New Flight And Duty Time Regulations

[Harmonic_Vibe]

We will very shortly be rolling out the Survey/Petition (SP) that we have been discussing for the last two weeks or so. We had hoped to have it out sooner but these things are not easy to get together quickly (especially with varying opinions involved).

 

In advance of the actual SP we think it's prudent to publish some relevant documents first to provide enough information for informed opinion when completing the survey and signing the petition.

 

Document 1 is the actual CARAC report from the Working Group that has crafted the recommendations for new regulations. It is pretty lengthy but the table of contents is well indexed and the relevant items are easy to find. That is except for the items that we are used to dealing with in Canada (such as "zeroing" our Flight Time after so many days off - that does not exist anymore) that have been excluded from these new regulations.

 

Document 2 is the "Joint Dissent" that was produced by the Helicopter Association of Canada (HAC), the Manitoba Aviation Council (MAC), the Northern Air Transport Association (NATA) and the Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA). It is also lengthy, as it needed to be very comprehensive, but it is not difficult reading. Many of the items in the joint dissent don't really apply to helicopter operations, but neither do a great many of the newly minted regulations, so one can skip over much of the document.

 

The dissent had no effect on the proceedings and was essentially completely ignored.

 

Document 3 is the summary that was presented at the HAC conference in Calgary this past November. It is a summary of the changes from current regulation and some musings on the potential impact of these changes. This document will be the easiest reading for most, but we felt we should include the unabridged documents as well for those with more time to spend.

 

Document 4 is the summary of proposals that HAC championed during the proceedings of the WG. Contrary to what some have said, HAC did not adopt an "anti-change" stance. The HAC reps did their best to listen to the scientific advisor, read the studies and then figure out how to apply those learnings to the helicopter industry. Repeatedly HAC asked to separate the helicopter and small operators from the airline side of things, but were refused at every turn.

 

We are asking everyone to please read and understand the current state of affairs and this will provide a platform of knowledge for when the survey/petition rolls out in the next few days. We would like all the people who have supported this undertaking so far to get the word out and to make sure that we get the broadest possible participation in the survey and petition. If anyone has ideas of what other websites, forums, etc, we should be posting this on please let me know.

 

Thanks and regards,

 

HV

CARAC FDT WG Report.pdf

Joint Dissent.pdf

FDT New Regulation Summary.pdf

HAC Proposals Summary.pdf

[Winnie]

We could spread it on Facebook, and other fora, perhaps such as Pprune and some of the US ones.

Post it on the Vdertical news page perhaps??

This will of course have a significant impact on all of us...

[Harmonic_Vibe]

Abject apologies for the delay in bringing this out. It took far longer than I thought it would but there were a half dozen pilots scattered from Australia to Yellowknife that had input on the survey and petition. We kept running trials on the survey and finding ambiguities in questions and things of that nature, so it went through about 15 iterations.

 

One thing we should state is that HAC had nothing to do with the creation of either the survey or petition but we did ask them if they would provide funding, as the data analysis is not cheap and we needed a credible 3rd party to hold the data and personal information of petition signers. That 3rd party is Dr. Julie Booke in Calgary.She has prior experience with helicopter operations (from the survey perspective) and is fully qualified for what we are attempting. Her contact info is provided in the survey.

 

Anyone who is interested in getting their voice heard (rotary wing pilots) please do the survey and sign the petition. We have made some bold statements in the petition but we felt that a strong message needs to be sent to Ottawa. They haven't listened so far but this is a new year after all!

 

One change we made since we first discussed this was to limit participation to helicopter pilots only. We initially had intended to allow anyone to complete the survey and have pilots only for the petition. With the delay in rolling it out and the time consuming nature of data analysis we limited the questions and decided it was a "helicopter pilot only" deal. It is helicopter pilots that are going to be affected by this after all.

 

The survey and petition can be accessed through the following link:

 

https://www.toofast.ca/takesurvey.php?SurveyID=7550

 

Please let all your like minded friends know. We will also likely be using some kind of email alert through Vertical and other sources. I had hoped for 300 signatures originally but I feel we can triple that based on response so far.

 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

 

Corey

 

 

[oban]

Done deal.

Thanks Corey for all your commitment to this.

RT

[vortex]

Done and done. Thanks Corey and everyone else.

[Winnie]

Done and done!

[Hogie]

Done. Thanks Corey!

 

Kevin

[Jamhands]

Completed. Thank your for the big effort on this.

 

Cheers

[GoldMember]

Thanks to all involved in putting this together. Spread the word.

[BDJ]

Just completed. A big thanks to Corey and all involved in putting this together in such a short time frame. Lets hope TC gets their head out of the sand and acts on it.