How are the aero clubs doing?

[Dave Homewood]

I know there is a much lower level of flight training right now in NZ thanks to the lack of foreign students and money, but I wondered have the aero clubs across New Zealand seen an upswing in established furloughed commercial pilots joining or re-joining to go flying in aero club aircraft, to keep their hand in and to get airborne for their sanity's sake? Or have clubs become quiet and in the doldrums over the past months?

[tbf2504]

Hi Dave,
I was at the kapiti aero club yesterday watching the first flight of ZK-USK an AVIAT AC-1C-180 Husky. The comments at the club were they were holding their own, and will be competing in the
regional Flying NZ rally this weekend.

[jaybee]

I was at the NSAC awards dinner last night where the club celebrated 64 odd individual achievements this year, including quite a number of solos and PPLs, plus several CPLs and 2 x C cat ratings.

[ZacYates]

Every other day the Wanganui Aero Club's Facebook page is congratulating their newest solo pilots. It's great to see! I'm not a member so can't comment beyond what I see on FB.

Nov 13, 2020 18:33:00 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I know there is a much lower level of flight training right now in NZ thanks to the lack of foreign students and money

We have pretty constant daily air traffic over and around our house thanks to the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy and their (I believe) largely foreign student body. Their Cessnas, Partenavia and (especially yesterday) DA42 are exercised very regularly and, again, every few days another student or two is on Facebook after going solo.

[baz62]

Canterbury seems to be quite busy and so is their International Aviation Acadamey. Whether the Commercial training arm continues at this pace remains to be seen.

[Peter Lewis]

Auckland is still busy. I was told that the hours for October exceeded that for the previous year.
They have just bought another C172, ZK-TJL. However, this will not be online until early 2021 as the engine is 'on condition' and thus needs to be replaced.
However, I have found it easier to get aircraft bookings at fairly short notice than it was pre-covid.

Over at Whenuapai there is a wait list for civilian membership.

However (putting my business hat on) I suspect that we have not felt anything like the full impact of the economic slowdown.
My predictions are that 2021 will be a much tougher year and that many/most/all of the commercial flying academies will fold.

Massey and the aero clubs will probably survive, as they can retract back into their core businesses but those that are entirely airline training focused are, in my opinion, doomed. Once the current students complete, end of story. L3 is just the start.

I am glad I am not a Whanganui ratepayer.

[flyinkiwi]

Waikato Aero Club is doing OK. The CFI made a comment that for some reason he can't explain there are more private pilots flying and learning to fly than ever before. It's been a strange year.

[johnnyfalcon]

I think Peter is right. I've read of warnings within the aviation industry globally that an airline career is currently a bad idea.

I wonder if the increase in personal flying is a result of the limitations on overseas holidays so the discretionary spending has partly been redirected to unfulfilled ambitions

[Dave Homewood]

Nov 16, 2020 9:57:16 GMT 12 johnnyfalcon said:

I think Peter is right. I've read of warnings within the aviation industry globally that an airline career is currently a bad idea.

I was just listening to the latest Airplane Geeks podcast as I mowed the lawn, and it was mentioned there that the British airline pilots association (i.e. their union) has commented that young people should not try to get into the industry right now. But co-host Max Trescott made a good point, that in the airlines that are still operating most have retained their senior pilots in their roles, and the natural attrition of retirement of those older pilots will still be occurring as normal when their time comes - plus some are taking early retirement offers too - so at some point there's going to be a need for new pilots as the middle range pilots move up the pay scale. I know that some airlines have offered one and two year stand-downs on half pay and those pilots will likely be the first welcomes back into the jobs rather than the newbies just out of school. But eventually there will be a need for the newbies too. And they are being told to spend the time in between to upskill in other occupations till their time comes.

[chinapilot]

BALPA mentioned the elephant in the room - aviation jobs are just a figment of the imagination now for anyone contemplating pouring cash into a licence.

Yes - some so called senior pilots have remained but if they are in their late 40s/ early 50s it will be a decade or more before they retire.

World wide - about 100,000 experienced type rated pilots out of work and the number is increasing daily and will get worst this Northern hemisphere winter.

Airliners are getting parked - most will never return to service. The airlines themselves are mostly not viable business models and are being kept going by governments propping them up with taxpayers money. There is one or two airlines giving two years leave on half pay but the other 99.9% are saying goodbye to their staff as that’s a luxury that is unsustainable.

Bleak outlook I know but overseas economies won’t be able to prop up airlines for much longer and eventually the NZ bubble will burst as how long can you keep paying people for jobs that don’t even exist anymore.

[madmax]

Very true Ian, the repercussions on the airline industry of the COVID19 virus are enormous. A recent world-wide survey of travelers indicates 93% will be reluctant to use air travel after the pandemic is over. It may possibly take over a decade for the industry to return to its pre-covid buoyancy.

Ian, on another subject. Have you come across a book titled, "Don't Tell My Mother", by a mutual acquaintance Peter Dugan-Smith? I've been searching the internet but so far not located a copy.

[johnnyfalcon]

So then...in view of the above, now's the time to get into Warbirds and classic aircraft! You know you've always wanted that tailwheel endorsement, beach landings, mountain flying, aerobatics...get back to the real roots of Kiwi flying. Support your local aeroclub and get out to see NZ as no one else can!

[thomarse]

Ian, on another subject. Have you come across a book titled, "Don't Tell My Mother", by a mutual acquaintance Peter Dugan-Smith? I've been searching the internet but so far not located a copy.[/quote]

I'd like to hear where you find it. I remember P D-S well - as well as I remember a certain gentleman calling himself Ivan Trevor-East!

[chinapilot]

Hi madmax and thomarse - sorry about the tardy reply but have been fairly busy the last few weeks.

Hope Dave forgives the thread drift but Peter’s book is available as a kindle download...

Link is here;

www.amazon.com/Dont-Tell-My-Mother-Fight/dp/0919614752/ref=nodl_

Used to catch up with him when I had night stops in Vancouver in the late 1990s.

[Dave Homewood]

Hey Ian, how are you doing yourself? Are you still in Hong Kong? And are you still flying?

[chinapilot]

Doing ok thanks Dave. Hope you are as well.

Still in HK - not with the regulator now but part of the air accident team.

Was going to do some flying this year but a bug got in the way 😀

[errolmartyn]

Nov 20, 2020 17:58:38 GMT 12 chinapilot said:

Hi madmax and thomarse - sorry about the tardy reply but have been fairly busy the last few weeks.

Hope Dave forgives the thread drift but Peter’s book is available as a kindle download...

Link is here;

www.amazon.com/Dont-Tell-My-Mother-Fight/dp/0919614752/ref=nodl_

Used to catch up with him when I had night stops in Vancouver in the late 1990s.

New and pre-loved hard copies also available via bookfinder.com

Errol

[nuuumannn]

Nov 16, 2020 23:11:17 GMT 12 chinapilot said:

BALPA mentioned the elephant in the room - aviation jobs are just a figment of the imagination now for anyone contemplating pouring cash into a licence.

Engineers much the same, although there were a couple of apprentices at our place. There is a glut of unemployed or re-distributed aircraft engineers round the country at the moment. With the disestablishment of heavy maintenance in Nelson, around 80 or so engineers lost their jobs. New positions were created in Chch for people with Dash ratings, which created a sh*tstorm among the unions because Chch jobs went as well, so they renegotiated terms. Not worth becoming an engineer these days either.

[Dave Homewood]

Damn.