Natfly 2014

[spacesailor]

Been to both, liked them too, But I like to see other home builds & there was aplenty at Narromine. The Dave King Hummelbird was a favourite of mine , it wasn't at Temora last year and only one homebuild that I remember, (needed a tuned exhaust)

 

Lots of very expensive GA type aircraft, and little of what the concept of what ultralights is about, after all Raa took-over Ultralight aviation, AUF didn't join GA to make RAA. (I think,( could be wrong)).

 

Perhaps That's the problem, two factions, penniless homebuilders and chequebook fliers who need a lesser GA,

 

My Need!, someone to fill in all the forms and formalities.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[spacesailor]

Apologies to the home built Sonex and Waiex community that I visited, but again GA not ultralight.

 

And I must get to visit a SAAA, but I'm a little bit lost with chapter's.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[metalman]

Interesting the span of complaints,,,,,no atmosphere due to lack of participation = I'm not going! food was crap = I'm not going! it moved from one town to another = I'm not going, not enough sales stands = I'm not going,,,,,,,how to we fix all the above,,,,,,mmmmm,,,stuffed if I know!

 

Matty

 

 

[gandalph]

Interesting the span of complaints,,,,,no atmosphere due to lack of participation = I'm not going! food was crap = I'm not going! it moved from one town to another = I'm not going, not enough sales stands = I'm not going,,,,,,,how to we fix all the above,,,,,,mmmmm,,,stuffed if I know!Matty

Matty, you've got the answer right there in your question.

 

It's easy.

 

We (that's all of us who want it to be something better and/or different) fix it by simply going.

 

Go.

 

Show up and enjoy whats there. Persuade friends, acquaintances, colleagues, neighbours, kids, parents to go. It doesn't have to be a trade show, food show, airshow. It's a fly-in with extras. Enjoy what you like, ignore what you want. Create the atmosphere and then enjoy the atmosphere that's created. (wherever it's created or re-created)

 

Those who don't want to go, for whatever reason , can simply not turn up to wherever they want to not turn up to. They can then write & tell us all about how good/bad the event/airshow/fly-in they didn't go to was.

 

 

[XAIRVTW]

Apologies to the home built Sonex and Waiex community that I visited, but again GA not ultralight.And I must get to visit a SAAA, but I'm a little bit lost with chapter's.

spacesailor

Im a member of the SAAA if you go to their web site all the chapters are listed with contact details. just find one that is close to you get in touch with the President of that chapter & go to one of there meetings usually at a fellow chapter members house who is building a project all your questions will be answered.

 

 

[Keith Page]

Im a member of the SAAA if you go to their web site all the chapters are listed with contact details. just find one that is close to you get in touch with the President of that chapter & go to one of there meetings usually at a fellow chapter members house who is building a project all your questions will be answered.

Thank you for that information XAIRVTW..................... I think it could be useful..

 

Regards

 

Keith Page.

 

 

[Captain]

Attached is a terrific summary from a visiting banana bender of what he witnessed at Natfly and what he drew from the various meetings on the current situation in RAA.

 

Well worth a read in my opinion:

 

Natfly 2014.pdf

 

Natfly 2014.pdf

 

Natfly 2014.pdf

[geoffreywh]

Surely a "must read" for all R.A.A. members.....Hits nails on their heads in almost every way.....Well written.....

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yes well worth the read. The new board and excutive have made a conscious decision that we should share all with the membership, so that they know exactly what it is that we face, and have to deal with as board members.

 

This will no doubt lead to a decrease in the negative / incorrect posting, as the membership will have more accurate info on which to base their opinions...........Maj...........

 

 

[Keith Page]

OK Good read.

 

However? I just wonder what the now situation would be if the older generation board was not astute with the fianances. that is opearating with a surplus.

 

Just consider that.

 

*** Maj that is very good news. One has not to be Einstein to find the errors fixing them is the problem.

 

Regards

 

Keith Page.

 

 

[dodo]

Yes well worth the read. The new board and excutive have made a conscious decision that we should share all with the membership, so that they know exactly what I is that we face, and have to deal with as board members.

Unitl you ask about the Ops or Tech manual updates. There, you hit a brick wall.

 

dodo

 

 

[Captain]

Yes well worth the read. The new board and excutive have made a conscious decision that we should share all with the membership, so that they know exactly what I is that we face, and have to deal with as board members.This will no doubt lead to a decrease in the negative / incorrect posting, as the membership will have more accurate info on which to base their opinions...........Maj...........

Madge,

 

Well done & well said.

 

Regards Geoff

 

 

[Teckair]

I do not think asking for tax payer hand outs will work or will be the answer. The members wanted to move away from affordable aircraft to what we have now and this is the result. RAAus has priced it self out of business. Most young people paying off a house and raising a family will not be able to afford what RAAus now has to offer. There have been plenty of warnings about this but they have been largely ignored.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Attached is a terrific summary from a visiting banana bender of what he witnessed at Natfly and what he drew from the various meetings on the current situation in RAA.Well worth a read in my opinion:

Thanks for posting that excellent analysis, Captain. It gives what has been so painfully absent: an accurate assessment of our position. Without that we have no hope of a clear vision for the future.

RAAus is in a remarkably similar situation to the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association. Both do important work and save governments millions. Both have been seen as a threat by paid professionals who denigrate the quality of the service provided by committed (and highly-trained) volunteers. Perhaps as a result of this, both are subject to increasing and onerous regulations which volunteers must find the time and energy to comply with. Luckily the NSW government recognised the quality of service provided by the VRA and has provided some funding to help meet the cost of compliance and keep us on the road. That model should be followed by the federal government

 

 

[Powerin]

Attached is a terrific summary from a visiting banana bender of what he witnessed at Natfly and what he drew from the various meetings on the current situation in RAA.Well worth a read in my opinion:

Thanks for that Capt. It summed up well many of my thoughts and more.

It is interesting that Jim stood up and presented us with some simple and easy to understand statistics and figures and then proceeded to give us one of the worst financial outcomes and predictions ever seen from RAAus. And yet when questions were asked for there were none. No angry response, just grim acceptance. He didn't sugar coat it and didn't have the answers, but gave us some plans for the future that they hoped might stem the flow. I think that is an object lesson in good governance and how to communicate well with members. It was in stark contrast to some of the stuff that has been dished out (or even not dished out) to us in the past. Tell us the truth, accept responsibility, plan for the future. Well done Jim!

 

 

[Captain]

Thanks for that Capt. It summed up well many of my thoughts and more.It is interesting that Jim stood up and presented us with some simple and easy to understand statistics and figures and then proceeded to give us one of the worst financial outcomes and predictions ever seen from RAAus. And yet when questions were asked for there were none. No angry response, just grim acceptance. He didn't sugar coat it and didn't have the answers, but gave us some plans for the future that they hoped might stem the flow. I think that is an object lesson in good governance and how to communicate well with members. It was in stark contrast to some of the stuff that has been dished out (or even not dished out) to us in the past. Tell us the truth, accept responsibility, plan for the future. Well done Jim!

Well said Powerin.

 

 

 

I had the honour of being an Alternate for Jim last year and I can say that as well as being a good bloke, he is dedicated to doing a top job as Treasurer and on the Executive .... and all the time acting strictly in the best interests of the membership.

 

 

 

RA-Aus is lucky to still have him after the deplorable and unconscionable way he was treated by the then Executive when Jim first joined the Board.

 

 

 

RA-Aus has been subjected to terrible governance over several years that lead up to the shemozzle with the registrations and to last year's EGM ..... and some of the financial reports were incompetent or worse, because some took on the Treasury as a mechanism to get themselves onto the Executive to increase their power-base while others took it on as the short straw on the Board, but the result was that some of the reporting was woeful. Some couldn't even get the columns to add up and when some did get 2 & 2 to equal 4, when questioned they obviously didn't understand or have a "feel" for what was the true RAA situation.

 

 

 

When Don Ramsey was elected and saw the deplorable position & the exposure that directors had as a result, he pulled the pin and I don't blame him.

 

 

 

There was a period where some members of the Executive and Board simply did not have a clue and reps from almost all states were involved in that category.

 

 

 

They then resorted to secrecy to cover themselves and blindside the membership.

 

 

 

This position was also enhanced by the quality of the GM/CEO and that has improved out of sight with Mark in that chair.

 

 

 

All RAA members would do well to remember those days when we were told nothing and fed on bullsh*t and all must ensure that they keep in mind who were the 4 or 6 individuals who presided over that mess and contributed/promoted the culture of secrecy at Executive and Board level, as some are still there.

 

 

 

RAA now have a strong, competent Executive and a much improved Board so that they now know where RAA is at and can start to do something about it.

 

 

 

And they are open with the membership.

 

 

 

I commend the present Executive & GM to all RAA members.

 

 

 

Regards Geoff

 

 

[DonRamsay]

I do not think asking for tax payer hand outs will work or will be the answer. The members wanted to move away from affordable aircraft to what we have now and this is the result. RAAus has priced it self out of business. Most young people paying off a house and raising a family will not be able to afford what RAAus now has to offer. There have been plenty of warnings about this but they have been largely ignored.

Teckair, please, tell me one thing that RA-Aus has done to require people with pilot certificates to buy only LSA aircraft and to not design, build or buy 95.10 aircraft?

This trend of increasing preference for aircraft that are enclosed, more powerful, 4 stroke engined, greater carrying capacity, longer range, etc., has been a free choice by RA-Aus members and not the requirement of your Association. If you want to blame anybody for the decline of interest in 95.10 look only to the market.

 

Perhaps, as different people joined RA-Aus, older with different financial capacity, and different tolerance to risk and different tolerance for the elements there has been an evolution to more developed aircraft.

 

To some extent, I think what has happened with recreational aviation is analogous with the trend in motorcycling through the 1960s to 1990s and the present. Away from small cheap-transport, mostly two-stroke motorcycles to cheap small four cylinder/four stroke cars. Subsequently, motorcycles started to be bought by older, wealthier people. They chose to buy not cheap transport but motorcycles for recreation with bigger, more powerful, four-stroke engines, better brakes, better carrying capacity, better tyres and longer range. Sound familiar? Nobody outlawed small two-strokes motor cycles, the punters just stopped buying them.

 

Don

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

I attended my first General and Board meeting at Natfly with antennas up. The majority of the board and excutive I had not personally met before, and I must report that I was pleasantly pleased with them all. I was particularly impressed with the energy of the three excutive members, plus Katie Jenkins, Darren Barnfield and the current ops team. Everybody seems to be pulling on the same rope and in the right direction. At Natfly I sought the assistance of Don Ramsey to help me make my decisions on the 7 amendments up for vote at the General meeting. They all passed this time...thank you Don for giving me your time there.

 

It is hard to comprehend just what Darren is doing for us at this time, but it is a hell of a lot, plus he has the unique skill of curcumnavigating through the maze that is CASA to very good effect, on our behalf. He is certainly the man in that position, that we need right now, and we are be lucky to have him. He has stated that his short term goal is to get the registration renewal time down to two weeks. He recently approved the registration of Rob Purvan new 19 rego design in 11 days !!.....and over the Easter period which is amazing to me.

 

Micheal Monk and Jim Tatlock recently had a one-on-one meeting with the Aviation minister Warren Truss, circumnavigating CASA, which I feel was a master stroke. They have a second meeting again in a couple of weeks. In these meetings they have highlighted many of the RAAs problems to the minister, that he was not previously aware of. Later this year we will be loosing at least three long serving board members in Paul Middleton, Micheal Appes, and Mike Smith from SE Qld who has indicated he probabily won't run again. There could be others. I Feel right now after experiencing it first hand that the whole team is probabily as good as it gets, especially at this time when we have many battles to fight and many challenges to get on top of. Hopefully we can fill the board positions of the experienced departing members, with new suitable canidates.

 

The Raa could well face several lawsuits this year arising from the fatalities of the past two or three years. We may loose some, and the resulting financial burden of those losses could well strain the RAA finances to the extreme. Now more than ever we need a strong cohesive team running the show, and strong active leadership to lead those teams..................Maj....

 

 

[DonRamsay]

Regards Mark Clayton having a peek at RecFlying, I'd be surprised if he didn't. What he can't afford is the time for endless, interminable, discussion and argument, especially with a few of the less considered who post here.

 

He already works ridiculous hours. For example, I sent him some info on the afternoon of Anzac day not expecting a reply until next week but got several back on the day. I reminded him that it was a Public Holiday. He is incredibly busy on our behalf and works like a trojan with insufficient support staff - his choice to save us money.

 

He very bravely scheduled a Q&A session at Natfly and stood in front of all who came with no support staff. The session went on for hours and I believe that everyone who went to that meeting came away very satisfied with the session and Mark's frankness in his replies.

 

Don

 

 

[DonRamsay]

Ross, Thanks for this report. I share your enthusiasm for our new Executive. Jim's presentation was so good and complete that it didn't require questions. Nobody can be happy with the news but they can be happy that nothing is being kept from them and that we have an Exec team dedicated to doing the right thing and leaving no stone unturned to get RA-Aus back onto a sound footing.

 

As you mentioned, we have two NSW/ACT Board Members retiring after long service. We have one SQLD and one Victorian also retiring and not re-contesting. It will be a test of the apathy of all RA-Aus Ordinary Members to seek good candidates for nomination, help them get elected and VOTE!

 

RA-Aus has a terrible record of apathy when it comes to Board elections. So many of our Board Members were either elected unopposed or returned unopposed. Some have never been challenged and been there for a very long time with little good to show for it. Perhaps Eugene Reid in Tassie fits that picture? Eugene was instrumental in Steve Tizzard being gifted the CEO position without having to go through the usual application and competitive selection process. It is rare that somebody is going to bring great energy and imagination to a job they've been engaged in for more than say, 5 years, let alone 20 years! Anyone who has been on the Board as long as Eugene and therefore responsible for the past should really give some consideration to giving somebody else a go. In my view, his performance at the Extraordinary General Meeting at Queanbeyan in February last year was amazing, but not in a good way. Anyone know a good alternative candidate in Tasmania?

 

Don

 

 

[spacesailor]

Many thanks XAIRVTW the information. on the SAAA

 

I must try and get motivated again.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Teckair]

Teckair, please, tell me one thing that RA-Aus has done to require people with pilot certificates to buy only LSA aircraft and to not design, build or buy 95.10 aircraft?This trend of increasing preference for aircraft that are enclosed, more powerful, 4 stroke engined, greater carrying capacity, longer range, etc., has been a free choice by RA-Aus members and not the requirement of your Association. If you want to blame anybody for the decline of interest in 95.10 look only to the market.Don

Don you need to read my post again, I agree mostly with what you say, although there is at least one person who is now a board member who has pushed for this to happen.

 

The members wanted to move away from affordable aircraft to what we have now and this is the result.

The members have done this to themselves. No where did I state it is a requirement our our association.

 

 

[Teckair]

If people are unable to understand what was in post 215, then it is no real surprise they do not understand what is happening to RAAus. How bad do things need to get before the penny will drop?

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Well Natfly 2015 will have a gnu stall printing cheap ASIC's, my idea to boost the numbers.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I hadn't realised there was no entry fee for spectators.

 

Without that there is no great trauma whether numbers are up or down, other than whether members want to be out of cost if the budget isn't covered.