RAAus on ABC Radio

[Admin]

Should you be near the radio tomorrow morning and wish to hear some thoughts from RA-Aus members including (ex-President) Runciman on the current situation may I suggest you tune to ABC national at a touch before 0710 or other ABC local programming stations at 0800. This timing is subject to last minute changes.

 

 

[damkia]

I would imagine after the broadcast:

 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/transcripts/subject/

 

 

[drifterdriver]

I will be all ears. Thanks for the heads up Ian. I wonder if the ABC had success with getting an interview or will it have to be just paraphrased?

 

Nick

 

 

[Admin]

Please note that the fire situation in Tas has meant almost all stories have been dropped so the RA-Aus one is being held back. Fingers crossed for Monday.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Has this gone to air yet?

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Just heard it ten minutes ago. Some informative pre recorded interviews from members but only quotes from Mr Runciman.

 

 

[Guest john]

Just heard it ten minutes ago.

Please provide a summary of the broadcast

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Please provide a summary of the broadcast

i don't have time right now but I'd suggest you download it from the abc. You may have to wait a couple of hours until its been broadcast across the whole country.

 

 

[facthunter]

I only got the tail end of it on 774. Mostly covered the flying of unregistered planes. The bit I heard. Would like to know the whole lot.. Nev

 

 

[Guest airsick]

You can download it here - http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/am/201301/20130111am-full-program.mp3

 

Skip forward to around 19:10 for the relevant part.

 

It's interesting to note that SR has told the ABC only a small number of aircraft were affected yet an email from another board member says there is a large back log of aircraft. I'm inclined to believe the "other" board member and not accept SR's dismissal of the problem.

 

 

[Guest john]

i don't have time right now but I'd suggest you download it from the abc. You may have to wait a couple of hours until its been broadcast across the whole country.

Many thanks Drifterdriver, I will do as you have suggested

 

 

[Captain]

There is a transcript and recording here ................. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3667864.htm

 

 

[damkia]

Could an affected flyer or two contact the ABC to give the real statistics?

 

 

[AlfaRomeo]

The "other Board Member" was of course Middo.

 

So, do we have a person passing themselves off as President who deliberately makes misleading statements on National Media?

 

Would that be "bringing RA-Aus into disrepute"?

 

Punishable by excommunication? I guess he at least could take his trike over to the HGFA.

 

EDIT: Punctuation!

 

 

[webbm]

Hopefully this is a wake up call to those who might have been flying in an unregistered aircraft. The Technical Manual recommends including a registration check as part of a daily inspection. Owners also have to display the registration certificate on the aircraft. Pilots should (in my opinion) be checking registration as part of a pre flight, especially in the environment we find ourselves in at the current time. If you're sending out a registration renewal, and it doesn't come back, how can you fly with no valid certificate displaying on your aircraft?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong here. I'm a pilot, not an aircraft owner...

 

Cheers.

 

 

[AlfaRomeo]

Hopefully this is a wake up call to those who might have been flying in an unregistered aircraft. . . .

It is indeed. No insurance and up to two years in the clink is a very strong set of incentives to not fly unregistered - even if you ended up doing that inadvertently because the Board Exec directed that reminders not be sent out because that was adding to the backlog and making them look bad or was that worse.

 

Pilots should (in my opinion) be checking registration as part of a pre flight, especially in the environment we find ourselves in at the current time.

More good advice, as you say, "in the environment we find ourselves in at the current time". That environment was created when the Board Exec seemed to think it was OK to stop sending out renewal reminders so that they could claim they were "winning the battle".

 

In years past you could have relied on getting the reminder from RA in good time so that your rego would never expire and you would never have flown an unregistered aircraft. But now, as webbm says, you need to include checking your rego label as part of your pre-flight. What a ridiculous situation that is.

 

I heard that when it was brought brought to CASA's attention that RA had stopped sending out renewals, CASA stepped in with big boots on because they considered holding back renewal notices as being a SAFETY issue. RA then very quickly resumed sending out renewals.

 

And now we have a new (11/01/2013) report on the RA website from Middo that still just glosses over the actual situation. No mention of:

 

• how big the backlog is and whether it is getting bigger or smaller?
   
   
  
• why they shut down the rectification work between Christmas and New Year as more aircraft were added to the list of "lawn ornaments"?
   
   
  
• how long people can expect their aircraft to be grounded?
   
   
  
• what's happening to the FTFs that may have had training aircraft grounded?
   
   
  
• what's happening to the importers and distributors whose aircraft cannot be released to customers?
   
   
  
• what's happening to the Members Market sales because rego transfers are delayed?
   
   
  

 

 

There is no doubt Middo is putting in a big effort to try and fix the problem and he should be thanked by aircraft owners for doing that. It is also good to see that he now seems to understand that more resources were needed to be employed if the backlog was ever to be reduced.

 

However, there is still nothing like the resources being committed to the catch-up that is required. We see no evidence that the efforts to date have even allowed them to tread water. Because they are not giving us hard facts but merely encouraging whitewash you have to wonder how fast they are going backwards? And how big the backlog will become?

 

Full credit to Dean Tompkins who, I'm sure would much rather have gone fishing than be caught up in this mess. He is doing a fantastic job and RA would be in a very, very deep black hole without his great efforts.

 

However, the Board Executive that includes Runciman, Middo and Reid cannot be thanked for being primarily responsible for the creation of this crisis. Their mismanagement of the CEO and his of the Tech Manager(s) is how this mess was created.

 

In my view, the Board Exec have been very slow in getting stuck into fixing this problem of their own creation. It seems like that they have never appreciated that it was a crisis and needed crisis management and maximum resources and smarter systems committed to fixing it.

 

I can hardly believe it, even though it is widely reported, that the instruction was given to the Office Staff to lie to members who enquired about why their rego was being held up. There have been numerous reports of members having been told "its just a computer glitch". Is there anything this Exec won't do?

 

Roll on 9th February and a new beginning for Recreational Aviation!