FlyingVizsla

I was looking at AviationTrader site and then went to Aviation Advertiser - waited about 20 minutes while it was "waiting for ... " and gave up. It might too busy doing a Denial of Service on the Census? Not a good look for the business if they are relying on people going on site to buy aircraft.

I was going to work as a Census collector - so this is what I was told. In the city areas Australia Post would deliver an envelope with a log in code. In small towns and rural areas, the paper form would be hand delivered. I consider that to be a waste of money - why couldn't that be delivered by Australia Post instead of people on hourly & km rates? Australia Post has a database of all properties. A bit miffed that they consider rural people wouldn't be internet savvy. Got my paper version at the farm. When we went to the house in town, there was nothing there. The Collector had asked our neighbour if we were home and then decided not to leave us a form. Even if the house is vacant, there is still supposed to be an entry. Besides, we might have decided we lived in town, but were away on the farm that night. There are a couple of people living in hangars that I guess they have missed. As for SAP, I used it when it was known a MSA (Management Science America) and then later as SAP - huge and cumbersome and designed to use reams of paper to produce a small report.

Advertising - My memory is a bit fuzzy - RAA used to do the magazine in-house, which gave them some grief. Then it was farmed out, the editorial staff were not up to aviation (and the RAA/AUF failed to give it a thorough pre-publication read) and some questionable articles were published. Then the contract was given to Brian Bigg's company who also produced the AOPA magazine. As part of that deal he got the advertising revenue. RAA paid for production & distribution. On that basis I don't think RAA gained anything from Members' Market advertising for some years. It used to be free - remember? Those of us who have been around for a few years? Proxies - There were probably YES and NO proxies - how else can I vote, as I could not justify the travel costs down there. What would worry me more is an individual turning up with a large wad of proxies as happened with the Bunny Farmer some time back. Individuals sending theirs through for the Chairman or whoever, through the office, I have no concern about. That is democracy at work. An office bearer using RAA resources (and privileged access to the membership list) to send out a personal request for members to vote his way - as happened a few years back - NOT ON.

I am perplexed that only Rod B, of the 10 candidates, has made any contribution here. I still don't have an answer to how any of them are going to pull RAA out of the financial spiral, except to increase fees. $159k for the website, when Ian offered $1 (if I remember correctly he made the same offer earlier when RAA accepted $13k which fell over). At the AGM in Bundaberg Myles said he had spent $39k on file digitisation that also evaporated. Are we so inept with IT management? Rod's response is to raise membership by $45 to provide a hard copy of Sport Pilot to everyone, but this will go directly to print costs. The other saviour will be the increase in MTOW which will bring (presumably) more GA aircraft on board. The "modernisation" project may reduce staff, but he says the numbers have reduced but the wage levels have gone up - no savings there. Before I vote, I want to know what the candidates intend to do about dwindling reserves and operating losses. Moving the Members' Market to a third party provider seems a mistake, at least, as I still have trouble getting the site to work. Voting closes 31 August - to get your vote there in time it has to go by 23rd (Australia Post says up to 6 business days from remote Aust)

8,600 members was a decision to only count flying members (pilots). The actual revenue membership is closer to 10,000. John Brandon (in his tutorials on this site Australian powered recreational aviation history ) has membership at 9,906 at 2 January 2013. The President (in his column p.7 Feb 2016 Sport Pilot) said 10,000 pilots (he probably meant Members). The number of pilots have been dropping, but non-flying has been growing. RAA seems to have a problem knowing how many members it has; viz the Annual Report debacles of 2009 (prepaids counted twice) & 2010 and 2011 (included resignations), 2012 (no figure), 2014/15 with figures that didn't make sense. Increasing memberships by an additional $45/pa (from $215 to $260) will increase revenue by approx $430,000, but this will be wholly offset by the increased cost of production and delivery of Sport Pilot. Having an "op-out" may result in many doing so - just to save the $45, or because they don't read it now. I predict the cost per magazine will run at a loss and have to go up (again). I really don't have a solution to this, but it won't save the ship. I note the "modernisation" project may have cost $158,673.65 (listed as intangible assets Dec 2015 financial statement). This is a one-off expense, but it is only half of the loss for that period. The biggest expenses are: Salaries $616k, Insurance $265 (about $200k is pilot insurance), Printing $164k (not including the magazine), General (travel, training, meetings) $152k which the report says will reduce. The biggest income is memberships and plane registrations $1Million. These figures are only for 6 months to Dec 2015. June 2013 RAA had $1.71mil in cash reserves, now 2.5yrs later it is $0.97mil. Where has it gone? Where can you see savings or increased revenue that can bring the bottom line back to a healthy surplus? This is not just for you, Rod, but any and all of our candidates.

Hi Rod, Firstly, thank you for outlining your election policies. I hope others do the same here, as I have not made up my mind yet. Forgive me for concentrating on finances, as that has been my forte. Can you explain why RAA has lost so much money? I know some was lost in lapsed registrations due to the failed audits, and continues to be lost with aircraft that didn't return to the register, but that is small change against what you suggest has evaporated. I have heard of "settlements" over actions by previous Boards, the expenditure on IT/modernisation should be offset by staff reductions, the change to Sport Pilot should be saving something. Where did it go? Can it be turned around? I see you are requesting an increase in fees - everyone to receive a hard copy of Sport Pilot, at a compulsory $45/yr, increased insurance cover for pilots and L2's at additional cost to them. I note you support an increase in MTOW and support to other organisations. Will this bring more aircraft registration revenue, and will RAA be compensated by the other organisations for services rendered eg doing their admin, providing tech support? Regards Sue

Luke Bayly - Mackay. See his resume. Assumed that if he worked in Mackay, he probably lived there too. Then again, he might be FIFO from Perth for all I know.

I am impressed with the standard of applicant. The spread is good too. No addresses so this is an educated guess for some - 1 WA, 1 TAS, 1 SA, 1 VIC, 2 NSW/ACT, 4 QLD (including one from FNQ - Keith should be happy with that). Spread of ages are good too. I am guessing that the change to a Company has attracted these new applicants as there are better protections & more recognition. The pay is still lousy. About what I get paid to be a Scout Leader. So it is a love job.

800 agree with me? I should have nominated! The other 9,000 are not interested and I expect won't bother voting. Some of the 800 might give it a miss as they don't know anyone on the list rather than in opposition to the new constitution.

An ACR gives RAA an assurance that the aircraft exists and a trusted third party has seen it and is reasonably convinced that it is the same rego. Just me being suspicious - imagine the owner prangs his aircraft doing something dodgy, doesn't report it, fails to pay the rego for a couple of years, gets offered a Rotax that fell off the back of a truck, finds some parts from another wreck, wires it all together and then attempts to "renew" the rego as if nothing happened. New forms out 1st August 2016 - ACR (tech form 013) is quite comprehensive. Is this form different to previous? Continuing to pay the rego looks like a cheaper option than letting it lapse.

This is a change from the election statements we used to get, where the emphasis was on how many hours flown on each type. From past performance, the number of hours flown didn't translate into knowledge of finance (a treasurer who didn't know the difference between a loss and a profit, or where the bulk of the money was invested) or technical knowledge (failing multiple CASA audits which RAA is still paying for), governance (allowing an under performing CEO to continue and actually give him a hefty pay rise), treat the membership badly (viz what they did to Ian denying him membership renewal until after nominations closed & refusing his help that would have got the job done for $1 rather than paying $13k for a fiasco, and other questionable actions against others). The organisation is too big to run as a flying school club. RAA needs people on the management board who can make sure the employed staff get the job done in the best way possible and can give the required direction and oversight. I knew nothing about footy, little about the volunteer fire brigade, and other local clubs, but they knew enough to come get me to clean up the mess and be their treasurer when they failed audits or something went seriously pear shaped. Some of the new blood might be of this ilk, and I would appreciate knowing a bit more. Regretfully Keith didn't nominate, so the Board will have to struggle on without his inside knowledge.

The candidates have been announced - 5 to be chosen from these 10. Voting ends 31 August 2016 Andrew Schox Eugene Reid Graeme Allinson Keith Finlayson Lorenzo Mazzocchetti Luke Bayly Rodney Birrell Scott Bretland Tony King Trevor Bange Further information - resumes and statements are on the RAA website. A link to the page is on the RAA email to members.

Is this new? A wing part found in Tanzania. Wing found in Tanzania 'highly likely' from missing MH370 MH370: Wing part found in Tanzania 'highly likely' from missing Malaysia Airlines plane A piece of aircraft debris found in Tanzania is "highly likely" to be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester says. The wing part was brought to Canberra for analysis after it was found by locals on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania last month. .....

I think a tangible asset would be more attractive, rather than training, which you would have to arrange to suit the locality of the recipient, or if a training organisation is nominated, then the locality is restricted. Offering a "brand new Plane VH registered or RAA registered plus goodies = RRP $100,000" will appeal to more people as you can keep it, trade it or sell it. The charity can approach the factory for a cheaper price as they can claim off tax and also get lots of free publicity. The winner then gets to choose which (VH or RAA) and the charity settles the bill and "delivers". The option is there for the winner to negotiate with the factory and maybe trade up to a more advanced model. A plane would be more attractive. Once you have your RAA certificate and cross country, there is little more "training" needed and training isn't something you can on-sell easily. First find or set up a charity (not-for profit incorporated organisation) with the stated aim of supporting your cause (sick kids, old pilots, cyclone victims ...), approach an aircraft factory, or second hand aircraft dealer, and do a deal eg $100k RRP plane at $75k with publicity scheme, work out the costs to run the raffle (licence $1,000 + printing $500 + advertising $2,000 + sundries etc), prize must be at least 20% of gross = max ticket sales $500k, set realistic ticket price - surprisingly people will more likely pay $50 if they get 5 tickets than one at $50, remember that there will be unsold tickets in books sent to "agents", set a realistic closing date and allow enough time for all sold ticket butts to make it back to base. Draw with plenty of fanfare to keep both aircraft provider and future ticket buyers keen, follow-up publicity. Pass the proceeds (less reasonable costs) to the Cause. Keep good records - they may be audited. Be aware that ticket sales may not result in what you expected - so who carries the loss? I have vague recollections of an Australian plane raffle, but not sure of the outcome. With today's social media ticket buyers could come from overseas too, so a clause that the aircraft will be "delivered" in Australia and some form of secure on-line ticket purchase will boost sales. Sue

Each State has its own raffle regulations. For example Qld Competitions, raffles, bingo and other charitable games | Queensland Government covers raffles etc run by not-for-profit organisations for charitable purposes. An aircraft raffle would most likely fall into Category 3 - gross above $50,000, the prize has to be at least 20% of the estimated gross. The licence fee runs from $400 to $3,300. The fund raising is enhanced by getting the supplier to provide a wholesale, discounted or free article which is then advertised at its Recommended Retail (the value of the prize). Second hand is also acceptable, but there has to be a valuation by a recognised expert in the field. The prize must be delivered within one month of the draw. A combination of aircraft and training is acceptable, as is a choice (eg Jabiru VH or RAA registered + training) to the same value.

The other option is to rent a plane - usually a flying school aircraft - then all the hassle of hangars, maintenance, etc are someone else's problem. Depending on the type you want, there are a few to choose from in the Bundaberg, Childers, Maryborough, Gympie area. Childers Qld - Isis Flying Club meets every first Saturday of the month with a BBQ and there is someone around on weekends, and a few on week days too. Wed morning is an informal morning tea for folk who fly in from Bundy, Pacific Haven and private strips. Welcome to drop in anytime.

Hi Stickshaker, If you are free Sat 6 Aug 2016 call in to the Childers airstrip for the fly-in breakfast 8:30 am onwards and Isis Flying Club meeting after. You should be able to chat with a lot of local pilots and plane owners. Then the next day (Sunday 7th) try the Gympie fly-in & open day. There is some experience with plane syndicates at both places. Sue

If you are a RAA Certificate holder - the Operations Manual (Issue 7 Oct 2014) Section 2.07-3 Flight Review (p.51) only says that you must have completed a BFR "Within a period of 2 years immediately before the day of the proposed flight .." If you have not completed a BFR within 2 years, then you have not complied with the conditions Section 2.07-2 Privileges 3(a) (p.50) and cannot fly. The Ops manual is silent on how long a pilot can allow the BFR to lapse, so long as not flying. The new Ops manual may say something different. It hasn't been released as yet. If you are a fixed wing PPL - the BFR is now known as AFR. If you have not completed one in the prescribed time, you cannot fly. CASA now require your AFR to be sent to them (as does RAA) as they are now trying to establish how many active pilots they have. Most inactive RAA pilots just don't renew their membership or request a change to Non-Flying. PPLs stay on the books, CASA is presently issuing new licence documentation as AFRs are received and I expect there will be thousands of inactive pilots when the exercise is finished. I have not found anything restricting the time an AFR can lapse - yet. However CASA's rules are slowly changing too.

The moral of the story is - don't let the rego lapse, even if you are not flying it. A friend of ours is in the same boat. He became medically unfit, so stopped paying the rego. Now he is OK he has to find a Level 2 to inspect. We had our 95-10 grounded due to the CASA audits. Had discussions with RAA Tech regarding the most difficult part - submitting plans (it only had written construction instructions) & data set - and now have everything except the L2 report. Our local L2 only maintains 2 aircraft. Due to the lack of willing local L2s we both missed the Amnesty. But that's life in the bush. We happily trade the difficulty and extra cost of getting anything done with the lower cost and freedom of small airstrips and uncongested airspace. Obviously there is work for anyone wanting to be an L2. Another mobile multiskilled L2 like Maj Millard would be good.

We have an aircraft we're selling. Today I clicked on the link in the Aviation Advertiser email I received 14th July for "light sport & recreational" and it took from 2:26:10 to 38:15 before the blank screen started to draw anything (waiting for www.aviationadvertiser.com.au) and finally got pictures at 51:15 - that's 25 minutes 5 seconds. I clicked on an aircraft listing at 2:53:10 and it finally came up at 3:05:45 - nearly 13 minutes later. That's 38 minutes to look at one aircraft listing. It has improved, as I have not been able to get that far before. Why is it SO SLOW when this site (www.recreationflying.com) can appear in under one second? Also "the latest RAA magazine" is May 2016 - it just looks like there's no one manning the shop. Aviation Trader was up in 2 seconds and I was looking at a listing 3 seconds after that (two clicks). I have not been on that site for some months (we get the paper version) so it isn't cookies/caching. Aviation Advertiser (from my perspective) is too slow - if I was a buyer I would have given up on it and gone elsewhere - as a seller, I did and now have 2 enquiries. I don't have an axe to grind here. My experience will be different to others, and I acknowledge that I have a slow ADSL connection.

Help Dick Smith farewell his Citation and send a message to CASA and the government about unique regulations in Australia. Aviation identity Dick Smith is holding a wake to commemorate the departure of his much loved Cessna Citation CJ3 at his hanger at Bankstown Airport. Dick says the relocation of the aircraft to the northern hemisphere is due to the high cost of compliance with ADSB in Australia. He faces a bill of more than $240,000 in order to meet the looming ADSB deadline and another $250,000 for a flight data recorder, required under Australia’s unique regulations relating to this type of aircraft. The aircraft is also being relocated for avionics work after Honeywell and Collins, the manufacturers of the Citation’s avionics suite, have stopped having a direct presence in Australia, leading to massive delays repairing simple problems. “That extra half million dollars and the complete lack of competitive servicing arrangements at Bankstown, means it would be unlikely for someone to purchase and keep the aircraft operating here in a viable way,” Dick says. “Everyone is welcome for this really sad wake. As everyone knows, I see no life in aviation on the horizon at all. I am selling my aircraft now because I know, if I keep it any longer in Australia, I will lose even more money.” The event will be held from 12 noon next Thursday, July 21, at hangar 631, 23 Miles St, Bankstown Airport. It will also be a great opportunity for members to meet new AOPA Executive Director Ben Morgan who will also be attending. Mark Smith, Editor, Australian Pilot.

AOPA Attends the First Industry Stakeholder Meeting AOPA President Marc De Stoop attended the first Industry Stakeholder meeting with DAS Skidmore and Stakeholder Engagement Manager Ron Walker last week and reports that with 25 aviation groups attending it appeared to be much of a talk fest. Michael Monke, CEO of Recreation Aviation Australia was elected chairman of the group, with Ken Cannane elected vice chairman. Sub committees will be formed by the chairman to recommend high level policy initiatives but as always CASA and the DAS have no obligation to pay any attention to them. DAS Skidmore reiterated his claim that the general aviation industry at a grass roots level is vibrant and growing. I challenged him to produce data to support this contention and he said for me to produce data to show otherwise. Given he’s making the claim against the majority of GA organisations who don’t agree, the onus is on him to produce the data but he is unwilling to do this. I have joined with Dick Smith and Sandy Reith to commission a statistician to review the available data to prepare a report attesting to the state of GA. We are funding this personally and would love to receive volunteer help from the members with this initiative. Ben Morgan will have more to say about this during the week. Despite Jeff Boyd’s pledge to look into delaying ADSB, the DAS is adamant there will be no delay. According to all who attended the meeting the new fatigue management regulations covered by CAO 48.1-13 are an absolute disaster for the industry. The DAS said he will not support any reforms to Avmed without the industry submitting all the data to support such a change. I challenged him to simply request the data from the aviation regulators overseas who have had the courage to make much needed changes but his response was to simply say the FAA in the US are not happy with their raft of changes, that have been forced upon them by politicians. Given the changes that have been signed into effect came from the FAA I find this contention mystifying. Certainly there will be people in the FAA, most probably in the medical section, who feel their ‘turf’ has been raided, but the reality is a huge government department in the United States has looked at the data available over many years and concluded that the way they were administering their medical regulations was out of date with current best practice. New Zealand has done the same. The Regional Airline Association representative complained of two to three months delays in sorting out Class 1 medicals when any complications arise. I suggested to the DAS that if he got CASA out of Class 2 medicals he may have the resources to better serve the commercial aviation community. His response was that Australia is a special case with an aging class 2 pilot demographic. This comment is frightening in its ignorance. This is a direct quote from a NZ bureau of stats report from 2005. The 65+ age group is projected to make up over one-quarter of New Zealand's population from the late 2030s, compared with 12 percent in 2005. The number of people aged 65+ is projected to increase from half a million in 2005 to 1.33 million in 2051. Next a report from the United States government. The older population-persons 65 years or older-numbered 46.2 million in 2014 (the latest year for which data is available). They represented 14.5% of the U.S. population, about one in every seven Americans. By 2060, there will be about 98 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2014. People 65+ represented 14.5% of the population in the year 2014 but are 65+ expected to grow to be 21.7% of the population by 2040. Both the United States and New Zealand have the same issues with aging populations as Australia, yet they have both introduced reforms to make it easier for people to fly privately. We intend to gather the data about incapacitation of pilots with the help of AOPA in the US and New Zealand, though it would be a simple process for CASA to simply look at their own ATSB reports and the record of RAA. But it’s obvious CASA won’t change without being dragged kicking and screaming through the process of reform. Senator Nick Xenophon has already said post-election that he intends to take up the fight on the industries behalf with Senate Estimates, questioning the CASA hierarchy as regularly as possible about their decisions, or lack of them as the case may be. Hopefully this and the New Stakeholder Engagement Group combined with ongoing media coverage will begin to force the changes needed. The DAS stated at the meeting that he wants to work collaboratively with Industry. We welcome this approach but we need action to back up the words. When we see the stubbornness on delaying the ADSB implementation dates in line with our peer countries to reduce industry costs, then add no internal CASA progress over many years on Avmed Class 2 reforms , we are righty skeptical of the DAS's all powerful position. We, AOPA, and the rest of the Stakeholder Participants I witnessed, really want to engage with CASA and bring about much needed reform. We welcome Ron Walker into this coordinating or conductor role and his enthusiasm for the task. What we all want now is the DAS to act on the group’s recommendations and not be judge and jury and possibly executioner of them. Marc De Stoop President, AOPA

Two men injured in light aircraft crash at Bridport in Tasmania's north Light aircraft accident at Bridport in Tasmania's north Paramedics are treating two men after a light plane crash at Bridport in northern Tasmania. The plane went down in a paddock outside the town at about 3:00pm. .... "What we can see from our property is just ... a blue tail of a plane and all the emergency workers are around that part of the plane." Category: | The Mercury The Mercury is reporting one person to hospital and it being a privately owned ultralight

They pestered me (like they used to) to renew. 2 emails, 2 texts and I went on to the portal and renewed last month. They used to chop down a tree to print 6 pages and post twice. Mr FV renewed this month - he got an email (at least one), rang the office and paid over the phone with return "certificate" by email. The new cards are being printed and will be posted when available. I only have to print the bits I need for records. Works OK for us.

Mr FV wants to recommend the book I got for him from EAA - "GA Airfoils - A Catalog of Airfoils for General Aviation Use" by Harry Riblett (sixth edition 1996). Some wives get their husbands socks and undies. I joined EAA and get him interesting books I want to read ... He thinks it's the bees knees with regard to wing design. Look forward to seeing the Bex Special flying. Sue