drifterdriver

Hi Macca In response to some of your comments, there are around half a dozen ex-board members who have expressed concerns on this forum about the state of affairs within the organisation. There are also some here that have put their hat in the ring for board positions but were unsuccessful so I reckon a better phrase to use would have been "wannabes and has beens". Without wanting to cause offence, I think your comments are a little naive with regards to the composition of the contributors and other matters but by the same token you have reignited a thread that I thought would go into hibernation over the Christmas break and its always good to hear a differing opinion. Merry Christmas to all Nick

Surely Geoff you could have used the words "self inflicted" somewhere in you previous post.

And who knows what else may unfold. Thank the heavens that he will still be with us albeit in a part time role.

Thanks Jim and John for bringing this last accounting issue to the notice of the members. Nick

Yep Yep. It must be at an all time low. I think if everyone sent a short thank you to the staff it'd be appreciated. Just a little one liner to admin. I know it might clog the system a bit but at least they'd know that they're loved and it might be nice to read a thank you rather than another complaint for a change. Nick

I might be getting a bit bitter and twisted after watching things unfold up close but I reckon as far as communication goes this latest item is too little and too late. All the members still haven't been told of the real drama unfolding which is the groundings so I find it hard to heap praise for this latest tidbit.

Same to you SAJ

Well as long as the correspondence above is from the whole board and not just SR it should be fine. Whatever it is I hope it doesn't turn into a witch hunt resulting in more staff departing as we certainly can't afford that now can we?

We let him in but only by invitation. John for PM.

Depends, are you planning on coming back? Nick

Well that's one way to clear the paperwork backlog> Better not give anyone any ideas. Nick

Old dogs, new tricks.

Well it'd be nice if in the members time of need that they were supplied a sticker with all the necessary text printed and a blank spot to fill in the MTOW that could be filled in by the owner. Otherwise I understand that dymo tape is fine or you can go to a sign writer and have one made up. I got some made up years ago and they lasted well.

Nah, didn't think of that. I might have to employ you as my proof reader Turbo. Nick

Well every other word I chose came up with stars.

Evening All, The following though long, may prove to be an interesting read. It is the correspondence between myself and a member who did not realise that I was no longer on the board of RAAus. I have their permission to do as I see fit with the contents and it has also been received today by all board members. Please forgive the "extreme" comment, particularly you CFIcare. I also cannot vouch for the authenticity of any of the comments other than my own and naturally all my own comments should be prefaced with "in my humble opinion" or "all care and no responsibilty" etc etc. Regards, Nick Hi Nick, Thanks for your email and excellent comments. I understand that you are no longer a board member and I am writing to you in your capacity as an ordinary member. The only point I would disagree with you on is the courtesy to officially inform the members via email. I would have said the necessity to officially inform the members via email. Like you I was astounded that I did not receive an email about delays with registration renewals in the month prior to my due date. Not only was my renewal not posted, they had no intention of informing me of the situation until it was too late (registration expired). To make matters worse, the email I did eventually get can best be described as mumbo-jumbo unintelligible nonsense. Not only that, it contained an critical error. Who writes this crap? You have read the email. It is still attached. If it was my job to write it, then it would have looked something like this............ DUE TO THE CASA AUDIT, PROCESSING AND MAILING OF YOUR AIRCRAFT REGISTRATION RENEWAL HAS BEEN DELAYED. YOUR REGISTRATION EXPIRED ON 8/12/2012. DO NOT OPERATE YOUR AIRCRAFT UNTIL THE REGISTRATION IS PROCESSED AS IT WILL BE ILLEGAL TO DO SO. PLEASE MAKE A REGISTRATION RENEWAL PAYMENT OF $65.00 TO THE OFFICE AND SUPPLY YOUR UPDATED HOURS SO THAT WE CAN PROCESS YOUR RENEWAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Yesterday (16 December) I finally received information from a reliable source (not the office!) stating that RA-Aus had it’s authority to issue all renewals for Xxxxxxxx. The file on each aircraft affected was then subject to an audit. This audit was looking for missing paperwork, in particular photographs showing the attachment of labels, rego numbers etc. My file was put into the MISSING PAPERWORK pile because it did not contain a photograph of the max take off weight placard. COA 95.10 does not require this placard and when I challenged this the requirement was withdrawn. When I first registered the aircraft I submitted a complete set of photographs showing every single detail requested. Nothing was missing. In other words there was never any reason for my renewal to be delayed. I am pretty upset about this whole business. My registration expired on 8 December. I did not find out about it until 13 December. What if I had flown my aircraft on 9, 10, 11 or 12 December? Well I went to the CASA web site to find out the penalty for operating an unregistered aircraft. Here is the text from a CASA press release. Owners and operators of ultralight aircraft are being warned they can face tough penalties for flying without a pilot licence or aircraft registration. The warning follows a number of recent cases of people found to be flying ultralights without appropriate authorisations. Flying without a licence and flying an unregistered aircraft can attract penalties of up to two years imprisonment for each offence. You can view the full article here. http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_93418 It seems to me that RA-Aus put me in a situation where I could have been charged with an extremely serious offence and possibly sentenced to a 2 year jail term! Now I expect that RA-Aus will say that the onus in on me to know my registration expiry date. My answer to that is I have been receiving both membership and aircraft registration renewal reminders one month in advance from AUF/RA-Aus for many years so there has never been any need whatsoever to remember an exact date from year to year. Lets take another example. I have owned motor vehicles in Queensland for 40 years. Queensland Transport has been sending me a registration renewal notice one month in advance for every one of those 40 years without fail. They certainly don’t expect me to remember the exact date each year. Does CASA know that RA-Aus has been deliberately putting pilots in danger of flying unregistered aircraft due to the fact that they could not be bothered communicating a serious problem to their members? I would be surprised if there was even one member of RA-Aus who did not have an email address. We live in the digital Internet instant communication age. Group (member) emails can be sent quickly and at zero cost but they won’t use it because they cannot or will not communicate even in an emergency situation. I have always been concerned about poor communication to members from AUF/RA-Aus. I live in a rural area where I have little contact with other RA_Aus members so I don’t get information on the “grapevine”. The magazine in next to useless because by the time it gets to us the information is hopelessly out of date. The old web site was never used to post timely information to members. The seems at last to be some attempt to communicate current issues on the new web site, but the information provides little detail. I am currently subscribing to recreationalflying.com because I can get more information on what is going on in RA-Aus there than I can through official channels. This is a pretty sad situation. By the way I am quite capable of identifying any extreme views that may be posted there and allocating the appropriate amount of importance to them. On a more positive note, I received a phone call from Dean Tompkins (Assistant Technical Manager) after he read my email. Dean took my hours and credit card payment over the phone and then submitted my renewal to the Technical Consultant for approval. We had an excellent conversation and Dean took care of the problem quickly and efficiently. I have been gradually becoming aware of the numerous systemic problems you refer to and I worry about the future of the organisation. How long can it continue to operate in such a dysfunctional state? Should you choose to seek re-election to the board in future, you will definitely have my vote. Regards, Robert. From: APA Info Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 9:44 AM To: Subject: Re: Fw: Registration Requirements 10-xxxx Dear Robert, I am no longer on the board of RAAus so my comments are only as an ordinary member and are not intended to reflect the views of the majority of the board. Personally I find it astounding that the board of RAAus have not had the courtesy to officially inform the members via email of the fact that a sizable proportion of the fleet (up to a quarter by some estimates) are affected by this grounding. I am in total agreement with the comments in your email and I have publicly stated this view. I feel that an ambiguous notice on the RAAus website is totally inadequate and the members have a right to know what is happening within their organisation. I chose not to seek re-election to the board as I felt that numerous systemic problems that faced the organisation were not being addressed and that the majority of the board were unwilling to act upon these concerns. Observing what has happened of late I feel that my concerns were not ungrounded. If you seek further information may I suggest that you consider viewing the following link. Whilst some of the opinions expressed at this forum may be unsubstantiated or somewhat extreme, it at least may provide you with a rough understanding of some of the issues involved. http://www.recreationalflying.com/forums/governing-bodies.93/ A special general meeting has also been called so as to provide the members with an opportunity to have their concerns addressed by the board. Should you be interested but unable to attend I can arrange to have a proxy form sent to you. Regards Nick Sigley Ordinary Member 3140 From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 3:44 PM To: Subject: Registration Requirements 10-xxxx Dear Robert, During a recent CASA audit of aircraft files, we have found that aircraft number does not have the following required document(s) on file: - Photographs of Maximum take-off weight placards (Refer to Warning Notices in the RA-Aus Technical Manual). Must be signed & dated on the back or electronically date stamped. - Updated hours and landings Your Registration Renewal will not be processed until all the required documents and payment have been received into the office. If you have any queries about this matter, please don’t hesitate to contact our Technical Manager by email at [email protected] or phone on 02 6280 4700 Kind Regards Kelly

Don't worry Ozzie. I will put the sticker out to the highest bidder if you like. Nick

Hey Kiwi I might might have an old Austflight sticker to replace your old one but as its a collectors item it's gonna cost you. Nick

" Tomorrow the world" or "Tomorrow Belongs To Me"? Sorry just having a flashback to my childhood and the movie Cabaret. What a great movie.

I don't know Carol. If we get to wear pointy white hats and sheets then the pitch forks and burning torches might be more fun. :0) Nick

Thanks Nev. My aircraft rego isn't due until the middle of the year so at least I will be having my fly after Christmas lunch. Cheers Nick

Those members and clubs that have John McK as their rep are truly lucky. Without a shadow of doubt in my mind I couldn't agree more!! Nick