SAHPA feedback - 1 July 2020
Sahpa
July 2020
Dear SAHPA Members,
SAHPA has formed a group of senior pilots to join the committee and to work on getting TFI pilots back into the air.
Let it be known, we are all feeling the economic pinch and we empathize with the TFI’s whose sole income are from tandems only. It goes without saying that we all want and need to get back to work, not only for ourselves but for our staff and all the people that rely on our industry. To this end the SAHPA committee and other volunteers have spent a lot of time discussing possibilities and liaising with SACAA, DOT and others along with submitting various proposals and SOP’s.
SAHPA have been successful in getting a part of the paragliding industry back to work and through various 'training' structures have enabled solo flying for most pilots.
We were expecting as was all of recreational avaiation that this Monday our honourable Minister for Transport would to declare that recreational aviation could resume following all the behind the scenes work. Again with no logic seemingly apparent this didn't materialise.
If recreational aviation is allowed, we are all back in business as before, with the only extra requirement being the Covid compliance issues (more on that later). This is really the announcement we are waiting for which the adjustments will be gazetted (and soon to follow NOTAM). At present it seems that even the info on what is to be gazetted changes overnight within the DOT.
At present, since we are performing 'training flights', we could make a good case for being able to fly Tandem. The broader picture, however, is one in which non-contact sport is not allowed and the tourism sector is still closed. If we start flying, particularly off Signal Hill, we will draw much unwanted public attention to ourselves and people may question how it is that we are able to fly. We do not really want to bring attention to this 'training status' within which we have been able to operate successfully these last years.
There is only one paragliding ATO in South Africa and that is SAHPA which we all fly under. The SAHPA committee and Head of Training (HOT) are ultimately the people responsible if anything goes wrong. They are the ones that will be summoned to court and held liable. They are taking on the TFI risk with no reward and are not willing to do this alone in the current Covid situation as it is their feeling the risk verses reward is too high.
For TFI flying to resume at this stage the SAHPA committee will require that all the tandem pilots that want to fly enter into a legal agreement with them so that all pilots and the SAHPA committee will be jointly and severally liable for any accident or incident (Covid or otherwise) that may occur. If a majority of pilots, both in Cape Town, and elsewhere agree to go down this route then we will need to get the lawyers involved and see what sort of an agreement we can draw up. This would be an innitial first step.
As mentioned earlier, if recreational aviation is allowed and or non-contact sports are allowed then we are back to life as it was pre-covid.
Another requirement that will need to be in place, even when recreational aviation is allowed, is Covid compliance with the various regulations dreamed up by our government. To this end a group of TFI 'volunteers' are already working on this protocol. This will be based on the document developed for training that was distributed to you all a few weeks back.
In a nutshell, it would be possible for us to resume TFI flights but the risk is high and the reward is very low in the short term. We feel it best to wait for lockdown regulations to be further relaxed to allow recreational aviation or non-contact sport before resuming.
As always, constructive comments and feedback are very welcome and necessary for us to move forward through the correct channels.
SAHPA team
Notice: Please check www.sahpa.co.za regularly for any information regarding aviation during Covid-19 lockdown.
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