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Post by Chris F on Apr 20, 2013 8:08:27 GMT 12
I read with great disappointment in today's Taranaki Daily News that New Plymouth Aero Club has folded it's wings.
It appears rising CAA costs and lack of student numbers have been under lying issues for the club.
NPAC have had a very proud history and long history in NZ aviation and this is a very sad piece of news for New Plymouth.
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Post by aeromedia on Apr 20, 2013 8:14:10 GMT 12
That's actually quite alarming. I hope it's not the thin end of the wedge for recreational aviation. And it's not like New Plymouth is a tiny place. I'll need to digest that one for a bit I think.
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Post by Chris F on Apr 20, 2013 8:32:09 GMT 12
New Plymouth has been the boom center of New Zealand in the past few years and population wise is just on 70,000 and with its huge oil and gas industry the City is expected in the next few years to over take Palmerston North in size.Add to this the huge dairy industry and you start to see the size of the local economy.
From an aero club point of view they have lost the overseas students due to high dollar and lose of allowances from funding sources.
I personally never thought this would happen here as we have a strong economy and very busy airport.
Locally we have several Yak-52's and a Vampire and L-39 plus add in Helicopters NZ fleet of AW-139's and Bell 412 and Air NZ have just started flying the ATR-72.
The New Plymouth District Council are rumoured to be working on plans for a multi million dollar airport terminal upgrade as well.
One thing that New Plymouth District Council have got badly wrong is they have made it impossible for people who just want to come out for a Sunday drive as to speech and watch the planes...many parents used to do this with their children and the Council have blocked off all parking spaces in favour of a bigger user pays car park....
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Post by ZacYates on Apr 20, 2013 9:12:14 GMT 12
What the?! There were always a lot of students milling around when I was there.
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Apr 20, 2013 10:07:32 GMT 12
That's actually quite alarming. I hope it's not the thin end of the wedge for recreational aviation. And it's not like New Plymouth is a tiny place. I'll need to digest that one for a bit I think. Well, I believe we are seeing the harbinger of things to come. Many in the various arms of the GA industry have been predicting this will happen. For many reasons. Very sad |
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Post by Ykato on Apr 20, 2013 10:38:02 GMT 12
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 20, 2013 10:39:58 GMT 12
As I predicted, over a year ago: " To encourage taxi drivers, car park staff, cafe and retail workers to adopt a suspicious and intolerant attitude towards anyone who is not actually climbing aboard a scheduled flight is in my view short sighted and ultimately fatal to the image of aviation. I can go up the road on a Saturday afternoon and see a yacht club in action. Adults and children assembling, launching, racing and recovering all sorts of water craft. No signs warning of danger or possible prosecution, no security patrols, no "keep out stranger" fencing. Hang around long enough and you will find yourself hauling on a rope, getting your feet wet, or helping time a race. Contrast that with someone arriving at an airfield to whet their aviation interest. No wonder aero clubs are struggling. I know of at least two long-standing aero clubs that have closed after their membership faded away, due, I'm told largely to recent difficulties with security access at their fields. They were no longer pleasant social and relaxing places to be. Losing outside involvement and support from their local community, they died. If Mum and the kids cannot picnic on the grass while they watch Dad go flying, you have a problem. The interest (and the money) will go elsewhere." rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=15099&page=1 |
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Post by flyjoe180 on Apr 20, 2013 10:41:58 GMT 12
I always viewed New Plymouth Aero Club as a stable and busy little establishment. However it comes as no surprise to me that some smaller GA organisations are struggling. The CAA has done no favours with increases in various costs and charges, the latest being the medical fee. The prices for exams also increased recently, and Airways charges haven't exactly remained viable for some. Fuel costs have increased a lot over the past five years. NP Aero Club operated a lot of older Cessna training types, many of which are now subject to new maintenance regimes. It must be a struggle for aero clubs and recreational aviation organisations to retain pilots and students. A sad day for GA in New Zealand.
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Post by baronbeeza on Apr 20, 2013 10:44:17 GMT 12
The financially strapped New Plymouth Aero Club has closed its doors and is facing liquidation.
General manager Peter Budden said the club and its flight training school ceased trading this week and a meeting was being held on May 8 to determine its fate.
The closure has been put down to a decline in student pilot numbers, a high Kiwi dollar and rising Civil Aviation Authority compliance costs.
Mr Budden said voluntary liquidation was an option but he remained optimistic.
"I think there will be enough will in members for it to continue running," Mr Budden said.
He would not disclose how much debt the club had.
"We've had a really proud record, we're all pretty disappointed it's come to this."
Two fulltime staff and up to three part-time flight instructors were employed by the club.
News of trading being ceased was announced in a post by the club's Facebook page, an announcement Mr Budden had not approved.
"It sounded like we're shutting the doors and walking away from it, which we're not."
The club had been struggling to attract trainee pilots since 2011 when the Tertiary Education Commission stopped granting students funding to train at the New Plymouth Aero Club.
"I think the TEC basically decided it was the bigger ones that had the infrastructure for it - we didn't," Mr Budden said.
"We had a very good training record but we missed out."
Many foreign student pilots, mostly from India, used to train at the club but they were now training in other countries because of the high New Zealand dollar, he said.
Civil Aviation Authority compliance and administration costs were also climbing, he said.
The club had been selling down its assets to reduce debt including selling its hangar and an aircraft.
Flight training was still being run at the club using three privately owned aircraft and existing instructors but it was not part of the club's business, he said.
"We're still operating out of it. The aero club hasn't locked up."
About 10 students were still learning to fly at the club.
People who wanted flight training could still contact the club to learn to fly but it would not be an aero club operation, he said. "If we had more people learning to fly we might have been able to ride this out." The club had a long and proud history and was highly regarded as a quality flight training provider, he said.
New Plymouth Aero Club operations manager Wayne Harrison, who has been with the club for 41 years, said it was disappointing the club was in this situation.
He said rising CAA costs would see a lot of other aero clubs finding themselves in a similar situation to New Plymouth's. www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/8574876/Struggling-aero-club-folds-wings-blames-strong-NZ-dollar Deeply saddened to be hearing this. I did two years with Wayne and the club there, including getting my PPL and doing several type ratings. It was a very good operation. |
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bigal
Flying Officer
Posts: 58
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Post by bigal on Apr 20, 2013 15:13:41 GMT 12
Good effort on the part of NZ CAA. The question is who is next? When they have finally finished f#!?ing recreational flying, students, pilots and the organisations they fly with, with unjustifiable taxes and exponentially increasing compliance cost (and a large part of that CAA collect), when they have finally killed off recreational GA, then who is going to fund CAA’s grandiose empire building and uncontrolled expansion? I cannot help but think it will be the travelling public. CAA is the states industry watchdog, regulator, rule maker and enforcer and are responsible for aviation safety. Something I have never been able to understand is how in a civilised society an organisation responsible for those things can also be in a monopoly position as auditor of the compulsory industry QA certificates, and gain a considerable revenue stream from this activity. Seems like a total and complete conflict of interest and a recipe for corruption to me, in my opinion it should be illegal for CAA to conduct industry audits. Absolute power corrupts, for an industry regulator and rule maker to gain revenue by carrying out QA audits for standards that they also set, and seem to change regularly as it suits them, there are not words in the English language strong enough to describe the stench of that. As we all know, the pack of arses have got themselves into the top couple of floors of a highrise overlooking the Beehive, what is their next party trick.
Thats my rant, is there something I missed.
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Post by thomarse on Apr 20, 2013 15:36:39 GMT 12
Well ranted, bigal!
I wonder if they are short-sighted enough not to be able to see that they are working themselves out of a job?
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 20, 2013 16:56:51 GMT 12
who is going to fund CAA�s grandiose empire building Not a problem - for the current lot. They'll all be happily retired on the Gold Coast with their gold-plated pension schemes by then, Someone else's problem old boy. |
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Post by 701driver on Apr 20, 2013 18:40:33 GMT 12
Best you all get in behind Des Lines and his GAA advocacy group and add some weight to this campaign,to sort out this CAA insanity.
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Post by eieio on Apr 20, 2013 20:36:26 GMT 12
And another substancial club only thrives because of student loans....the margin that 10 student pilots[at NP] generate wont cover much in the way of ground rentals and all the paper B>>>>S>>> that goes with aviation and pay an instructor a decent wage. Ah well ,we will import our pilot needs ,like the ones that land airliners on water.
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Post by 701driver on Apr 20, 2013 22:29:03 GMT 12
I think there must be some law that says that the more you charge to use an airport the less use it gets therefore the charges must increase to cover the deminishing returns, so even less people use it meaning less income.
we have the same situation here in south canterbury where i have the choice of flying to Timaru or Rangitata on a sunny sunday. It has become a no brainer since Timaru put up there landing fees. If i go to Rangitata with no landing fees, I can get a good coffee and muffins for less than it would cost to land at Timaru (no muffins either) so Rangitata is the destination I (and lots of others choose) as thats where the people congregate and theres always some one dropping in (including the meat bombs) to keep things interesting. I'm not sure but there seems to be a real increase in strip flying recently as opposed to flying from an airport, maybe it's just where i'm based, time will tell.
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Post by aeromedia on Apr 21, 2013 7:59:01 GMT 12
I think you are on to it re strip flying becoming more popular. I also wonder though if CAA will find a way to smother that.  The future: Google cars that drive themselves and recreational aviation rheemed up the back passage. How exciting. Not. |
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Post by dazz on Apr 21, 2013 12:37:16 GMT 12
Hmmm, does raise a few questions. Although, for a number of reasons times are tough for a lot of aero clubs, I would have thought NP as a result of it's geographic location and robust local economy, would have been in a much better position than most to weather the storm. Makes me wonder if they ( along with others ) haven't been chasing the overseas and government sponsored student gravy train too hard, and somewhat ignoring their traditional roots, local self funded students and recreational club pilots.
I did also wonder why they were employing 2 full time and 3 part time instructors if they only had 10 students??! Maybe more to the situation than meets the eye? Why is it that Stratford, Hawera , and Wanganui survive, and NP cannot?
Hopefully they'll be able to restructure and move forward, it would be a great shame to see them go down the tube.
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Post by chinapilot on Apr 21, 2013 13:12:01 GMT 12
Is it that people are not interested in learning to fly anymore or in the case of many, not able to afford it?
A look around any airfield anywhere in the world would convince most people it's an old codgers activity.
This is the second Aero Club to close recently and it's possible that many others are in serious trouble.
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Post by woody99 on Apr 21, 2013 14:21:44 GMT 12
The sad thing is that the quality of aviator produced by gents like Wayne Harrison would far surpass those from some of the sausage factories that sadly survive.
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Post by baronbeeza on Apr 21, 2013 14:58:24 GMT 12
The sad thing is that the quality of aviator produced by gents like Wayne Harrison would far surpass those from some of the sausage factories that sadly survive. And that is the truth. I am getting very concerned for the future of GA in this country. It has been my livelihood but I am not seeing too much good news in any of this. |
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