Good thoughts from everyone, and glad to hear that there's a fair amount of committment to continued learning. I recall in the 70's the typical aero club, at least the one I flew at, used to have flower bombing, streamer cutting, spot landing and of course aerobatics as part of the monthly club barbie w'end.
Now with the rules that we all fly under, particularly in RA -Aus it has very restricted practices on these sort of things, and that's Ok... but because of this it's very easy to become "pot bound"( excuse the anology- No drug testing required!!), and the "sharpening of the saw" is harder to achieve.
I do a lot of BFR's and am amazed when I ask for a HASSELL check to be done, the creative answers I get, and comments like "it's been a long time since I've done one of these...." and so on.
Our Aeroclub past president has just written an excellent article in the newsletter on EFIC procedures, which we and all schools, I'm sure teach thoroughly, but when was the last time you actually forced yourself to glide from somewhere in cct other than when it's a shoe in on base?
The RA-Aus website has a comprehensive breakdown on current accident trends and the news is not great- anything we can do ourselves to increase our skills and therefore our chances has to be good....
Keep the conversation coming.