flight approval processes across agencies and creating commercial risk profiles that recognise the difference between, say, inner city and sparsely populated outback environments. “See-and-Avoid is really the thing that stops most drones operating beyond line of sight,” Tyrrell said. “There’s a bigger discussion that needs to happen around how airspace is managed, because there’s no reason drones couldn’t have that capability if all participants in the airspace used some form of electronic conspicuity.”

STEVE HITCHEN

Under control

TOP: The Microflite team on their stand at RotorTech 2021. ABOVE: AHIA president Ray Cronin believes in the value of RotorTech.

sending operators into a frenzy of analysis to establish what their new working environment is going to look like. Cronin believes the arrival of the “six-pack” will get its fair share of attention at the RotorTech conference. “We've got the six-pack of regulations that have come through and the unworkable elements that have been a ripple effect from implementation. The true networking that you get from conferences, the open communications channels enable people to vent their frustrations at some of the issues raised by

the regs, and AHIA is able to go back and negotiate with CASA to smooth over the rough points. “If you don't have these conversations you don't get the networking, and we've really tried to bolster that with this conference by setting aside a half-day for the chief pilots and CFIs and a whole day for the engineers, which reflects where the focus is as well. “You've got room full of experts that are the leaders, and the outcomes we'll get from that communication will be spectacular. Without a conference, that doesn't happen.”

In parallel Australia’s uncrewed aircraft operators are in a position familiar

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

to industry pioneers – waiting for an administrative system to catch up with a new technology for which the apparent uses are almost limitless. Solutions and ideas are expected to come from the AAUS conference program at RotorTech. According to AAUS Executive Director Greg Tyrrell, the association’s conference at RotorTech 2022 will inevitably touch on how industry has succeeded in informing potential customers on the art of the possible, but is waiting for a consistent approvals process that makes business sense. “Industries using drone technology are now fully aware of the capabilities,” he said. “Drone industry operators used to be pushing themselves on to end users. But the end users are now pulling the technology in. “The frustrating aspect is it’s not that easy to go out and operate drones in the way most people would like to. Some of the limitations and red tape are there for the right reasons. Others are frustrating for industry.” More operators are looking to spray crops, fly geographical survey, inspect infrastructure without personnel leaving the ground and deliver commercial products to a customer’s door.

AMDA Foundation is best known for organising the Australian International Airshow, which over the years has forged within them the skills and nous to put on major events and displays with an enviable record of success. It made sense that the growing popularity of RotorTech would eventually lead to AMDA involvement, freeing up the largely volunteer force at AHIA to focus on their conference program. Recently-retired AMDA Foundation CEO Ian Honnery is confident the partnership will continue to bear fruit for Australia's rotary aviation industry. “With Australia’s international borders now open and COVID restrictions easing over much of the country, RotorTech 2022 is shaping up to be the engagement event that Australian industry needs to help illuminate the path to post-COVID recovery,” he said. “AHIA and AAUS serve industries that have innovated and adapted through the pandemic. Their RotorTech 2022 conference programs will be a mine of information on lessons learned and on how they will recover. “AMDA Foundation looks forward to providing the platform where these discussions can take place, as a catalyst for industry recovery.”

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36

Instructor Shortage

MONICA KADE

Training W the Trainers

STEVE HITCHEN

One of the knock-on effects of the pandemic has been a significant increase in flying instructors being drawn to airlines, putting pressure on the pipeline right back to fledgling CPLs. Monica Kade explores the problems of training new instructors as well as keeping some of the existing ones in GA.

Not many instructors are in it for the long term, but those that choose instructing as a career are in very high demand.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

australianflying.com.au

unified voice for Australian flight training operators. “It’s a no-brainer,” Maddy said. “We want all instructors to have a good benchmark to start with, but to achieve this; instructors need to have a high level of knowledge to pass on.” That makes perfect logical sense. Only that with a shortage of seasoned instructors, the conversation reverts to what comes first, the chicken or the egg?

The abyss “Instructors are reaching the pinnacle of their instructing career and then leaving general aviation,” said Joel Haski, Chief Instructor and Owner of The Aerobatic School. “We need the people who have a passion for teaching to want to stay in the industry and be able to stay without feeling like they’re missing out on an airline or corporate jet career, which is what happens. We need to nurture the passion of future instructors who want to be in the aeroplane. Otherwise, we’ll continue to have this constant churn of instructors and pilots." Steve Reh, Flight Instructor Course Manager and Flight Examiner at AltoCap Flight School agreed. “A good instructor should be passionate about what they do because it rubs off on the student,” he said. The churn leads to Grade 1 multi-engine IFR instructors getting snatched up by Second Officer positions in the airlines. Now, unless they return to GA, those years of training and the skills acquired vanishes with the instructor’s exit from GA. It’s incredibly disheartening because these pilots have gained so much knowledge and experience over the years, and it just plummets into oblivion. Before this happens, many flight training schools have their most

JOEL HASKI

W

e seem to come up against two fundamental concerns when training future flight instructors in Australia: aviation costs and lack of experienced trainers. Becoming an instructor is a stepping stone to the airlines for many pilots. It makes sense, right? That’s where the money is in aviation – and pilots become pilots because they want to fly planes, which is expensive if you’re not getting paid (or paid well) to do it. And, here is our predicament. By the time a CPL student has graduated, they’ve worked incredibly hard to get to where they are. Every pilot knows the blood, sweat and money that’s gone into the training. Not to mention commercial pilots who have spent up to $150,000 on their training – some maybe more. Now, to further their training and gain an instructor rating, they need to throw anywhere up to $25,000 at it. That doesn’t even include the costs of maintaining currency. So, it’s not very surprising that students and instructors gravitate to the airlines if they can. General aviation desperately needs quality instructors to fuel the aviator lineage. However, to date, there’s no real incentive for them to stay in GA without any structured career progression benefits or substantial financial reward. So then, who’s left to teach the next generation of pilots? The ones who still have fire in their bellies and eternal optimism that’s untainted by industry limitations. It’s a good question that Maddy Johnson, Board Chair at the Australian Flight Training Industry Association (AFTIA), is working hard to address. AFTIA is an alliance of flight training industry professionals who work with CASA and the Government to deliver better regulations, flight training outcomes, and a more

37

Joel Haski from The Aerobatic School (left) says the flight training industry needs people with a passion for teaching.

experienced person mentoring the student, usually because safety is paramount. And we do need those Grade 1 and 2 instructors to mentor the newcomers. Still, to gain experience, everyone has to start somewhere. This brings us back to flying experience and aviation costs, the latter being a significant limiting factor in gaining and evolving experience. “We don’t expect entry-level instructors to know everything," Johnson said. "It’s why we have three grades of instructors.” Yet, to counter-balance the knowledge and experience deficiencies, “you need the most experienced person training them, plus a strong training ecosystem to mentor the newer instructors." So what do we do? How do we keep exceptional instructors and pilots in GA and give them the recognition they deserve?

Vision for change Change is never easy. Shifting the way an age-old industry operates is even more complicated. Yet, nothing will transform without shining a light on the challenges that exist–which AFTIA is doing–and encouraging the next generation of aviators to do things differently. Maddy Johnson: “I was talking to an airline trainer a while

back, discussing how gaining entry into the airlines and then becoming an instructor in the airline world is seen as a gold standard. A complete contrast to becoming an instructor in GA, which is perceived as a stepping stone and not somewhere you stay. Why are those two things so polar opposite? "It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about the industry, and we need to find a way to harmonise training across the sectors." “Take a look at universities, for example,” Haski said. "The top doctors train entry-level medical students and they’re recognised for it. The doctors that train other doctors, that’s their profession, and they’re paid very well to do so.” George Raby, Flight Examiner and Head of Operations at AltoCap, said, “Steve and I have remained instructors in GA for 30 years combined because we love it. But it’s underpaid, and there are no options for professional development within instructing. We need to create a better career pathway, and the industry needs to value the quality flight instructors that are still teaching.” “Yes”, Haski agreed. “That’s something the aviation industry needs, in particular GA. We need professors of instructing and teaching. There are a few of us

May – June 2022 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

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Instructor Shortage

LEFT: Instructing is a very rewarding career because it gives you the opportunity share your passion with others whilst guiding their careers.

who’ve been around for a while, and we have a good reputation, but we can’t teach everyone.” Haski, Raby, Reh and Johnson had similar thoughts around what aspects of instructor training needs immediate attention and some plausible ways to jumpstart change. • Set entry-level qualifications for instructor ratings. E.g. Grade 1, 2, 3 instructors

STEVE REH

STEVE HITCHEN

BELOW: AltoCap’s Steve Reh (left) says his company feels the responsibiity of turning out good instructors.

don’t leave GA in the first place. • Implement career progression opportunities for GA instructors/trainers.

Get the rating An excellent place to start is understanding your motivations and desire for getting an instructor rating.

“we need to find a way to harmonise training across the sectors.” must meet set minimum hours of experience and show competency before commencing training. • Create incentives for seasoned pilots to return to instructing: AFTIA is working on Project Boomerang where seasoned airline trainers/examiners potentially in early retirement can return to GA training/ examining after progressing through a training pathway to mentor new instructors. • Find new ways of remunerating experienced instructors so they

“When you ask CPL pilots why they’re becoming an instructor,” Raby said, “eight out of 10 will tell you it’s a natural step for becoming an airline pilot. They want to get their hours up. Which is okay, but more so, it reflects the lack of career opportunities in GA for new instructors.” “At AltoCap, we specialise in instructor ratings and we continue to do them because we feel responsible for turning over a good product which reflects in industry. And, because we’re passionate about it,” Reh added.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

While there’s much room for improvement concerning training the next-gen of flight instructors— there’s still great rewards for those who want to dedicate themselves to the journey of becoming a topnotch instructor. With 20-years of instructing under his belt, Haski explained that one of the greatest gifts the career has given him is realising how essential communication is. “Exceptional flying instruction boils down to really effective communication,” he said. So, if you can master that whilst flying an aeroplane and teaching, you’re very capable of becoming a really great instructor.” Haski says the other selffulfilling part about being a seasoned instructor is “developing a deeper understanding of the core errors that students make." Haski's hours upon hours of commercial flying plus instruction from ab initio through to advanced aerobatics has enabled him to master his flying skills, teaching methods and situational awareness – in the cockpit and the briefing room. “Today, with the experience I have, it’s very quickly evident to

me that a lot of the errors made at various flying levels all boil down to a single habit that has developed over time, or started at an early stage and wasn’t corrected,” he said. “For a student to have a clear objective around what they’re trying to achieve, being able to demonstrate the competency you want them to meet means it must be demonstrated at the highest level. "An instructor who can’t demonstrate the skill they’re trying to teach accurately, well, they’ll find it harder to teach their students in the long run because their instructor didn’t show them the highest standard of competency to start." This doesn’t surprise Raby, who added: “CPL pilots with 200250 hours come to AltoCap to get their instructor rating, and many of them can’t fly straight and level properly. We end up having to retrain them on the basics of flying.” “They’re missing a good knowledge base," Reh agreed, "and for CPL pilots who want to be instructors, their knowledge should be a lot higher." Impeccable flight instruction goes beyond just teaching the skill. It’s the passing down of wisdom and insights gained from years of

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Instructor Shortage

AltoCap’s George Raby (right) with a student under instruction.

The pilot I am today is primarily due to the wisdom and training I received. I recently acquired my RPL and had the opportunity to learn from an accomplished instructor who’s competed in world championship aerobatics, flown international airshows and was sponsored by Red Bull, alongside Joel Haski. The experience is incredibly invaluable to me. My instructor, Enzo Iacono, with 30 years of flying experience, planted tiny aviator seeds in my mind from day one – well before I had the brain space for computing them. Newbies don’t know what they don’t know, so when you’ve got an instructor who can nip errors in the bud early, it tends to grow better pilots. Here are a few things that made a significant impact on my flying: • fixing my hand position on the throttle (it was hellishly awkward at first). • pinpointing why I was suddenly flaring too high just before going solo (fixed with a slight adjustment in hand position on the stick). • lessons in challenging weather conditions, when a Grade 3 instructor would’ve cancelled the flight. • experiencing non-standard situations with traffic or ATC. Exposure to more challenging conditions enabled me to go beyond my edge, become better and build a solid foundation for my flying career – purely because Enzo had the expertise to instruct me in such conditions. He had the insight to spot my errors promptly. He demonstrated the highest competency. His ease and comfort in the sky fostered mine. So, even when my comfort zone got stretched, his never was, which freed me to progress faster. The myriad of tips and situational insights he’s passed on, they now belong to me too. I am the pilot I am because I had the privilege of learning from an exceptional and experienced pilot – who’s also an instructor who loves to teach. My story alone is evidence of why we need to look after our Grade 1s and 2s and nurture our Grade 3s (often very motivated) so they too stick around. If you’re lucky to find an instructor who can spot nuances like Joel or Enzo, or those willing to re-train like George and Steve, you’ll get training that supersedes the money you invest. You’ll gain wisdom to make you a better pilot and great instructor. Then, one day the anecdotes, skills and lessons you obtain will become something you’ll pass down to your students.

AUSTRALIAN FLYING May – June 2022

GEORGE RABY

The author’s experience

flying and teaching combined. And that’s where having an experienced flight instructor teaching new or less experienced instructors is invaluable. “I’ve realised much of what constitutes a good pilot is where the pilot looks at any given time,” Haski said. “So many errors are made because the pilot isn’t looking in the right place. Once I made that connection, fixing student pilot errors and improving their skills came down to correcting where they looked. I’m hyper-vigilant over it. “If I see the pilot looking in the wrong spot, I jump on it straight away. I don’t let my students fall into that bad habit.” That’s the fundamental difference between an entry-level instructor and the seasoned: selfawareness, general awareness and communication – and how they use those skills to relate to the student. You can’t buy experience or wisdom. You earn it by giving yourself to mastering the art of flying an aircraft. The veteran flight trainers we know or hear about have taken their insatiable thirst for flying and invested their lives, money, and desire for self-improvement to now support the next wave of pilots. They’ve become exceptional, and those who come under their wing also have the opportunity to become exceptional aviators.

Your own IR Choosing the right instructor for your instructor rating can itself impact you as an instructor in the future. Here are some tips for selecting the right trainer. • Reputation. Reputation isn’t just about the most recognised training

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organisation out there. In today’s world, you can be one of the biggest names in an industry and not have the reputation to match. Find training operators known to provide excellent training. Do your research. Not having a selection of highly experienced instructor training programs within your local area shouldn’t stop you from learning from the best. Traveling to another state may get you better quality training. Go with your gut. Find someone who’ll bring out the best in you. Choose an instructor you resonate with, who inspires you and whose presence you enjoy. Ultimately, it’s your attitude and approach to your training that determines what you’ll achieve, but the temperament and personality of your trainer can play a role. When costs matter. In life, they say, “you get what you pay for”– this isn’t always the case in aviation. The flying school’s location, the type of aircraft used, and the curriculum determine the cost of the instructor course. A more expensive program doesn’t guarantee top-gun guidance. Just because it’s cheaper doesn’t mean it’s not quality training, and vice versa. Talk to the instructors. Get to know the instructor before you enrol. Call them. Learn about their flying career. Ask about their teaching style, and see if it resonates with you. Are they still passionate about teaching? Ask them why they love to teach. You’ll quickly see if the instructor still thrives on what they do, and no doubt, you want to study with someone who still beholds that teaching enthusiasm.

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