Airworthiness, maintenance and aircraft registration
Certification and registration
Airworthiness in NZ is a chain: Part 21 for design, manufacture and issue of certificates; Part 47 for registration and markings; Part 43 for maintenance; Part 91 for equipment and continuing airworthiness. An aircraft on the NZ register carries the nationality mark ZK- and a registration mark. A standard category certificate of airworthiness (C of A) is issued when the type is certificated and the individual aircraft conforms; special categories cover limited, experimental and historic aircraft with operating limitations.
Maintenance
Maintenance must be carried out by appropriately rated personnel and certified by a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer (LAME) or an approved organisation, followed by a maintenance release before flight. The operator's continuing airworthiness management includes airworthiness directives, defect reporting, component life limits and the annual review of airworthiness (ARA), which precedes C of A renewal. Modifications need approval; unapproved parts cannot be fitted.
Equipment
Part 91 equipment scales with operation: instruments for IFR, a Mode A/C or Mode S transponder, a 406 MHz ELT, oxygen, fire equipment and emergency equipment. The minimum equipment list (MEL) allows dispatch with specified defects only where approved.
Worked example
An imported aeroplane arrives with a foreign export C of A. Before NZ flight it needs eligibility for NZ registration, issue of the NZ C of A supported by the export certificate and type acceptance, an ARA, registration marks, and a maintenance release. Only then can it be flown, and any NZ-specific equipment such as a 406 MHz ELT and transponder must be fitted.
Traps
Thinking a C of A is permanent - it is renewed via the ARA; confusing a maintenance release with a C of A; assuming a foreign C of A automatically authorises NZ operations; forgetting that defects must be recorded and released.