rhystoo

I talked to NZA yesterday and only the canopy developer was in. Attila is on holiday and was married about a week ago, Shannon has been in the US for some time and will be returning very soon. I am sure they will do everything they can to assist you once they get back. Have you contacted FedEx to see if they can assist?

I believe so, though I imagine you would not be able to palm off a 2 minute briefing as a 'training course'. A briefing is a 'breif'ing, and a training course is a training course. The whole jump master/instructor definition would also come into play there. TAFF will not be subjected to part 115 regulations I believe. AFF is not, neither is sport jumping or even filming tandems as an outside cameraman. There may be a loophole there but I would not like to be trying it on for size if the majority of your business is Tandems. The CAA will be looking very closely at everyone over the next 6 months. Our company is not yet a training organisation, though I am working on that so it is part 115 all the way. I am relieved we are through the hard work and will likely have a certificate by the end of the month. We have been given the go ahead to operate come the 1st regardless. Some DZ's are not so fortunate.

LOL, kind of.... Part 149's were/are not funded by the Government. They are funded by the companies that hold operators certificates issued by them and the sport aviators that hold certificates issue by them. If the board of directors of a part 149 organisation are also the owners of the companies that hold those operators certificates... then it is only natural that the said board of directors would discourage competition and therefore growth in the industry in the form of new operator certificates being issued. A vast majority of the $30,000,000+ p/a commercial skydiving industry in New Zealand has been monopolised by a small handful of (about 6)mcompanies for over a decade. The national sporting body is broke and there are minimal facilities available for sport skydivers. Fortunately the commercial skydiving diploma school has allowed the sport to grow during the same period. If NZ had taken the same route as Australia, the sporting body could be wealthy, the sport could be strong and the industry could have generated more revenue for our GDP. It will also now be safer as aircraft and pilots will be subject by more stringent regulations. The CAA are not in the business of making money, they are in the business of avoiding accidents and occurrences.

No, the CAA approve the operators certificate. The rating is issued by 'a' Part 149. So instead of having to have all TM's rated by one particular 149 for each DZ. You can have TM's with ratings from different 149's if you wish. This will make life easier than the current situation for TM's changing DZ's. It does come down to how manual is written for any particular DZ, some DZ's may specify a particular 149 but ours does not. We will still use NZSA for foreign crossovers etc as they have been good to us and their fee structure and processing time is very reasonable. The NZSA also a non profit organisation as apposed to the other 2 organisations which are companies. This alone says a lot about the founders ethics. It would not make sense for the CAA to issue tandem ratings ditrectly as tandems are not necessarily for commercial use, they can also be sporting jumps for training or simply for fun. I believe all 3 part 149 organisations will remain, though I would like to see them amalgamate in the future.

Probably, so unjustified. We can leave that discussion for the appropriate forum though eh. This new Air Law might affect Commercial skydiving immensely and this information is important for operators and instructors to ingest. A single accident could prompt any government to implement such a rule in any country. I personally think it is great that it is happening here in NZ, though having said that, I would rather that it did not need to happen in the first place. It basically eliminates a monopolisation of the industry and creates an even playing field.

My old IP address and username was... For reasons unexplained.

There is English Marmite (yuk) and NZ marmite (yum)... The NZ Marmite is made by Sanatarium which is an american company funnily enough. It is an acquired taste but most Kiwis are bought up on it.

[url] I am sure you are correct there Dave. And when a cop or any military personnel are detained themselves for failing to follow orders, that will 'scare' others into following such orders. Voting for Ron Paul and educating everyone on the peril of doing anything other than that is about the best any concerned american can do at this stage. He is the best hope america has for freedom. Romney and Obama are batting for the Banksters...

I agree it is not an easy task to make people that have sworn to defend the constitution to do exactly the opposite of that. This stuff is not 'alex jones crap', it is reality. Alex Jones reports on this stuff, so does RT, Ron Paul or any entity not under control of big banking corporations. The whole 'conspiracy nut' attitude is actually the problem. If you are not allowed to question authority and have clarification on your concerns then you are not allowed to be patriotic, therefore you do not live in a free society.

From the 1st of May 2012 Tandem skydiving will be administered directly by the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority rather than sporting bodies. This sets a world wide precedent and goes some way in eliminating some of the problems of administering a commercial activity with sporting rules. The New Rule part is called Civil Aviation Rule Part 115. Before, all skydiving was administered by part 149 organisations, part 149 is a rule part designed for sporting activities. Part 115 will administer commercial adventure aviation and covers other aviation activities also such as paragliding, hot air balloons, hang gliding, microlights and other General Aviation activities done for commercial purposes that are not considered Part 135 air transport. The rules have been in the pipeline for about 20 years, as adventure tourism and therefore adventure aviation has grown significantly in NZ and the CAA have had pressure from the public and the Parliament to make commercial aviation operators more accountable. The CAA understands that this precedent will likely be followed by other countries in the future. So it will be an interesting exercise for everyone to observe. For skydiving it only covers Tandems and only tandems that re not a training jump. So the argument that tandems are not a joy ride is no longer applicable, tandems under part 115 are a joyride and those under part 149 are a training jump. My DZ has been working on our manual for about 2 years, fortunately my business partners are pilots that understand civil aviation rules very well and have managed to submit a manual that was accepted straight away. I understand some drop zones in NZ failed to produce and adequate manual and were denied (and have to re submit) and some have not submitted a manual at all. Those without accepted manuals ans I understand will have to refrain from taking tandem passengers from the 1st of May which is in 2 days time. Aside from having to develop a complicated operations manual, the only real difference for the skydivers I can see is the way the instructors log their hours/flight and duty time. Which is quite simple. There are other subtle differences also but nothing too substantial. The best thing in my mind is that the skydiving company (or club) that performs commercial tandem skydiving/holds a part 115 cert. is answerable directly to to CAA and not a part 149 organisation. We are fortunate to be affiliated to a great part 149 that is owned by a non profit organisation and is very helpful and fair when it comes to rating and license approvals and compliance. In the past we were not so fortunate and were grounded because the CEO of the part 149 we belonged to, decided they would not comply with the CAA's requests. A tandem parachute is now considered and aircraft and a tandem pilot is a pilot in command. We are not allowed to work 7 consecutive days or more than 14 hours in one day. It will be a very interesting exercise to say the least. The CAA themselves are struggling to make the deadline. It was thought that the deadline would be extended but as the new law is a bill passed by Parliament that is impossible so it seems a few DZ's will not be able to operate as of Tuesday... For those interested you will find further information in the following link. http://www.caa.govt.nz/Sport_and_Rec/part_115_info.htm

.....The NDAA! FIFY. The National Defense Authorization Act makes martial law legal in the US, while the constitution (without this bill) strictly forbids the military to arrest civilians. There is a reason the constitution and the bill of rights was written. The NDAA allows the US military to arrest anyone including US civilians that are suspected to be 'the enemy' for whatever reason and have them detained indefinitely without trial and even killed. For sure, though I bet with drones, armored vehicles and the fear of the personnel being detained themselves for refusing orders they will find enough people to enforce their orders. I have to agree with you that the military personnel for the most part signed up for good reasons and would refuse such orders; as it stands. They were tricked into thinking that going to Iraq and Afghanistan (and Syria, and Libya and Pakistan...)was a good idea to protect america. Had they have researched the whole thing before hand, they would have known before they signed up that it is all lies. There is a large propaganda machine designed to take away your rational thoughts and make you decide irrationally with your emotions. These guys found out the hard way, there are more of them. But you can see they actually had to partake in the atrocities before realising why they were doing was wrong. American Soldiers are waking up Do you think the Nazi soldiers that detained civilians and killed them in Germany during WW2 all thought they were doing the right thing? Were they scared for their own lives or brainwashed into thinking they were doing the right thing?? Humans are like putty when you pluck their strings the right way. Homeland security and police has armored vehicles... Drones can be used in US airspace... DHS purchases 450million rounds of hollow point ammo... So that is a .40cal hollow point bullet for every man, woman and child in america with over a million to spare. With the information gathered from the OP this is not the only ammunition order. In this video you will see a facility designed to keep human beings inside , being constructed with oversight from federal government including large warehouses complete with gas pipes and brand new furnaces. Train tracks with military trains on them... What could these facilities be used for, do you think? Does anyone live near Beach Grove Indiana? If so can they confirm this facility exists? In this presentation shows Obama trying to sound like he is trying to act with the rule of law, all the while destroying the constitution and bill of rights. He intends on detaining people before they commit a crime which is about as far from liberty as you can get. Ron Paul explains the removal of civil liberties; Ron Paul is the only candidate this year with a chance of saving what is left of the constitution. This is because he is the only candidate that actually cars for these things. A massive financial collapse will soon happen and what seems unlikely now will seem inevitable once this occurs. Civil unrest will prompt the martial law, this is going to happen, the writing is on the wall. But remember he is a puppet on a string.

All that taken into consideration, he won Iowa and Minnesota looks like Washington and probably a few more of the caucus states.... Remember the MSM told us that he did not win, could not win, ignored him, laughed at him and ridiculed him. All the while he was winning. He is also gathering crowds other candidates could only dream of. He is by far the most popular of the politically active, the lemmings however seem to decide the fate of the world and the PNAC control the media that decides for them. http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/04/23/ron_paul_wins_minnesota_delegates_by_a_landslide.html http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/333906/20120426/ron-paul-2012-delegates-news-romney-convention.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIP-ibpRYIY Plenty of videos like this from every state. The election is rigged and anyone that thinks it is a fair and honest election is kidding themselves! Have fun with your NDAA.