The Air Operator Certificate marks the point at which a seaplane project becomes a seaplane airline. The prerequisites are a completed business plan and all the CAA manuals \u2014 Parts A to D \u2014 together with the standard operating procedures. My role is to assemble and lead the team that can produce those documents and carry the application through the authority process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Building the team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I recruit the team required to process the AOC application: the Managing Director, Director of Flight Operations, Director of Maintenance, and Safety and Quality Manager. To provide in-country oversight, I also hire a local representative \u2014 usually a former CAA employee \u2014 to help complete the CAA manuals and documents required for the AOC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staying in-country<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An AOC application succeeds on responsiveness. The team is in the country most of the time, readily available to answer the authority\u2019s questions and sort out problems promptly. I provide the expertise to ensure the AOC complies with international seaplane laws and meets all seaplane-specific regulations and requirements. In this area, general aviation consultants most often come up short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Type add-ons to an existing AOC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For operators who already hold an AOC, the same expertise applies to a shorter path: adding an amphibious seaplane type to your existing certificate. I have done this repeatedly \u2014 adding the C208 and DHC-6 under the helicopter AOC at Trans Maldivian Airways, the C208 at Villa Air, the C208B EX at Air Juan in the Philippines, and first-of-type amphibious seaplanes onto AOCs in Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next step<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the CAA has approved the AOC in principle and requires a demonstration or proving flight, you choose one of two paths: Entry to Service, if your company has its own Accountable Manager, or On-Site Aviation Management, if you want hands-on leadership through the start-up and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192 Next: Entry to Service or On-Site Aviation Management \u00b7 Previous: Full Aviation Business Plan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The team, the manuals, and the in-country presence that carry an application through to certification. The Air Operator Certificate marks the point at which a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[13,40,25,16,15,14,20,12,36],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-consulting-services","tag-amphibious","tag-aoc-application","tag-aviation-business-plans","tag-c208b-ex","tag-cessna","tag-floatplanes","tag-flying-boat","tag-seaplane","tag-water-aerodrome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gouletaviationservices.com\/gwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}