RA-Aus Board Forum

[Guest pelorus32]

G'day Nick,

 

I could never see this forum as the only means for RAAus to communicate with its members. Having said that this forum is as good or better than the next opportunity to communicate with the members.

 

For each member of this forum there are 3 or 4 other people who hear what is posted here and each of them no doubt discusses it with others.

 

I don't think there are conflict of interest issues - if you have news then post it here - and anywhere else you think appropriate. By doing that you are not endorsing or otherwise the site.

 

I find it interesting that you feel OK about instructors being on the board but not aircraft salespeople. It seems to me that they each bring benefits and dis-benefits. Your point I think is right - let's not have any one group dominating but let's hear from all.

 

Kind regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Guest sypkens]

Seriously though, these people work for us for no reward . That's fine in its own right, but it's not enough. This forum is a ready made opportunity for information to be disseminated. The board could issue statements / recommendations officially here, if it chose to do so..... I'd like to thank Chris (Techman,) nick & carol....

Being a student of Nick I am somewhat biased on this thread but I must say to those that may not know Nick that he is a busy man. He is on the committee of our club, on the raa board, father of 3 boys and juggling more students than he can handle. The fact that he manages to find time to get on here eludes me? The point being that if Nick can get on here and share his ideas and thoughts on the forum, so can others.

 

I for one am in the happy position that I do have access to my board member but i think as the thread suggests, make the effort to get to know your board member. I personally think it is in the best interest of all prospective board members to use tools such as this forum to "advertise" what they can do for you. But there is also a responsibility that sits with you as a voter. If you feel you are being marginilised for some reason, the contact details of the board members are available. Use the phone, introduce yourself and make your point heard rather than complain that the organisation is not doing it's bit. I agree that the communication could be better from the RAA but with a member base of 7000 + it is not going to get any easier or better.

 

... however i still wonder why some have an expectation that they should do it on this site.....don't they have their own (Brilliant) website ?

JL, I could not have said it any better. Why exactly have your own raa website (that admittedly looks tired) and then have to use another to broadcast information? The same expectation is not set on CASA, why should it be different for the RAA?

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Jan

 

 

[Ross]

Hi Crew

 

I really am encouraged by the attitude of members of this forum who contribute to the various threads. It really really does seem to be constructive by comparison to what happened on the AUF site forum.

 

We are still only represent about 10% of RAAust members assuming that all members of the forum are RAAaust members which is not necessarily the case. I for one would not like to see it otherwise. The more views we get to hear about the better for us to make informed decisions on contentious issues.

 

I am really encouraged by the attitude of Nick, Carol and Cazza in letting the membership (of this forum at least) in having some idea of what the issues are and what is going on in our organisation.

 

One of my pet annoyances is the idea that members of this forum can be virtually anonymous so that we really do not know who they are or what position they hold in our organisation. This may be fine for people who live and fly in a densley populated area who know them face to face but for the rest of us spread over the width and depth of Australia and for those who have just joined the forum it is a distinct disadvantage.

 

Another of my problems is that I do not know what the facilities if any exist at some of our often mentioned popular sites like "The Oaks" which is likely to become the only place that RAAust pilots can land in desiring to fly into Sydney from over the "Great Dividing Range" within a year or two. I have heard about some of the family social life there on the forum but I would like to hear of what facilities are available if any.

 

Being at Leeton I would also like to know what would be the preferable aerodrome targets around Melbourne from here likewise Brisbane and Adelaide for RAAust flying.

 

By contrast I can tell you that there is not much by the way of on field facilities available at Leeton unless you make prior arrangements with members. The population of Leeton is about 12,000. This might change as we now call ourselves The Leeton Aviators Club".

 

The Blue Mountains are a very real barrier for us "Westies" who are used to flying where the prevailing height above sea level is around 420 feet to maybe 800 feet. How do we fly legally to Sydney when we are not allowed to fly over 3,500 feet East and home to the West at 4,500 feet.

 

Regards

 

 

[PaulN]

Hi CrewThe Blue Mountains are a very real barrier for us "Westies" who are used to flying where the prevailing height above sea level is around 420 feet to maybe 800 feet. How do we fly legally to Sydney when we are not allowed to fly over 3,500 feet East and home to the West at 4,500 feet.

Hi Ross,

 

This is one of those rules that comes with conditions.

 

Namely, if in the opinion of the PIC it is deemed necessary for safe flight to go above 5000' (but not above 10000') to have sufficient air to achieve a glide to a reasonable forced landing option (i.e. over high ground or unavoidable tiger country) then the pilot may choose to so do while remaining legal. But watch out for controlled air steps.

 

I fly from Cooma which has an elevation of 3106' and to get almost anywhere from here means crossing even higher ground, so we invariably invoke this option.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Paul

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Mike, apologies for singleing out aircraft salesmen, we already have some on the board and many of my club associates sell aircraft. With this in mind please change the wording to "plumbers or cardiovascular surgeons" and I'll apologise to them next time around.

 

Ian, no offence was intended by my comments and the fact that you felt it necessary to defend your position was certainly not my intention at all. That you have developed this site at your own cost and have sourced numerous products and offer them at exceedingly competive rates is certainly a positive thing as far as I am concerned.

 

 

[facthunter]

RAAus board

 

Here's a SUPER hypothetical.

 

If ALL the board members were INSTRUCTORS would you be surprised if the Flying Syllabus became more complex, and the BFR became a minimum of 2 hours. Example ONLY . Don't go ballistic. I'm trying to make a point here. We have to represent ALL members views, at the board member level.

 

If a particular member has a VESTED interest, it will not necessarily be in the interests of ALL members to have that person there, particularly if that person is not interested in the views of the general membership. N...

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Couldn't agree with you more.

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

G'day Nev,

 

Dirty Harry said it all: "Opinions are like a$@#%^les - everyone has one".

 

The thing that strikes me is that of our 7,300 plus members we'll have people from all walks of life. Some of them will be actively involved in the industry - they'll teach us to fly, they'll sell aircraft or design them...etc. Some of the members won't be making a living from the industry, instead they'll be pilots because it suits them and they'll have other skills that they can contribute.

 

The strongest Boards are the ones that have a diversity of skills, views and experience. That's been my experience of the Boards that I am either on or have sat on. If you have a diverse Board with good interpersonal skills and the willingness to listen but not necessarily agree then you generally have a good Board.

 

In our membership we will have people who have professional understanding of aviation and they will be able to bring that to the Board table - that's important. We will also have people who know about business and commercial deals - not inappropriate when they are oversighting a rapidly growing organisation; people who know about lobbying and publicity, dealing with the bureaucrats etc; people who know about the process of learning; people who know about safety and human factors......

 

It is through having this diversity of skills that Boards are strong and effective. It is not the job of Board members to run the organisation - Paul and his team are paid to do that. It is certainly the job of the Board to both challenge and support the staff.

 

Rant over with the message that diversity is supreme....:;)3: Put it another way - we will all bring our own stuff to a Board table, the trick is to balance that and make sure that the process delivers a strong outcome that's in the interests of the organisation not the individual.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

Just a quick further thought on the CONCEPT of conflicts of interest.

 

Please note I am NOT suggesting that in any way there is such an issue on the current Board. Rather I'm picking up on Nev's post and the idea of vested interests and turning that over a bit.

 

My view about this is that we each have vested interests - they are what makes us tick. The question is: can we act in the interests of the greater good whilst recognising our own interests and setting them aside?

 

Now for me a vested interest becomes a conflict of interest in the following situations:

 

1. The person who is potentially at conflict fails to openly and fully disclose the potential conflict. Note well that this applies to potential as well as actual conflicts; because
    
    
   
2. The problem is not just the actual profiting from a particular situation so much as the perception from the general populace/membership that a person has or could profit; and
    
    
   
3. The failure to completely absent yourself from any discussions or decision making about the issue where you may have a conflict. Crap like "observing" or "taking no part in the conversation" just doesn't cut it - your presence can affect the outcome.
    
    
   
4. The onus is on the person with the potential conflict of interest to let others decide what should happen and to always err on the side of caution. That way you leave no doubt.
    
   

 

But the bottom line is that our lives are full of such potential conflicts - you can't avoid potentially having them, you can however manage them ethically and with integrity and openness.

 

Mindless musings.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[facthunter]

RAA representation.

 

Even well intentioned people who are out of touch can be dangerous. The essence is keep the feel of what's going on out there . This is the communication and awareness bit, that we must develop & which I am emphasizing. (in case you didn't notice)

 

I'm not interested in board bashing & I hope that nothing I say here could be construed as such.

 

By the way Mike, you are making me agree with you too often (That could be the kiss of death.) What's that comment above "regards" on your last post? Can't agree with that.... Nev....

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Facthunter, I have been giving your Super Hypothetical some consideration and I feel that altering the flight review interval to two hours may be somewhat obvious and not slip under the radar.

 

I believe a better approach may be to engineer a typo during the current Ops Manual re-write with the word "biennial" changed to "biannual" and hey presto four times the amount of BFRs (and with no need to change the abbreviation). Once instigated the change could be hard to reverse as it could be strongly argued that going back to the original interval may result in a lowering of "safety standards".

 

 

[facthunter]

BFR's

 

You're displaying a lot of political potential there Nick, you should go far! I'm smiling, thank you ...Nev...

 

 

[cazza]

Hello everyone. Sorry I have been out of town, so I haven't contributed for a while. I just wanted to remind people, that the magazine is the 'official instrument of communication' from the board to the membership. So Nick and I can fill you in on issues that have been decided, but often there are hoops to be jumped through before things become operational. For example, the ops manual re-write. Even if Lee has is finished in a couple of months, CASA has to then approve it and apparently they take their time and there is a lot of 'change this word to that word', 'move this sentence from here to there' that goes on for some months. Yikes, I didn't know that would happen.

 

At the moment, the BOARD is totally immersed in sorting out the duties for the new ED to improve the services we provide to members. More on that when we have come to a consensus.

 

Meanwhile, the Aviation Museum at Temora has a big flying weekend this weekend, F111's coming and all the other aircraft that the museum has will fly, weather permitting. We expect an influx of approxd 7,000 people over the two days. 20- RV's (the flying kind) are also flying in, so I will be busy. Temora is a great place to have a flyin. Maybe we can have a recreational aviation get together sometime.

 

Cazza

 

 

[PaulN]

Temora is a great place to have a flyin. Maybe we can have a recreational aviation get together sometime. Cazza

Sounds like a great idea Carol. Can I pencil-in a reservation for 2 for the B&B for that weekend now?

 

Paul

 

 

[cazza]

Hi Paul, the B&B is well and truly full for this weekend, but would love to see any RA-Aus aviators on any of the others. The next one is on June 30th.

 

Cazza

 

PS, you could fly over and tent it this weekend and join the RV's for a BBQ Sat night and a talk on aerobatic flight on Sat arvo. I'll be on the airfield, so look for me. I'll have my mobile. 0407 574 467

 

 

[PaulN]

Cazza,

 

My request was a tongue-in-cheek early reservation for the forum fly-in (sometime) that you suggested ;).

 

Paul

 

 

[Guest b1rd]

Brent, there isn't an option to specify if you are an RAAus member or not but through my own analysis as Administrator I can say that the majority of forum members are RAAus members and it is specifically for these people that these forums were established.There are also members here that, like you, who predominately fly VH registered aircraft and a very few that are not RAAus members but these types of people will always come across this site in their travels and it is up to us pure RAAus members (even if we also have a PPL) that choose to mostly fly RAAus registered aircraft to show them how much fun we can have, the range of registerable aircraft available in the RAAus arena, how professional we are as aviators and the benefits of becoming an RAAus member.

 

What cazza is doing in starting this thread here is a great thing for the majority of the forum members as it gives us an opportunity to say things that will only help the RAAus movement be even better in what we enjoy today.

Well I'm proud to say I just received my RAA membership card ;). I kind of did things backwards though .... dropped into The Oaks unannounced and on a whim really just to have a sniff around .... liked it .... did the TIF :big_grin: .... sent off the form and fee to the RAA .... then joined this forum. What started this chain of events ? Google.

 

I agree with everything Ian said and it certainly is great to have a passionate board member actively involved here. Cazza is to be applauded for her actions.

 

 

[Yenn]

It would be hard to have a board consisting of people who did not have a conflict of interest. I would hope that our board members are interested enough in recreational flying to be able to come to to conclusions which benefit us rather than just trying to feather their own nests. So far I believe the organisation is being run ethically for us. Maybe I am wrong but I hope not, and in any case there is always an opportunity for aggreived members to voice their opinions.

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Well apart from my push as stated above to change the requirements for a BFR I think we're fairly straight.

 

 

[cazza]

Board Elections are now on. So those of you who would like to make a contribution, and have the time, please consider nominating for the Board. The term of office is only two years and new blood is welcome.

 

CAzza