drifterdriver

Good luck.

Hi All, I don't have time at present for a long-winded all encompassing response to all the comments, so don't pick my words to pieces too much. I'll only cover a few points. The Cover Step 1. Take a copy of your old magazine into your local newsagents and place it beside the new one. Step 2. Take 10 steps back (if you can) Step 3. See which magazine name you can read and which cover catches your attention. Remember, as mentioned by someone earlier this is how we get new members. By the way, even after looking at it for months, I still can't decide if I love or hate the propellor. The Name Step 1. Try to pick a good name that is short and sweet refer above, that nobody has already taken (it's impossible so give up). Step 2. Have a competition and ask the members. Step 3. Short list a couple of dozen names and ask the members to decide. Step 4. Find out that since publishing the list, all the names have been copyrighted and any web address remotely similar has been taken (but can obviously be bought for a price, the members won't like that too much 'though). The Adverts Step 1. Pick any RAAus magazine from the last 12 months and count how many pages of adverts, not including the Members Market there are and no cheating (it'll be in the region of 29 to 30 pages). Step 2. Do the same with the new magazine. Step 3. Ask yourself if you prefer to have an article continued on page x and then again on page y etc, etc. Then you may have the answer as to why there appears to be lots of ads. Step 4. The magazine needs advertising revenue to help subsidise the costs - fact. Ask yourself why there was such a variation in the rates certain advertisers (one in particular comes to mind) have previously paid for a spot in OUR magazine (with these rates inherited by the new publisher). No I will not elaborate. The Articles I agree, not enough due to limited space. Too many cheap ads equals not enough revenue, therefore not enough space for articles. I don't think it will be better next month either, with who knows how many pages of election statements but definately many, many more than last time. Although this is a good thing for the organisation and about time, so I for one am not too annoyed about the upcoming lack of articles. (I'll tell you, it bloody annoying to go to the trouble of writing what I thought was a good election statement and have nobody run against you, if I was running next time maybe I could use the same one). If you can give the new editor another couple of editions to get through the problems I think we'll all end up with a better read and a lower cost than under the previous arrangements. By the same token if you're not happy with something get onto his case. The office has his number but remember to add (02) to the number. That's it for now, Nick PS I did suggest the name "Fly Paper" but it didn't stick. I use it for my FTF newsletter but was more than happy to hand it over.

Thanks Ian, Hopefully we both shortly save a quid and get a much better magazine. The articles look good for a first edition and the reports are also concise. Its great to finally have a pilot as editor. Although it is a shame that the necessary things to make it happen were not always forthcoming in a timely manner. Nick

Got a call from the editor early this morning and he was relieved to say that it's finally at the printers and should be in the mail tomorrow. The magazine has been ready to go for quite some time so it may not contain all the answers that have been sought elsewhere on this forum but the editor has been working hard under difficult circumstances. Nick

May I suggest that if Steve is prepared to give up his time to explain the finances by phone to you on an individual basis then you at least extend him the courtesy of giving up some of yours. That is unless you value your time more highly than his. Nick

What you suggested makes sense to me Don and it'd save money and staff time. To clarify a previous point, we have had a member from NSW (John Gardon) representing Vic as he did not gain sufficient votes in his own region but had the highest amount of votes out of all the unsuccessful contenders and therefore gained the uncontested Vic position. Nick

John, you hit it on the head. As we discussed at the time, imbalance one way replaced by another way doesn't help the cause. The fixation on state boundaries is in my opinion the problem. If you look at where the membership resides it would for example, seem a reasonable idea to combine far northern NSW with SQ. Nick

The proposal was actually Sth Qld 2 and Vic 3. This would have made the SQ ratio around 1200 members per BM.

The board can always benefit from diverse skills. Nick

No arguements about the domain name etc. On the upside, our new magazine editor, Brian Bigg will be at Natfly gathering material for the next edition, which will be his first. He has been a member for many years, is keen to hear what the members want and will certainly raise the standard. He's a redhead so he shouldn't be too hard to spot. If you run into him be sure to ask about "Big Brother". Nick

What a pleasure it will be to have someone of Middo's expertise and temperament on the board. It also bodes well for RAAus that the voter turn-out was so high with members taking an active role in the organisation. Nick

Shame I missed the episode. Looks like I'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD. Nick

My apologies, trained penguins are probably a better bet.

Due to system upgrades the RAAus email system will be down until Monday. Apologies for any inconvenience but the alternative was possibly losing information. As far as I am aware, Australia Post, the fax machine and carrier pidgeons are still working 'though. Nick Sigley SQ Board Member

Well that's you done until August!

It's all about costs. We could all probably get it quicker but the membership fees would have to go up, being in Southern Queensland and towards the end of the alphabet for some reason seems to hinder the process as well.

Couldn't agree with you more airsick. Around my neck of the woods with a number of civil and military control zones and restricted areas even 5 hours in a Drifter is a bit of an ask. I always tell my students to plan on 7 and hopefully be pleasantly surprised. Like you said, 10 miles TE can occur at lot faster at 100kts. Subject to production etc, I believe that the ops/tech disk should be coming out with the July magazine for an August implementation. A great deal of this work is being carried out by Lynn, the SA rep, and I for one would like to publicly thank him for putting in a sterling effort and volunteering so much of his time in an effort to keep costs down. Nick

THANK YOU IAN.

Just got the all clear yesterday which is good news and long overdue. With reference to the forums some members were aware of this site and some weren't. The idea is not to replicate what has been done here and I certainly mentioned that I personally don't have the time, inclination, ability etc to moderate anything of this sort. In my understanding the concept is mainly to disseminate information in a timely fashion. Nick PS Ian, How do I get my avatar back?

My fellow members, no matter what occurs unfortunately there will always be those that see a hidden agenda or a conspiracy in the making and disappointingly that seems to be happening again. I for one would like to make it clear that I personally and the organisation as a whole is endeavouring to behave in a transparent manner, or at least as much as is possible. So as to accurately reflect the views of the membership in my area, prior to the February board meeting I spoke to a number of clubs, both in person and by phone and I also rang every FTF in Southern Queensland to ask for the views of their members, students and themselves on items requiring a vote and how they felt the organisation was travelling in general. This involved discussions with around 150 people. I asked 15 to 20 questions, ranging from the mundane, such as were they inconvenienced by the Christmas break closure of the office and starting a member benefits program to the more involved regarding the Ops/Tech Manual distribution, funding to help a small ultralight museum at Holbrook and thoughts on the RAAus creating a forum site. Few had any difficulty with the closure over Christmas and all bar one supported the member benefits program, although I am still seeking real help to implement the program and anyone interested in lending a hand please feel free to email me. The overwhelming majority felt it would be a terrible squandering of our resources to provide a printed copy of the manual to all members and that the money saved would be better spent in areas such as staffing although consensus was that we should print a small number of manuals to provide to schools etc. The museum got the thumbs down and the forum site received positive support. So even though I may not agree with all the results I voted as my constituents indicated. It is easy to take pot shots from the comfort of a soft chair but I would like to encourage anyone unhappy with the current situation and interested in running for the board to give it a go, provided that you are prepared to honestly represent the members interests. Carlo, rather than bemoaning the futility of the situation there are only a small number of members in your region with your experience why not run and try to make a change, it would only take a few dozen votes. Ian, I am heartened to hear that you are going to run and wish you the best of luck. On a different note, Tony, while I haven’t been active in the last 6 months, I have been instructing on Drifters for almost 20 years and I would like to think of myself as at least a little bit of a rag and tube man. Nick Sigley SQ Board Rep

I'll see what I can do without putting too much pressure on the staff as they are still in the process of getting the new database up and running.

My fellow members some interesting statistics for last week. You might like to know that we gained: 53 new student pilots 12 new magazine subscribers 3 new non-flying members & 1 Temporary member……all in the last 4 days. Regards Nick :thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up:

I spoke to the Drifter Factory 18 months or so ago when I was out that way and they had registered a new certified Drifter which was displayed in last years RAAus calendar but I think it was only 582 powered. They were talking about Jab and 912 options with the 2200 being the easiest to undertake due to CG problems. Many years ago we had Bill Whitney certify a number of mods to Drifters including an installation for a czech engine called a Werner and even back then the cost would have been prohibitive had we not had 7 Drifters online. I think that it would be great, mainly due to noise abatement, to have a four stroke option for training purposes although personally I would keep the 582 over swapping to a Jab. Nick PS drifter driver is that Peter's old Drifter from Kooralbyn?

Yeah, I don't know if I'm getting old or just feeling the cold but this winter has taken the spring out of my step in the back seat. Nick

Good one Brian, its nice to see someone who puts his words into actions and the organisation could certainly benefit from your skills. By the way is it true that the BB on Big Brother stand for Brian Bigg?