This blog entry about New Zealand includes my remarks about flying in New Zealand from a US FAA-licensed pilot perspective. A part describing our flying adventures down there is coming soon.
License validation
You must have a local pilot license to legally fly a New Zealand-registered aircraft. Assuming you have an FAA pilot certificate, you can convert it to an NZ license or apply for license validation. The first route is longer; it involves things like FBI background checks, but you end up with an un-expiring certificate, although you still need a flight review and a medical exam every 2 years. You have to start the process a few months before your visit, and the process is very well described in the 2021 Guide to Converting US PPL to NZ PPL. License conversion requires a valid NZ medical certificate, so you must visit a local doctor. A simpler solution is license validation, where you have private pilot privileges (no instruments) for 6 months. To validate your license, you must do a flight review with an NZ instructor and submit an application to CAA. Your FAA medical certificate is recognized. I didn’t think I would be flying again in NZ in the next couple of years, and after that, I would need a flight review anyway. NZ medical is much more involved that FAA one, and I would need to do it again when visiting in future. For these reasons, I chose the simpler license validation process.
I arranged airplane rental from Tauranga Aero Club and they replied immediately with all the instructions how to prepare the license validations. Due to weather, I had to change my itinerary and dates, and they were also very accommodating, changing the dates without any problems.
I met my instructor on Monday, and we spent the morning reviewing the airspace, regulations, radio procedures, and available documentation. In the afternoon, we went for a flight to perform the required classic maneuvers, stalls, steep turns, and slow flight. There are a few more, such as low flight, 200 feet over the ocean with some maneuvering, but nothing extraordinary. Any competent FAA pilot would be fine executing them. On Tuesday, we took a second flight to several nearby airports. One was untowered, where I practiced the infamous “overhead joint”, and the other towered to practice radio phraseology. The flight school submitted my application, and I got the license validation on Tuesday afternoon. If you are relatively well prepared, have read ground material ahead of time, and are proficient in Cessna 172 (assuming that’s what you will fly), you will have no trouble validating your license in 1.5 days.
Differences with the US
Airspace
Unlike in the US, there is no class E in NZ, and you need clearance to enter controlled airspace C or D. The controlled airspace blankets the whole country, starting at the surface near towered airports, at lower altitudes in the vicinity of them, and higher altitudes over mountains. For example, to fly over the Cook Strait separating North and South Island, you need to be below 2500 to remain clear of Wellington class C, or you can call them to request “controlled VFR .” For most North Island, controlled airspace starts at 6500 or lower. The concept of VFR traffic flying with no contact with ATC in the same airspace as IFR traffic is foreign there.
After setting that all up, they must have realized that flying around surface-based controlled airspace is quite inconvenient for pilots, and pilots requesting controlled VFR is burdensome for controllers. So they came up with the idea of transit routes, where you don’t need to talk to anybody while in a controlled zone, as long as you follow prescribed routes, which sometimes might also be larger areas. They have yet to come to the next logical conclusion: to turn these transit routes into uncontrolled airspace.
An idea that makes sense is the Mandatory Broadcast Zone, or MBZ. Entering such an area in uncontrolled airspace, you are required to make position reports at the specified intervals, by default, every 15 minutes. Typically, airports located within MBZ have the same tower or CTAF frequency. A Common Frequency Zone, or CFZ, is similar, but position reports are optional.
The country is divided into QNH zones, so you know you don’t need a new altimeter setting as long as you remain in one.
Overhead joint
This seems very strange to US-based pilots, and it is a method to enter traffic pattern at an untowered airport. When you read the CAA-published procedure, you will scratch your head about how that could possibly make sense. It sort of does if you realize that the main objective is to arrive at an airport and look at the windsock to determine which runway to use. Once you do that, you descend on the non-traffic side to the pattern altitude, cross over to the traffic side over the departure end of the runway, and enter downwind. It is hard to believe that this is safe when many airplanes are in the pattern, and indeed, some busy, untowered airports, such as Wanaka, recommend against an overhead joint. That procedure originated in the UK; they do a lot of weird things over there. Keep in mind that there is a variant of the overhead joint for right hand traffic.
Radio phraseology
When talking to ATC, your first call is just the facility’s name and your call sign. I always throw in good morning or good afternoon, which seems to be appreciated. When they acknowledge you, you state
• Your position with reference to the closest waypoint and your attitude
• Number of people on board (for example, two POBs)
• Name of ATIS information and QNH
• Squawk code
• And finally, your request
It took me one or two tries, and it became easy. The airplane I flew had an assigned and fixed squawk code, which was weird for this US-based pilot, but it seemed normal down there.
For all of you raised on inches of mercury, QNH is the altimeter setting in millibars.
Your request may be “request controlled VFR” if you want flight following or “request instructions to join” if you are landing at a towered airport. The implication is that you will be joining the traffic pattern. When crossing the Cook Strait in uncontrolled airspace below 2500, you may request “radar monitoring” so that Wellington’s approach tracks you on radar while you cross the Strait. You will definitely be out of glide range.
Resources
You will need an EFB; two recommended to me were Avplan EFB and Oz Runways. I chose the first one and was happy with that choice. In addition to the VFR charts (called VNC for Visual Navigation Chart), Avplan includes information about airports extracted from AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication). AIPs are published for all countries part of ICAO, including the USA, although it is virtually never used in the FAA-land. In New Zealand, AIP provides detailed information about all airports, including aerodrome diagrams, operational data with available facilities, ground movements, and VFR arrival and departure procedures; you will definitely need to review that information in detail before landing at any airport.
In addition to AIP, Avplan also includes CAR (regulations, our FARs), ACs (Advisory Circulars), and GAP (Good Aviation Practice Booklets), which is pretty much all you will need.
Preflight is an excellent website for weather briefings. It has the usual METARs, TAFs, wind, cloud, and precipitation forecasts. Unknown in the US but quite useful are GRAFOR (Graphical Aviation Forecast) charts, which provide regional synoptic weather forecasts. For longer-term forecasts, I was checking METVUW precipitation forecasts. Windy is also quite useful as it has global coverage and allows you to choose the underlying numerical model for a complementary look at forecasts.
Filing flight plans directly from Avplan EFB is possible, but you can also do it on the IFIS website. Similarly, as in the US, you want to file a VFR flight plan for search and rescue reasons. Unlike in the US, it is activated when you file it. Just remember to terminate it before or after arrival to avoid unnecessary SAR efforts. You can do it by radio, on the website, or by phone by calling Christchurch information. I ended up setting up an alarm on my phone to remind myself about it. Certain large airports require filing a VFR Tower Flight Notification, which is convenient to do on the IFIS website.
The New Zealand FAA, called CAA, publishes a lot of useful information, and I read quite a few Good Aviation Practice Booklets. These booklets discuss airspace, radio, mountain flying, operations at specific airports, such as all large commercial ones, Milford Sound, and many other topics.
Summary
I like the challenge of flying by myself in foreign countries and learning about local differences, so the license validation route was naturally preferable for me. You will be able to follow that approach if you are a current and proficient pilot. An alternative, hiring a local CFI for the duration of the flight or using the services of a company such as Flyinn, which puts an instructor in the right seat for all flights is a valid alternative for those who want to enjoy flying without having to worry about weather, airspace, radios and all other PIC responsibilities. I wanted to choose my own itinerary, change it if needed or desired, and not have another pilot in the cockpit at all times.