RAA, Recreational Aircraft and ultralights ...

[Marty_d]

Like anything else it's a balance. Way I look at it, if the number of people complaining about over-regulation is approximately equal to the number of people wanting more regulation, the balance must be about right.

 

 

[storchy neil]

cry in your wheat bix princes told some of you it had to happen 6 years ago that we as an organization had to oh sxxx why waste my time neil

 

raa don't give asxxx casa don't give a sxxx neil

 

 

[facthunter]

Extra cost with no guarantee of improvement. (The annual inspection) Some owners would have no trouble getting an L2 qqualification, but for various reasons don't wish to.. Victoria doesn't have annual inspections of road vehicles and there is no evidence of more mech failure caused accidents. You have to visit the cost related benefit for anything. Lame's sometimes make mistakes and they wouldn't like doing it. (Signing off some of our stuff) L2's may feel pressure to do it and I wouldn't do it for a lot of planes myself either.

 

.In GA it's the owner's (or operators) responsibility to ensure the required inspections are done.

 

The SAME must apply in RAAus but with the freedom for the owner to do it themselves because of the NATURE of our hobby. I don't want any body but ME or someone I choose to help me , to be involved with spannering my aircraft. That doesn't allow me to NOT perform the inspection/repair in any way. and it MUST be recorded.. The signing off doesn't prove the job was done either, nor would it necessarily prove the L2 /LAME did it either, in some circumstances. Nev

 

 

[farri]

it might be time to consider the creation and operation of a new ULTRALIGHT organisation to move away from 'GA-lite' and to put back the ultralight in Australia and draw a line around them and their operations.

Kasper, My AUF/RA-Aus membership is 000993, that`s how long I`ve been a member... At one point, way back when, I wanted to form our own organisation, here, in Queensland.

 

Is it really practical to attempt to form "a new ULTRALIGHT organisation?"....I don`t really know! What I do know! Those of us who were so passionate about Ultralights and helped to get things going in the early days, are no longer young, with fire in the belly, so count me out!... Too hard a road to hoe...I just want to enjoy my flying...Won`t try and stop anyone who would like to form a new organisation,though.

 

Frank.

 

 

[ev17ifly2]

Kasper, My AUF/RA-Aus membership is 000993, that`s how long I`ve been a member... At one point, way back when, I wanted to form our own organisation, here, in Queensland.Is it really practical to attempt to form "a new ULTRALIGHT organisation?"....I don`t really know! What I do know! Those of us who were so passionate about Ultralights and helped to get things going in the early days, are no longer young, with fire in the belly, so count me out!... Too hard a road to hoe...I just want to enjoy my flying...Won`t try and stop anyone who would like to form a new organisation,though.

 

Frank.

Given that the only area of growth in RA is LSA and trikes you may struggle to get enough members to form an association. Maybe a small club of 10 or 20, however if you do a mail out to nursing homes and cemetery trusts you may drum up A couple more.

 

 

[facthunter]

CRUEL.. Forming a support group would be a good idea. Collate all your material and have it available for interested people to get an idea of the essence of the movement. Remember TOSG? Tony had the knowledge and experience to promote that well. While it was specifically for Thrusters. (remember how many of them were flying 12 years ago.) today you want to embrace all of the planes in that category and even perhaps some NEW designs.? Nev

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Now that I've resigned from the board I can state my personal view.... I understand the point that Kasper is making, and I understand his points around who makes policy...

 

It's my view that the current board is trying to be inclusive of all parts of recreational flying that RAAus has remit for, however it's hard to think about the longer term future when with the CEO they are dealing with years of backlog in terms of lifting the business processes and acumen within RAAus. The back office upgrades circa $300k are no minor task, it's a ground up redesign that will enable compliance with CASA obligations, something we haven't always done and something that always led to tears when CASA identified the non compliances. It's those non compliances that are problematic, once something has been approved, that should not have been approved, how do you unapprove it in a way that all party's accept and doesn't lead to litigation?? A 1hr shortcut years ago, might now take 2 weeks of solid work and heaps of meetings to try and put right.

 

The simple amount of work in this space over the last few years, with no real increase in funding, or member costs has meant that some things, like those Kasper identified, have slipped through the cracks. It's my observation that getting cranky or having any attitude with your interaction with RAAus (generalisation not anyone specific) will likely result in being ignored as workload and stress levels simply don't allow for anything else.

 

It will improve, CASA already believe it has improved, otherwise we wouldn't be flying because audits have been and gone.....

 

The board, at least the current board, is very unlikely to give anything up in order to get more..... For example I believe we a collective better chance of winning Lotto than loosing the rights of a L1 or the needs to apply LAME certification to anything that doesn't need it now. If, for example, we were to be given CTA access and in order to get it those who want access must now do X and Y then I suspect that those with the same aircraft who don't want CTA access will never need to do X and Y. Despite great claims to the contrary I'm not aware of anything that has ever been given up, in order to get something more. Rag and Tube claims notwithstanding.

 

Kasper makes the point, correctly in my view, that 19 registered are at risk of just that, if the tech managers MARAP FAQ is taken at face value, however I'm aware that a decision such as a recommended change to legislation must come from the board and not the tech manager. That said, understand that changes to legislation are driven by CASA. If they have it in mind to do as the FAQ says ( in other words was the FAQ the techmans suggestion to them, or the reverse?) then no matter what the board thinks that's what will happen....it's my view though that the pain involved will all depend on the definitions of major and minor modifications......

 

I personally would in no way support a breakaway group, I just can't see any benefits to the breakaway group, or the remaining members. I would support further consolidation of RAAO's believing that once we have a relatively bulletproof and scalable back office systems that growth brings only economies of scale, and minor, if any growing pains.

 

Regards

 

Andy

 

 

[farri]

Given that the only area of growth in RA is LSA and trikes you may struggle to get enough members to form an association.

Realistically, I have to agree...For those who don`t know! I started flying just before twin seat Ultralights became legal. Once they became legal, we were then able to start instructing. I still own and fly an original Drifter that I used for instructing, way back when I was running my AUF and CAA approved flying school, off my property.

 

Back then, here in far north Queensland, there was an enormous amount of interest in Ultralight aircraft! If I recall correctly, at one stage, the membership of our club, the 'Far North Queensland Ultralight Association', later incorporated, totaled about 90 members, from various areas.

 

These days! I still enjoy taking up anyone who wants to experience flying in the Drifter, I don`t charge and those who want to fly with me, come looking for me, not the other way around...They are mostly in their mid teens, mid twenties...Though everyone loves the flight, only one guy from England said he would start flight training, when he got back there..If anyone shows interest in learning to fly,I give them information about RA-Aus

 

and a back issue of the Sport Pilot magazine.

 

Darren Jones, a guy I taught to fly way back when, has been an RA-Aus CFI and a commercial pilot, for a number of years, he is trying to establish a flying school up on the Atherton Tablelands, using a rag and tube (hate that term) Bantam aircraft,I don`t know how much interest he is getting,though. .

 

So folks! Times have changed and there you have it, from my observations...Some point in the future, who knows!!!

 

Frank.

 

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[bull]

Turdy

 

Ah yes, the myth that you fly at your own risk.........perpetuated by the brave, but not any more.The attitudes surfacing here and the indication that formal supervision is absent presents some serious problems for RAA and CASA

 

You can still build your own car without spending the millions on crash testing, but there are safety steps which must be followed. If these principles have passed your EXPERIMENTAL then some quick changes are needed if people are to protect themselves.

you need to look someware else for that $$$$killing you hope to make with your SAFETY TRAINING business ,now get of here and leave us to look after OUR SPORT

 

 

[bull]

Not from what I see.

Oly because we know what you can see $$$$$ ah mate