FlyingVizsla

So the big ticket item is Hosting = $3,000. The difference between XF & IPS is small by comparison ($200). Firstly, I would suggest not changing the software again, as the chaos upsets the loyal, long term users who have forgotten how to stop email notifications, struggle with things not being in their usual place and acting as they did, and needing patience while things are migrated. Stick with what gives you the most functionality for the future. There's a good number of us who are not on Facebook - we need this site. There are a number of First Class Members and some of them may be happy to give more than $50 if they knew there was a short-fall. I like the Forum: - Accidents & Incidents, the builds, Laughter (NES!!), general discussions, guess the plane. Resources, Aircraft, Classifieds - waiting for the Book Review. Not so interested in Off-Topic. Thanks for the site - I love it.

Pilot William Scott-Bloxam killed in Mareeba crash remembered as 'colourful character' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-15/pilot-william-scott-bloxam-remembered-after-mareeba-plane-crash/11801342 Police said they would investigate reports from witnesses who heard a strange sound from the engine, described by one person as "backfiring". Mr Scott-Bloxam was still alive after the crash but he could not be saved by paramedics and died at the scene. He came to national attention in 2008 as the pilot of a flight to the Papuan town of Merauke in which he and four others were detained by Indonesian authorities for entering without a visa. They became known as the "Merauke Five" and were held for several months. They were eventually sentenced to between two and three years' jail each. Following intervention from the Australian Government, their convictions were dismissed by Indonesia's Supreme Court and they returned home in June 2009. More information in the article

Qld Country Life update ... RFDS emergency evacuation of Isisford ultralight crash pilot Sally Cripps@sallyQCL3 Dec 2019, 5:30 p.m. News The Royal Flying Doctor Service plane on the strip at Wahroongah Station south of Isisford preparing to evacuate the injured patient. It's first time the medical service has used this airstrip. Picture supplied by the RFDS. Aa The young Longreach pilot injured in Monday morning's ultralight mustering accident south of Isisford has been flown to Brisbane in a critical condition. According to a Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) spokesman, the RFDS Charleville crew was tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland at about 8.15am on Monday to the light aircraft crash at Pemberley Station, about 60km south of Isisford. Landing at the neighbouring Wahroongah Station airstrip about 10km from the crash site at 10.15am on Monday, two RFDS doctors and an RFDS flight nurse were met by Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics and Queensland Health medical staff from Isisford, who had transferred the patient by road to the airstrip. Together, the medical crews stabilised the patient, 25-year-old Robert Paterson, who was suffering from significant head, face and leg injuries, before flying him to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a critical condition. Police and emergency services were called to the accident on the Yaraka River Road at around 8.10am on Monday. The acting CEO of Recreational Aviation Australia Maxine Milera said the accident involved an RAAus-registered Foxbat aircraft. "RAAus provides specialised subject matter expertise to assist the police with their investigation, which will include an assessment of a variety of possible factors including environmental, mechanical and human factors," she said.

From the Qld Country Life https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6521359/light-plane-accident-at-isisford/ Police were called to a light plane accident south of Isisford on Monday morning. According to a police media spokeswoman, the minor aviation incident occurred at around 8.10am at a location 60km south of Isisford, along the Yaraka River Road. The male pilot was flying a yellow mustering plane when the incident occurred. He is understood to have sustained injuries but was not trapped in the plane. Further details will be supplied as they come to hand.

Back in 1993? (I'll have to check my magazines) CASA offered a weight increase to 750kg on a platter. The AUF people replied "We're too busy ...." and it went on the back burner. The offer now is 760kg which takes in the Cessna 150/152 range - old but cheap, it might get some back into recreational flying.

The magazine went digital from June 2011 - you can find them on the RAA site and issuu.com. I have a complete set from late 1992, but patchy before that. I would be grateful for any early copies I can borrow. Be warned ... there will be floods, cyclones, magazine gobbling goannas, Marie Kondo moments of decluttering ahead for your AUF magazine owners. Karasport is a single seat in flying condition. It is a parasol, comes apart into a trailer. There's some pictures on this forum discussing trailer-able planes. The Scout isn't flying as it needs recovering, pixie motor, Mk I.

Both. I was copying the AUF/RAA magazines as a project for RAA to put them up on their website. I have a complete collection of hard copies from 1992/3 up to when the magazine went digital (and available on the RAA website), but I am still looking for hard copies earlier. My digitising project goes in fits & starts and I have not touched it for about a year. Fully searchable and tagged, high resolution. RAA have offered to loan me their archived copies, but I am a bit reluctant to be entrusted with perhaps the only official copies in captivity. I'm jinxed - the pre 1992 copies I have been promised have all disappeared in (a) spouse clean up, (b) deceased and dumped x 2, © freak flood, (d) frenzied silverfish / cockie attack, (e) "I'm sure they're here somewhere ...." If anyone wants to risk it, I am still looking for AUF mags/newsletters from inception to 1992. The Pacific Ultralights and earlier magazines are all gathering dust in boxes under the house. I could read through, scan and send whatever you are interested in. If you could define that for me pls. We still have a Scout, but needs re-covering, Mr FV is too heavy to get it off the ground, but I still can, and a single seat Karasport. We've just got too much to do, so many projects - who said retirement was boring?

You could start with this:- This is on this site under Resources - Tutorials. I have early copies of some Ultralight publications such as Pacific Ultralights and the AUF newsletter / RAA magazines. There's a lot out there, so it will depend on what specifically you want - aircraft design, people, governance, statistics? Sue

G'day Hunsta, When you get up to the cross-country, call in to the Childers airstrip. Usually a morning tea on Wednesdays and people around most times. We have functions from time to time, like fly-in breakfast, just had the Oz-STOL competition. The Isis Flying Club is a happy group of active aviators with about 20 hangars and a good club house. Meetings 1st Sat of each month at 10am. Welcome to drive up to talk planes and flying. Sue

It's part of a crack-down on Registered Training Organisations defrauding the Commonwealth https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-06/private-college-reaped-$2m-from-students-but-never-taught-class/11662164

Some pics here https://www.facebook.com/2019ausfly/ Mostly presentations and sponsors. I would like some feedback too. How many, how did it go .. is it worth the interstate trip? Some plane porn pls.

Yes, I know the feeling! I've been caught waiting on jobs where they have used my resume as "and this will be our Project Manager, Engineer ..." when they win the contract they employ someone far less experienced / qualified on less wages to cover two or three roles. Hope it turns around for you soon. In the meantime we REALLY APPRECIATE all the work you are doing for us here!

From time to time RAA ask for volunteers to put into a skills register. I don't know what sort of response they get. I have done some volunteer work for them, however, I am doing it at my own pace. They may not have the luxury of waiting for ages, or waiting for someone to visit Canberra. I am sure there are Board members who consult people they know have better knowledge of things. This might be happening behind the scenes without us knowing. It's a hard question to answer - if RAA get outside help (from members or professionals etc) and they don't pay, or pay less than market value (eg free labour "parts" only) are these provided by "volunteers"? If so, then Yes, they are using Volunteers. But remember - you get what you pay for. Often Volunteers are not required to stand by their product, there's no compulsion to complete.

I think Turbo is referring to Forum Posts - lost in the myriad of spurious content from - tutorials, map pins, vids etc... He's a candidate for Option 2, but more likely wants What's New - Forum Posts only. I understand where he is coming from.

I did the survey too. I thought the idea was either 1.keep the magazine but subscribers have to pay the true cost, or 2. stop printing & posting the magazine and put the money into other ways of keeping us informed and amused. The RAA have listened to people complaining their fees are going up and this is one way of remedying it. At least they are asking before calling tenders for someone to produce a glossy magazine for a year or two. If the cost does go up to the true production cost then I predict a number of the 15% of members who subscribe will reneg leaving the few to pay a higher subscription. As for sending it to doctors' surgeries - it was in newsagents for sale, and that didn't give any stellar increase in membership, only cost more than it was worth, and was scrapped. The arrangement (which was commercial-in-confidence) was, AFAIK, the Editor chased advertising and kept the proceeds to offset his price to produce, print & post a magazine. With only 1,500 readers, advertising revenue wouldn't be too flash. It might be hard to find someone willing to take it on at a reasonable cost. When the same guy did both AOPA & RAA there may have been savings. But AOPA has ditched it's print magazine and gone to an on-line hodge-podge of unrelated articles that you have to click through to.

Spacie - it is a very useful number. For the book that Ian and I both have "Fire in the Sky : The Australian Flying Corps in the First World War" by Michael Molkentin the ISBN is 978 1 74237 072 9 This tells you it is that book and it is a paperback (the hardback has a slightly different number). I am helping out on a charity Book Fest. Things are so much easier now we just scan the ISBN, all the details are added to the database and we can chuck it into the right box to make spreading them out for sale on the day way easier than previous years. All the gardening books in one place, the non-fiction, fiction, biographies etc. It is also useful for those looking for specific books - just ask, we look it up and can tell if we had it and if it is still for sale and where you can find it on the tables. Another good read in the same vein - "The High Life of Oswald Watt: Australia's First Military Pilot" by Chris Clark, Big Sky Publishing, Newport NSW Australia 2016 ISBN 9781925275797. He learned to fly in 1911, when WWI broke out, he went to France and flew with the French (thus being the first Australian to fly in a military role) and 18 months later got a transfer to the Australian Flying Corp. I've got another one and a half chapters to go.

Can we include e-books, on-line videos; a rating system (5 stars? planes?) a category (or two, three ...) eg WWI / WWI planes / Australian Pilots / Egypt / England. Fiction / non-fiction. A picture of the cover if possible.

Yes! A good read with plenty of research, and pictures. I have passed it around and it has just come past me again. I have friends who raid my shelves for good reads. I'm organised now, I have a pile of books for each with "this might interest .. Bill, Pete etc" to avoid dragging everything out or offering things they've already read. I must say we got a lot of good books from Ian's shop Clear Prop (Pilot Shop on the side menu)

.. be ultra cute and endearing, so as to end up in countless YouToob Vids. Gold, absolute Gold for the CASA Misdemeanour Investigators. For there, in the background was evidence of multiple breaches of ...

.. been fitted with Chinese built Jabiloo engines. A deep rumble pervades the air, a slow, deep reverberation of a sleeping bear, slowly awakening. "Spratly .. Australian soil! .. Jabiloo!!!" yelled the CASA bureaucracy, clearly conflicted by the thought of an Australian engine being allowed to fly unrestricted in Orstralia. "Didn't we ban ....

While RAA are not exactly Microsoft ... they do award tenders for services such as auditing, the magazine, fly-in venue etc. The magazine is worth >$100k's + advertising - possibly a quarter of a million. I think you are referring to Kirk Sutton, who was asked to change one word in his election statement. Only Kirk can tell you what that word was and why he agreed. Because they are published in a magazine, the editor and organisation must be careful with what they allow. Kirk has, in the past, been pedantic about the letter of the law, which has put him at odds with the Board, the RAA legal advice and Spencer Ferrier who assisted with the wording of the Constitution. Lawyers disagree about the intent of legislation, that is why we have the courts; to rule on the interpretation and set a precedent, on which further interpretation relies. My concern with this election, as with others in the past, is that too few members even bother. "I just want to fly ..." We need to engage these members to get them to take an interest in their organisation.

I Like it; a good balance of words and pics. Are the entries chosen, or are they random? Just concerned that some trolling might unfortunately end up featured on the home page.

The election procedure is in the Constitution. In this one, we have 6 candidates for three positions. There is no preferential voting (1,2,3 ..), you mark the three you wish to represent you. The votes are opened and counted independently and the results are published. No Board will be in complete agreement on everything. The biggest problem identified by the Report was dysfunction, where some members are not contributing or being uncivil. It's an unpaid job, but Board members MUST be willing to take an interest, contribute to discussion and decisions and do so in a way that is acceptable to others. Once a Board decision is made, a Board member must abide by it. It happens all over the country, a Council decides one thing, then an individual Councillor can't direct the staff to do something else, regardless of his feelings on the matter. Similarly, if the members are overwhelmingly telling the Board member what they want, he shouldn't be peddling his own minority opinion, he should represent the members. There are Minutes of meetings to see what transpired. Members are entitled to attend, and I have. The AGM is live streamed and you can pick it up later to view at your leisure. Board members can, and do, talk with members. There are some things that are confidential and should remain that way; to do otherwise would give a competitive advantage or injure a reputation. This is why people with experience on Boards, Councils etc already know their obligations in this regard. That was also highlighted, that RAA should be providing training for Board members on their legal obligations. It is no longer a Club, it's a Company. I am hoping we will hear more from the other Candidates. I want to make my vote count.

In the past I have found it frustrating that I had no idea of how our elected representatives were performing, and if it was worth re-electing them. The election statements, naturally, would say "Hey, I'm a great guy" but are they really worth my vote? Fortunately RAAus paid for independent consultants to do a review of the Board performance (Sept 2018) and published this. From the 24 page report (plus attachments) As noted at the outset of this report, an overriding theme of the board evaluation was that the board is currently factionalised. Other themes relevant to board dynamics included that: • the level of contribution to the board’s work is not equally spread with some directors seemingly having no real engagement in the board’s work other than being physically present at board meetings • some directors are not asking questions in a constructive way, and • it is queried whether all directors are acting in the best interests of RAAus (Page 16) .. struggle to engage several members as they do not respond to emails, return phone calls and so forth. Alan Middleton often criticises the engagement of board members but fails to return calls and takes an aggressive tone in email (on one occasion I called him 4 times in relation to some out of session matters with no reply). Rod Birrell and Eugene Reid are similar. Alan is not up for re-election but appears to be diametrically opposed to the Board. With only 7 on the Board RAAus cannot afford to have 3 who are not fully contributing. Kirk Sutton has been a "thorn in the side" querying the finer points of the Constitution at RAAus meetings and on this forum. You can see his previous by searching here. My feeling is that he will engage with the Board, not just ignore or have a hissy fit and take his bat & ball away. He has his own thread, where you can ask questions of him. I have sent an invitation to Alex and Tapan to join this forum and contribute their thoughts. I am not endorsing any candidate. Please VOTE!

Our flying club has been advised by our brokers that Swiss Re (our current insurers) will be pulling out of the market, but they assure us "nothing to worry about". AIG and Allianz have already withdrawn from underwriting aviation in the Australian market. The Club uses Aviation Insurance Australia and have been happy with them (but have not made a claim, only payments....) There are less & less players in the industry. Less choice, less competition, usually equals lesser value to consumers.