Changing the rules

Under development
CASR Part 61 – Flight crew licensing

CASR Part 61 will prescribe the requirements and standards for the issue of flight crew licences, 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.

Who Part 61 affects

  • Aspiring and existing flight crew licence holders in the Australian aviation community;
  • Those seeking to convert from an overseas pilot licence to the Australian equivalent;
  • Training organisations and personnel; and
  • Aircraft operators employing flight crew.

Key proposals

  • Flight crew licensing requirements to be aligned with ICAO SARPs; pilot licences to be a single licence for each of recreational, private, commercial and airline transport with the provision to have one or more aircraft category ratings attached (as per the US system):
    • Multi crew and other human factors competencies (including Crew Resource Management [CRM] and Human Factors principles) to be incorporated into the ATPL/CPL /PPL and flight engineer syllabus;
    • ATPL flight test in a multi-crew environment to be introduced;
    • Instrument flying training to be introduced for helicopter licences;
    • Recreational Pilot Licence to be introduced to replace passenger-carrying privileges for student pilots;
    • 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    • Special Pilot Licence to be withdrawn and PPL able to be issued to overseas PPL holder without a flight test (but with an airlaw exam and a flight review);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, plus log book authorisations for other activities);
    • Separate co-pilot qualifications to be discontinued. Limited provision will be made for co-pilots who have not yet completed a full type rating to relieve other pilots in cruise or in private operations but not to conduct take-offs and landings.
  • 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
    • 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 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 four (possibly six) class ratings;
    • Design feature authorisations to continue for all aircraft class ratings; and
    • Type ratings to be introduced for 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 withdrawn and replaced with an authorisation on a pilot licence to relieve the flight engineer during flight.
  • All flying training conducted for issue of a flight crew licence, rating or other authorisation 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:
    • Current training courses to be replaced by a requirement to demonstrate competence in both ground and flight training for the instructional activity sought;
    • Greater emphasis on teaching instructors 'how to train' including relevant modules of ANTA Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment;
    • Ground instructor rating to also be introduced; and
    • An instructor rating to be issued to flight engineers.
  • Pilot and flight engineer examiner ratings to be introduced to replace the delegation scheme for Approved Test Officers (ATOs):
    • Requirements to include training course and testing for initial issue of rating and refresher course or recurrent training for maintenance of rating — courses to be run through ANTA Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to Certificate IV standard;
    • Applicant to hold a flight instructor rating;
    • Examiners to conduct flight tests for all licences and ratings;
    • CASA to allocate examiners to organisations to conduct flight tests with the aim of providing independence of the testing process from the training process, particularly for professional flight crew qualifications; and
    • Other authorisations will not require a flight test but will be entered in the licence by instructors.
 
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