In September 2014 CASR Part 61 regarding flight crew licensing comes into effect.
There will some changes that will require us to add solo flying hours to our syllabus, however the good news is that there is a 4 year transition period, during which we can continue with our current system, so for the meantime there will be no changes to our course structure and no immediate change to our course fees.
CASR Part 61 will prescribe the requirements & standards for the issue of flight crew licenses, ratings and other authorisations, including those issued to pilots and flight engineers. It will also include the privileges, limitations and conditions on such authorisations, and include rules for the logging of flight time.
For full details of these changes please read below:
Flight crew licensing requirements aligned with ICAO SARPs; pilot licenses to be a single license for each of recreational, private, commercial, multi-crew, air transport and flight engineer with the provision to have one or more aircraft category ratings attached (as per the US system):
Threat and Error Management and other human factors competencies (including Crew Resource Management [CRM]) to be incorporated into the ATPL/MPL/CPL /PPL and flight engineer licence syllabus
Minimum age for grant of a Student pilot licence reduced to 15 years of age and 16 years of age for a recreational pilot licence;
Requirement for multi-crew co-operation training introduced for all pilots engaged in multi-crew operations and a prerequisite for the grant of a multi-crew pilot licence, air transport pilot licence or any multi-crew certified aircraft type rating;
ATPL and MPL flight test conducted in a multi-crew environment to be introduced. Licence privileges for flights conducted under the IFR;
Instrument flying training to be introduced for helicopter licences;
Recreational Pilot Licence to be introduced to replace passenger-carrying privileges for student pilots;
Glider pilot licence introduced for recognition by foreign aviation authorities
Pilots able to conducted limited flights without a CASA medical certificate if they meet the motor vehicle drivers licence medical standard;
Private Pilot Licence to conform with ICAO and include operations in all classes of airspace;
Special Pilot Licence to be withdrawn and PPL able to be issued to overseas PPL holder without a flight test (but with a flight review);
Domestic qualifications that are not covered by ICAO to continue (e.g. Night Visual Flight Rules [VFR] rating, Private Instrument Flight Rules [IFR] rating);
Low-level and Night Vision Imaging System (NVIS) ratings introduced;
Instrument rating – navaid/procedure endorsements rationalised for approach procedures without vertical guidance (2D) and approach procedures with vertical guidance (3D);
Separate co-pilot qualifications to be discontinued. Cruise relief Type Ratings introduced for pilots to relieve other pilots or flight engineers for operations conducted above FL200;
The flight crew licensing system to be competency-based. Competency Based Training (CBT) standards to be introduced for all CASA flight crew qualifications:
Standards for aeroplane private and commercial (not Air Transport) already in place; standards for other authorisations are under development; and
Standards for Air Transport under development
CBT standards for all flight crew qualifications, including ratings and authorisations, to be incorporated in the Manual of Flight Crew Licensing Standards.
All flight crew qualifications, once issued, to remain valid indefinitely subject to demonstration of ongoing competency, linked to the use of the qualification rather than its periodic renewal:
Biennial flight review or proficiency check requirement to be introduced for ratings with alternate means of demonstrating competence as per current review arrangements for licences.
Aircraft endorsement system for pilots to be simplified through adoption of ICAO system of aircraft type and class ratings:
Change in terminology from aircraft endorsements to aircraft ratings;
Multitude of endorsements currently required for single pilot aeroplanes to be replaced by class ratings;
Design feature authorisations to continue for all aircraft class ratings; and
Type ratings to be introduced for all aircraft certificated for multi-crew operations and other aircraft nominated by CASA.
CASR Part 61 includes flight engineers and other flight crew essential to the operation of the aircraft:
The structure of flight engineer qualifications to be aligned as closely as possible with those for pilots; and
The restricted flight engineer licence to be replaced with a flight engineer cruise relief type rating on a pilot or flight engineer licence to relieve the flight engineer during flight.
All flying training conducted for issue of a flight crew licence, rating and some endorsements to be conducted by persons holding an instructor rating who are authorised to instruct in that particular activity:
All training and checking pilots to also hold an instructor rating.
Current grades of flight instructor rating to be replaced by a single instructor rating with endorsements to provide flight training in specific activities:
Recognition of Certificate IV in Training and Assessment together with requirement to demonstrate competence in both ground and flight training for the instructional activity sought;
Simulator instructor rating to also be introduced; and
An instructor rating to be issued to flight engineers.