EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CIVIL AVIATION ACT 1988
HELICOPTERS USED IN OFF-SHORE OPERATIONS — EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN HELICOPTERS UNDER REGULATION 308
Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 empowers the Governor-General to make regulations.
Under regulation 308 of the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations), CASA may exempt an aircraft, or persons associated with the operation of an aircraft, from compliance with specified provisions of the Regulations. Such an exemption is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
Under regulation 178 of the Regulations, CASA may, among other things, determine the lowest safe altitude for flight and, in other cases, determine the method for calculating the lowest safe altitude for flight. Subregulations 178 (3) and (4) of the Regulations provide, among other things, that aircraft must not be flown at lower than the lowest height set under, or in accordance with, the height determined under subregulation 178 (1). A determination under subregulation 178 (1) must be published in AIP or NOTAMS.
The procedures relating to helicopters that use generic airborne radar approach procedures, non directional radio beacon (NDB) radar approach procedures and NDB approach procedures while carrying persons or cargo between land and off-shore facilities used by the petroleum industry (and between such facilities) are of no interest to the aviation industry as a whole. At present, they are applicable only to helicopters servicing off-shore facilities for the petroleum industry. CASA considers that the procedures need not be published in AIP.
To overcome the publication requirement, CASA has decided to exempt helicopters operated by Bristow Helicopters Australia Pty Ltd from compliance with the requirements of subregulations 178 (3) and (4) of the Regulations on condition that the helicopters are operated in accordance with the procedures set out in the exemption.
The attached instrument, which has been signed by a delegate of CASA, gives effect to the exemption.
The exemption took effect on gazettal.