rhysmcc

No worries, it's under the About Us on the RA-AUS website, although it's hardly user friendly website. If such a letter was a submission regarding a board discussion or resolution (i.e. change of policy), then I wouldn't expect it to be remain private but included in the brief on the discussion. If the letter was just bitching about someone on the board or office then I would consider it more confidential. Keep in mind the constitution gives any member the right to attend the RA-AUS HQ and read any document or paperwork held by the association, to me this would include emails. Why we couldn't make life easier for the members and just publish relevent documents to the membership, but then I wonder if more members knew what was actually going on maybe more would get involved, doubt the Board wants that.

The grey area becomes when "discussion" on the board forum turns out to be "decisions" made but no formal Resolution was raised or past. For example, I've not yet come across a single resolution that wasn't made at the either of the 2 Board meetings following the AGM/GM. So what actually happens for the 6 months in-between? Well the constitution allows for the Executive to make decisions between Board meetings, however at the next available Board meeting the board are meant to pass a resolution to "approve" the Executive decision or over turn it. Is there any record of this happening in the past 24 months? Personally I don't see why the Board need to discuss in private, they are meant to be representatives of the members and how the hell do the members know they need to write to their rep when; a) they might not be aware of the issue being discussed, and b) the Reps position on the discussion which may not reflect your own. When was the last time a plebiscite of the membership was taken to find out what we actually want? We manage to put on surveys about why we fly but nothing about asking our opinion on the direction of the association.

Does the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 of the ACT count? That's what our association is incorporated under. RA-AUS is a non-profit in that it doesn't pay company taxes, it doesn't pay dividends to members and should it be wound up and all assets would have to be given to another like body, not sold up and shared between the members.

I think the argument is the student is operating under the supervision of a qualified instructor (Not sure if they need a PPL or CTA endorsement) is why it's considered "safe" during training but no after (personally I don't agree and RA-AUS should issue these people CTA). If by transit access you mean CTA endorsement then yes, I would support such a push. If you mean access to "VFR Routes Only" then I would actually oppose such a move and as mentioned before would not be seen on providing such a clearance when requested due the additional restrictions that would place on me (i.e. not being able to track aircraft out of the route to avoid arriving/departing aircraft).

Agreed, I think the way forward would be to remove the requirement for a RPC (ie allow RPL PPL), keep the RPC until CASA improve the medical requirements (remove), membership of RA-AUS still applies as requirement. I wonder what savings could be made by RA-Aus if they could cut back on the number of certificates they administer? Thus passed onto the members.

Well that could be done. To do laps (Ccts) at Bankstown you'll need a controlled aerodrome endorsement. To transit say Coffs at 1500 for example you'd need a controlled airspace endorsement (CTA). that's how it works with the RPL. That should be our goal, you'd need still to be a member and follow the new Ops Manual but phase out the RPC once the drivers licence medical is fixed (ie same waiver as now or note from the doc).

And what exactly is the difference between transit or "half-way CTA" and normal "full on access" CTA? Safety would be to transit coastal under a clearance from ATC who would provide you with tracking instructions to avoid arriving and departing aircraft that will be crossing your route (or rather you'd be crossing the arriving and departing paths). Not really, as the whole idea of CTA is due to the higher density of aircraft rather then preventing access to a particular airport. When the Tower is closed, there is none or little RPT therefore less risk to the traveling public. The medical requirements would be the same reason, operating in higher traffic density airspace therefore the risk is greater to the traveling public if your heart kicks in.

Sounds like the perfect avenue for club affiliates or FTF(CFIs). Hopefully Don you'll soon be in the loop and can provide an update to us members on the status of the Constitutional Reform, Modernisation Project (Website/Database) and some of the other board motions that haven't yet come to fruit (CTA/MTOW increase etc).

There seems to be some confusion with VFR Lanes/Routes in CTA. it's just a route marked on a chart which aircraft can be told to track via. It's not like Victor 1 (which is OCTA), you still need a clearance, ATC may still need to separate you from other aircraft, and if I new a RA-AUS aircraft could only legally fly in CTA via the Route, I would never give them a clearance in, way to restrictive. It is a mistake for RA-AUS to even attempt to "gain access" to VFR routes only. Either try get CTA access (with no increased medical requirements) or don't bother wasting time on it.

Paying the landing fee is only the post issue. You'll need to arrange a landing (and departing slot), very much doubt one will be provided without a good reason (picking up charter pax maybe).

All the things you mention up until " Standard ROD" RA-AUS pilots should be doing already, was part of my Nav Training at least. We are talking about VFR under 10,000 ft. ATC aren't going to be using tolerance based procedural sep standards. You should already know what to do when your radio fails and it's no different in CTA. Transit rights will never happen. It's a lot safer to train pilots to operate in CTA correctly. A majority of controlled aerodromes would be suitable for RA-AUS aircraft, just like GA. Clearly your Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane airports won't be but there are already systems in place to prevent that (try requesting clearance for a touch and go at Sydney next time you do Victor 1).

lets just dump CASA and follow NZCAA see how that helps

Congrats to Don Ramsay and Barry Windle on winning the elections in NSW and South Australia.

I'll do my best to get out of work and attend

Sigh.. I thought you'd be sick of my emails by now. Next time I'm I'm Canberra I'll be sure pop in and see what bin our letters get tossed into?

Thanks David that clears things up. Hopefully we will know Monday the make up of the post AGM board.

Yes, but once the envelope is opened and the ballot is put into the pile, what's to stop anyone from adding/removing/changing whats in the pile while we wait for the counting come closing time. That's why i questioned whether the enveloping and checking off the membership number is done prior to the end of voting (i.e. 17:00 today). On a side note, it's now 7:30PM and nothing on the RA-AUS website or received via email, not sure if the nominee's have got a phone call or not but my guess would be no to the counting today.

I thought the name crossing off and envelope opening would wait until "counting time". Once the envelope is open there is no way to tell if the vote is legit or not.

I agree with turboplanner, counting of votes should not happen until the voting deadline has passed. Also doesn't each nominee have the option to appoint a "scrutineer", surely they are not expecting to be there for weeks as each mail comes in. From memory Maj, your election had only 26 voters and only 2 nominees so no it shouldn't take too long to count (even if it did come down to 1 vote so everything would have to be double and triple checked first). The more nominees and voters the longer the process. I assumed the office closes at 5:00 but maybe it's 5:30, still seems tight to expect a result without staff going overtime?

Give them a call and ask. Tell them it's part of your post incident review. Worst case they say they can't. Tapes are only kept for 30 days unless they have been saved as part of an investigation.

We are now 37 days out from the AGM and still no draft constitution has been released. The CEO advised members that the draft would be released and 60 days of consultation would take place before a second draft was released at the forum following the AGM for further discussion. Is either of these still likely to take place (release to members for consultation and forum?). Maybe one of our board members could provide insight into what is delaying them from releasing the draft?

Well according to the CEO Newsletter, voting closes at 17:00. I assume proper election process is being followed and counting doesn't actually begin until voting has closed (although again knowing how RA-AUS operates this may not be the case). I can't see how anyone could know the result on the same day unless counting takes place after hours (hopefully not on overtime). But I'm happy to be proven wrong and will check the RA-AUS website and email "shortly after" and see what turns up.

Plus the time it takes RA-AUS to make the announcement... given the draft constitution delays... expect the announcement sometime in October.

Being paid to provide flight instruction surely doesn't count as private ops.

That's really interesting, I'm assuming they can't charge for this service since not holding a CPL? The Ops Manual requires a minimum of 100 hours prior to undertaking the flight exam for the issuing of Instructor Rating (RA-AUS), as well as successfully completing "an approved RA-Aus Principles and Methods of Instruction (PMI) course" and "ground and in flight Instructor training". Is this the same course and hours GA instructors need? No. Does it need to be? No.