MarcK

It's time for constant 500ft air work by every possible participant. Stay within the law but exercise your rights to the maximum extent. Once this "crisis" reaches breaking point then negotiate back from that point. Having to beg to maintain current activity levels due to a single complaint is appalling. I had a discussion with local council about the length of my grass. It was long but I was not able to rectify it. I received a letter from the council threatening a fine of about 6k plus costs to cut the grass. So I called the guy and had a chat. I explained that I currently didn't have the recorces to pay someone or the time due to my mother being on deaths door step. He basically said he didn't care and I had about 10 days to comply. So I just said to him that I am going to go cover all the grass with round up to kill it and I will burn it all on the morning of day 10 because that's the only option I had to me And hung up the phone. About 2 mins later he calls me back and his approach changed and we negoiated an agreeable outcome for both of us. They have no reason to negotiate at this stage so why try and help.

Tornado kids are too short to be decapitated. Minced by the tail rotor maybe decapitated no.

To me it just sounds like another local government throwing their toys out of the cot. I bet the little council goblin that pursued this one is patting himself on the back right now. I hope the price of concrete just went up $50 a cubic meter for BCC. Stop the planet I want to get off.

O and throw a training package in also as an option.

If you read the prize information on the tickets they sell for cars in shopping centres the prize is usually stated as vehicles up to the value of $xxxxxxx the way forward here wold be approach multipal manufactures for permission to throw there product names behind the event and then let the winner chose an aicraft / kit / accessories to the value of x amount from one of the involved manufacturers. If you can get an engine manufacturer and aircraft supplies place involved you will have a few more carrots in the bunch. Everybody is happy and it promotes the product of more than 1 manufacturer. M

I would leave general discussion alone as a single point of contact and then split off your regions only on specialised content. Such as governing bodies and trips events and spare seats. Student pilot and further learning I would leave as a whole of site thing because the only real diff would be local procedures aircraft still fly the same on the wrong end of the planet. And incidents and accidents I would leave also. Not only is a gossip colum it's educational implications would be relevant anywhere. The numbers points at the bottom of the page make sense to me. As for the new section for now cater to your subscriber base until you have the mass offshore to justify the full split? M

I think this is a big call. Reading Ian's comments on how the traffic dropped when there was discussion on the constitutional reform I assume that he thinks / knows that's driving the O/S traffic away. In my case I can understand not visiting if that topic was driving most of the discussion on the site for me it's not relevant And I honestly can say I have read only a handful of posts about it. I'm just not interested I like the bits about flying not about governance. If the other content drops off during these Heavily discussed topics it will effect visits from people like me. But fencing out /exluding /separating our O/S visitors is a risk. It has the potential to further reduce interesting content on the "Aussie " sites and potentially reducing traffic further. The other thing I think worth considering is will you have the "critical mass " on the O/S sites to generate the content needed to not only generate new traffic but to not bore your existing members and drive them away? I would think that the o/s users that are here already would probably keep using the Australian site to maintain the connections they have with the subscriber base. Also after giving it some thought what's the point of excluding people from the RAA forum if they are not visiting anyway? Hiding the reason people are not visiting won't make them come back. It just excludes people from even more content and may compound the problem a little. I have made a few assumptions on the motivations Ian has on this one sorry if I am too far off base. It's a bloody hard disision to make and I'm glad it's not me making it. Good luck This is much more interesting than constitutional reform.. M

Ian. Just be sure to be clear if the real name and membership number are not considered " personal information" and if so that you have the correct policies and procedures in place to be compliant with legislation. I am no expert but have had to do basic training to Identify potential issues and this feels like one to me. I would not hesitate to provide that information if needed it just an ass covering exercise for yourself . M

Ian I think the natural progression for the name will just be clear prop. Build on the brand in my opinion. If you have to throw classifieds or aviation or whatever on the end but clear prop is a winner. And a little accidental cross over of traffic can't hurt. On a side note to aviation advertiser. Most rec pilots are old guys. And old guys don't like change. Ok I have caused my trouble here today M

Wow I was only down chatting with them about training a couple of weeks ago. I think they invested heavily in developing courses for govt funded CPL training. (vet fee help). They also have a school at Toowoomba. I spoke to a few of the staff and they where friendly professional and very helpful. Sad news for the staff and students. I hope there is enough capacity in the area to pick up the CPL students so their training isn't disrupted too much.

I was lucky enough to do work experience in high school at a charter company in a remote part of the world. I had 2 jobs one was to drive the ute into town to get the pilots whatever they wanted and pick up mail bags the other was to taxi aircraft for whatever reason. I got to play with partenavia cesna 310 and a few others. I only had one close call in one of the girls where it had hydraulic nose wheel steering and I didn't know that just centering the pedals didn't make the thing drive in a straight line. I did have other jobs to do but they where just what I did to play with the aircraft. I doubt things like that happen now doesn't matter how remote you are I already had a love of anything that flys and I think that was seen buy the young pilots that let me play with their toys and that's why they let me. Living there really cemented my love of flying because you spent a lot of time in planes. The best flight I had I was in a C310 we had chartered for the old mans work and I was allowed to take off (assisted a lot ) fly the entire 20 min flight and then fly down to almost short final. Now just waiting for life to get out of my way to get back in the air. M

I think pre sales on clear prop is the way forward I am sure a lot here are happy to stump up a few bucks early to get the ball rolling and make sure no one misses out.

For the slower members of the crowd (This guy mostly ) what is the EAA ? I am thinking Experimental Aircraft Association?

If a man talks in the woods and there are no women around to hear him is he still wrong ?

For people of such wisdom you have all missed the golden rule Happy wife = Happy life M