Fears allayed over TNPA helicopter pilot service

In a move which has eased concerns amongst shipowners, the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has signed up a contract with Denel Aviation for that company to provide aircraft maintenance and management systems and supply commanders for TNPA’s f leet of helicopters in Durban and Richards Bay. And the Denel-operated service – f lying pilots to and-from ships entering or leaving the ports – started last Tuesday in Durban, but only last Saturday in RB, a delay caused by a helicopter “technical”. In the five-year contract, the Denel commanders will conduct “a skills transfer over the years” to TNPA’s newly qualified group of helicopter pilots, the chief harbourmaster in Durban, Rufus Lekala, told the media and stakeholders at the official launch last Wednesday. “This will operate under standard training procedures over the fiveyear period,” he told FTW on the sidelines of the launch meeting. These commanders are fully qualified in both day and night f lying, he added, and have full instrument ratings (IR). This qualifies them to f ly under instrument f light rules (IFR), a necessity for pilotage operations, particularly when conducted day or night in rough weather conditions. It requires additional training and instruction beyond that required for a commercial pilot certificate – including rules and procedures specific to instrument f lying, additional instruction in meteorology, and more intensive training in f light solely by reference to instruments. While confirming this, Denel Aviation CEO, Mike Kgobe, said that the company had extensive experience in handling the testing of aircraft systems for both the SA military and police. In this, its fixed-wing and helicopter test pilots had clocked up 200 000 hours of f light time, with nil accidents. And, he told FTW in conversation, although both operations were part of the same department of transport stable, Denel had won its contract in a “competitive tender process”. When asked by FTW if he had obtained his IFR and maritime-experienced pilots (a scarce combination of qualifications in SA) from Acher Aviation – the company that operated the TNPA helicopters from the inception of the service in 1998 – Kgobe said: “Not directly. They had left Acher and were out in the open market.” Acher, according to Lekala, lost its contract on January 31 because it did not have the same “transformation dream” that drove TNPA to train up the current batch of 24 helicopter pilots and engineers. And, although 17 cadet helicopter pilots are now all fully commissioned, this is not the end of the TNPA’s training programme, according to Lesley van Duffelen, TNPA media specialist. “As part of our job creation and transformation policies, we will continue to train, and to feed the aviation industry in SA with skilled local employees.” This has eased the rather worried minds in the SA shipping industry, according to Peter Besnard, CEO of the SA Association of Ship Operators and Agents (Saasoa) and Dave Watts, maritime director of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). In light of a lack of information to the contrary from January, the main fear amongst shipowners was that it was possible that this bunch of rookie pilots might actually be taking the controls of the TNPA helicopters if the April start-off date was to be achieved. But, Watts added, this fear has now been allayed. “It’s only a pity that they didn’t announce this new contract earlier,” he added. CAPTION Pilot change... TNPA contract moved from Acher to Denel.