Irish actor James Nesbitt, who co-piloted U-fly Extreme's Pitts Special, owned by Alison, left, and Vincent D'Ath, as part of a 2014 travel documentary.
Motueka aviators Vincent and Alison D'Ath are fighting to re-launch their aerobatic business eight months after the Civil Aviation Authority suspended their licenses without warning.
The CAA ruled the business, U-fly Extreme, run by the couple for the last 13 years, did not offer flight instruction but simply joy rides for tourists and they had to be certified under adventure aviation rules.
The CAA introduced Rule Part 115 to certify those in the adventure aviation industry after the Carterton balloon tragedy.
But D'Ath said the rules did not cover anything about flight training or flight instruction, nor did they include standard category aircraft — like their Pitts Special — which had gone through a massive certification program and was signed off by the CAA in 2009 as being suitable for their aerobatic business.
They had always focussed on flight instruction. Clients were given a 20 minute briefing before taking a seat in the dual control plane. D'Ath took off and landed the aircraft while clients flew various aerobatic manoeuvres under his instruction, he said.
The company's promo said the hands-on activity is an instructional flight.
The couple said the ruling came out of the blue and despite the fact that their business had never been found in breach of any rule by the CAA, had a nil accident record and has never been formally audited. They questioned the CAA`s decision and ruling from day one.
"We have been doing flight instruction for over 10 years - but suddenly, when they introduced the new rule Part 115 covering Adventure Aviation certification, we are not doing flight instruction," D'Ath said.
The suspension in March forced the couple to close their business and go on the dole. They could not even fly privately or run their charter business.
It followed a covert February sting operation, which according to internal CAA emails was approved by the director of Civil Aviation and planned since the previous November. It saw three CAA staff visit the company, posing as clients and asking about flights.
The flight did not go ahead but the CAA determined D'Ath was prepared to take clients who did not intend to learn how to fly.
The couple said the CAA has slowly backtracked on its initial license suspension to the point of agreeing the couple can restart their business, as long as their clients have some previous flight experience.
But they were now being judged on the intention of each client, they said.
"We are professionally hobbled," said D'Ath.
"I'm the only aerobatic flight instructor in New Zealand who cannot do aerobatics on an initial flight - but the Royal NZ Aero Club can, and we operate under exactly the same rules."
They questioned the legality of the CAA's suspension of D'Ath's license and had repeatedly asked for a set of boundaries within which they could continue to operate.
"For the CAA to say nothing we do is flight instruction is to deliberately misrepresent the facts," D'Ath said.
"We have spent 30 years and God knows how much money building this business up and it has been stolen. We want an apology and the CAA held to account for its actions, which have been outside the rules." he said.
Alison D'Ath said the experience has been financially and emotionally draining.
"If it wasn't for our love of aviation, and the support of other aviators, I don't know where we would be."
The CAA did not respond to a request for comment.
- Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz
Aviation business forced to close
Last updated 13:00, March 24 2015
Motueka aviation company U Fly Extreme, which offered clients the chance to do acrobatics in a Pitt Special biplane, has ceased operating after the Civil Aviation Authority suspended the owner's licence to instruct.
The key issue behind the suspension is believed to be that the CAA regards U Fly Extreme to be operating as a tourism aviation business rather than a pilot instruction business.
In response to questions about the suspension, the CAA would say only that "issues relating to U Fly Extreme's operation are under active investigation and while that continues we are not in a position to discuss this matter".
"Suffice to say that when the CAA does require the suspension of an operator's aviation documents, there are very serious and sound reasons."
The doors of the Motueka Aerodrome business are closed, its website appears to be down, and owners Vincent and Alison D'Ath have refused to comment on the record.
Their daughter Jessica D'Ath has written about the closure in a blog post that has been sent to many media organisations.
In it, she alleged that staff from CAA posed as tourists interested in going for a flight at U Fly Extreme in early March and after a pre-flight briefing, "declared the long-running and very successful business to be operating illegally".
"They claim that U Fly Extreme does not offer instructional flights, and therefore cannot fly under its current flight training licence. Just like that, the red tape has gone up. The bureaucrats have struck once more and another gem in the crown of New Zealand entrepreneurialism will be destroyed. A hardworking couple will have their lives pulled out from under them in their mid-50s, and will have to start again."
The company had been operating for at least 11 years and received a big promotional boost in 2013 when they hosted Hobbit star James Nesbitt for a flight in May. Nesbitt was filming the documentary River Deep, Mountain High: James Nesbitt in New Zealand, which aired on ITV in Britain on Christmas Day just before the Queen's Christmas message.
The tourism documentary aired to an estimated audience of 4 million and immediately resulted in bookings for U Fly Extreme, said Vincent D'Ath at the time.
D'Ath said Nesbitt was nervous before the flight, telling him that even though he had known what he was about to do for several months and thought he was ready for it, "I woke up at 2am and I couldn't get back to sleep".
But once he was in the air he loved his flight as he executed a series of 360 degree loops and rolls 3500 feet above Abel Tasman National Park. D'Ath said the best of the footage didn't make the final cut, probably because in his excitement Nesbitt uttered a curse or two.
He said Nesbitt was good at following his commands as he talked him through the process of making the plane loop and roll.
U Fly Extreme was the only place in New Zealand and one of the few in the world where non-pilots could take the controls of an open-cockpit Pitt Special stunt bi-plane, secure in the knowledge they had an experienced aerobatic pilot with his hands hovering above the joystick in the seat behind.
"People just can't believe that they will have the opportunity to fly the plane themselves", said D'Ath.
- Story and comments: http://www.stuff.co.nz
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