Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) acting CEO Graeme Crawford yesterday issued a statement saying the four-year transition of flying schools to the new regulations had been successful.
Flying schools were given until 31 August 2018 to make the switch to either CASR Part 141 (non-integrated training) or Part 142 (integrated training).
As of the deadline, 235 flying schools that existed under the old rules have been approved under the new regulations, with another 39 new operations starting since the transition period began in 2014.
“This was considerable body of work," Crawford said, "and I would like to thank the flight training operators for their efforts in meeting the transition deadline. I appreciate this work was on top of day-to-day business and required an extra commitment.
“CASA provided a package of support to assist operators to make a successful transition. This support included training syllabi, sample manuals and expositions. The Manual Authoring and Assessment Tool helped to minimise the administration of the approval process, reducing the burden on the aviation community."
In March this year, CASA admitted to having approved only 38% of all applicants for either Part 141 or 142. At the time of writing, CASA was still working with 10 flying schools who had not completed the transition.
It is also believed that around 22 schools elected to close their doors rather than switch to the new regulations.