Offers Exemption For Some High-Time Low-Altitude Pilots

The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has published a new exemption (CASA EX226/15) to create a pathway for certain pilots who have significant experience in low-level aerial work operations (aerial mustering or crop dusting) to qualify for a firefighting endorsement.

The exemption is a result of the ongoing work of CASA's Part 61 Solutions Taskforce.

The exemption will allow a pilot who, before 1 September 2014, held an agricultural pilot rating (helicopter or aeroplane category) to conduct aerial firefighting operations while piloting either a helicopter or airplane.

CASA previously issued Instrument EX114/14 (continued by EX148/15) to allow pilots who had, prior to 1 September 2014, been engaged in firefighting operations (airplanes and helicopters) to continue conducting those operations, and to qualify for the issue of a firefighting endorsement under Part 61 in circumstances where there was doubt as to whether their qualifications entitled them to a firefighting endorsement. These exemptions only applied to pilots who had been engaged in the conduct of firefighting operations prior to 1 September 2014.

(Source: CASA news release)

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