DonRamsay

There's the CASA travelling circus on the subject and I've booked through CASA AvWorx to attend the AvSafety Seminar at YMND on 9th September. Must be embarrassing for CASA people to come back and deliver much the same lecture nearly a year later. Still, we can ask any question we like and they are usually pretty good at giving a definitive answer.

The section on flight into CTA was inserted into the Ops Manual in anticipation that CASA was about to give that to RAA. But, then along came McCormack who stopped everything that remotely looked like progress. I doubt it will be in the new Ops Manual until CASA is on side and agreed to RAA in CTA. That should come about in due course because of the equivalence of the RPL - as should MTOW up to 1500 kg.

Ditch roll, mine is based at YCNK too and I'd love a cross runway. My Sierra is rated at 22 knots wind but I rate myself about 10 knots! I have no desire for CCC to spend money lengthening the RWY. It will only attract bigger aircraft and possibly more of them and there would have to be much disruption of RWY availability while they stuff around. I doubt they would get the approval to lengthen as it would have to be to the south and that's towards town.

Good to hear support for RAA becoming a truly National Association instead of some half baked federation. There is broad support for the concept at Board life but grave suspicion from some of the more parochial shallow thinkers.

I think they are hoping to possibly pick up overflow from Williamtown and other RPT. Ambitious! A cross runway even a grass one just for emergencies would be a great boost. But, YMND is just up the road with sealed cross runways so not a big drama. Locals would froth at the mouth if you tried to have a regular E/W runway.

Seems they also want to extend the runway by 300m and do some other work at the airport.

Turbo, on any particular topic? Somehow, I doubt you are expecting a running commentary from all the Board Members on the new CEO and his actions in previous employment?

Were the claims made by Mr Linke regarding the improvements at his last place of employment correct? The RSPCA is a special case as I'm sure that it is a lot more than a job for most employees. Words like compassion and dedication seem appropriate. Industrial issues and pay claims seem more likely in workplaces where it is just a job. Nobody would like their pay claims denied.

I can't argue with much of the above adverse comments about rego renewal delays other than that friends of the Board get special treatment. There have been times when I've been the Board's worst nightmare but I think they would probably see me these days as a friend. I neither sought nor was granted special treatment despite suffering a six week period on the ground due to delays in processing my rego. If you want to understand why we are in such a parlours state you need to understand that there were decades of substandard performance by RA-Aus management at both CEO and Board level. The performance of the office staff can only ever be as good as their leadership facilitates. Yelling at the office staff, apart from being counter-productive is simply not fair. Yelling at the Board Members that allowed this situation to develop to the stage where CASA felt obliged to interfere is just. Bagging out the relatively new team who are busting their butts to get us out of this mess is not so fair. My judgement is that the EGM in February 2013 was a real turning point and that RA-Aus was dragged kicking and screaming in a new direction. Since the AGM in Sep 2013 effectively a new Board with a new balance of power has been in place. So far we've seen Jim Tatlock get a hold of the finances and produce crystal clear financial information even if it wasn't good news. We've seen a strong team established in Ops and in Tech and a new CEO employed to get the admin moving. The Board Exec lead by Mick Monck has had very positive meetings at the highest Ministerial level in Federal Government and built bridges with CASA that are to our mutual advantage. That is more progress in less than one year than has happened in the last ten years. I understand that it is of little use to say that good things are about to happen because from the ordinary members viewpoint RA-Aus has no credibility. I know that in the coming few months good things will happen and that credibility will be established. And it will happen because of member activism that sprang up in 2012 and has persevered to the present. The real cause of our present malaise was entrenched member apathy that allowed things to drift along without critical evaluation.

Myles Breitkreutz is, I believe, attempting to discredit RA-Aus in the eyes of the Federal Government and CASA and form a new organisation to replace RA-Aus. He has circulated an email nominating something like EAAA Pty Ltd. But a search of the Companies register revealed no such company has been incorporated. I guess Myles is still unhappy about the "jobs for the boys" episode not panning out how he might have liked. Anyone know how to spell "bringing RA-Aus into disrepute"? I'm not sure anyone could take Myles' revolution too seriously but I guess it would be as unwise to ignore it completely.

OK, let's clarify a thing or two. My post above re "benevolent dictators" was intended to be a little light hearted. However, I can see how it might not have been clear. I'm sure that the great leader of North Korea considers himself to be a totally benevolent dictator and, in practice, even truly benevolent dictators are invariably succeeded by an idiot son. I did qualify my comment that the Board was still there to temper any over exuberance by a "punching-through" CEO. There was I hope no suggestion that my holy grail of the Constitution would be disrespected. Surely my record of getting amendments through to tighten the Constitution and counter abuse stand for something? Michael Linke is proud to boast of his strong commitment to good governance and of holding Boards to the same. Yes, for years I've banged on about Turbo's two letters "UV" = ultra vires or in the vernacular, beyond the the power or in plain English unauthorised. There have been a number of instances when RA-Aus Presidents have acted ultra vires and in one way or another those actions brought them undone.

That is very disappointing dodo especially as I'm one who has advocated talking to your Board Member. I know they are close to a breakthrough on the rego processes that should see delays eliminated but not even getting an acknowledgement is really quite poor. I'll send you a PM and see if we can progress things. Don

Strictly, as I understand it RA-Aus does not have an "experimental" category like GA has except perhaps for 95-10. The 19 Reg just means home rather than factory built. It was possible to apply for permission to fly a 19 Reg aircraft over built up areas but that is a laborious process.

RA-Aus has been bogged down for the last 5+ years. A dictator punching through and getting stuff done might not be a bad thing. We still have a Board who can strive to make our new dictator a benevolent one. Then we would have the best form of government. The CEO does not decide policy. As his title infers he executes the Board's policy decisions. A good CEO will push a Board by coming up with improvement initiatives and then it is up to the Board to see if those initiatives will take us in the right direction. The big question is always does this proposal work positively for low regulation and low cost - and we should nowadays tack on the "S" word - Safety. Does it improve the balance of safety and freedom.

All you ever wanted to know about the ASIC: http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/transport/security/aviation/asi/asics.aspx

The idea would be that the pilot cert with a photo ID would be instead of an ASIC. It could require a clearance when you first get your pilot cert but not again for 10 years like your passport. No argument from me on that.

Is the photo as good a likeness as your avatar? At least it's in colour.

A battery isolator would, I guess, should prevent any slow drain of the battery while the aircraft is stored between flights. Most people have them on boats except if the boat is moored and you need some current going to anti-electrolytic corrosion devices - not an issue with Aircraft! On a risk management / probability basis I doubt the risk is one that needs to be managed - but I'm no expert. Be interesting to see if anyone has experience with isolators on aircraft.

Short answer is "yes they should" and I've sent an email to the Secretary to remind him of that requirement of Rule 14B(ii). The Rules changed relatively recently in that resolutions passed on the Board Forum had to be confirmed at a face-to-face Board Meeting. As such, there was not much point publishing them until after a face-to-face meeting confirmed the resolution. But now Board Resolutions are effective from the moment they receive a majority vote in favour and must be published on the website within 7 days.

That doesn't make any sense at all and was intemperate, is regretted and I'd like to withdraw it.

Good point Turbo and no, to the best of my knowledge, nobody has asked for a way around the legislation. We actually passed a motion to amend the Constitution to allow for postal voting but had to pull it out again when we found we were in conflict with the ACT legislation. It wouldn't take much for the ACT to update their legislation to match other jurisdictions but the real point about getting out of Canberra is that it is a a very expensive city to be based in. Labour and accommodation costs are high Canberra is an expensive destination to fly in and out of. It is very convenient at the moment to have our President domiciled in the same city as the HQ especially as RA-Aus pulls itself up out of the mire of the last five years. However, "in the fullness of time" RA-Aus needs to get out of Canberra to a sizeable Regional Centre with handy airport facilities. I've worked in steel plants, mine sites and swanky head offices and it is very clear in my mind which location focuses the staff on the business at hand and the real purpose for being.

Col, my liking for plastic was with the idea in mind that it could have a picture on it like a MV licence. It could double as/replace the ASIC. But a two or more year membership renewal will be introduced (again) soonish and I'm betting the accountants get the accounting right this time.

The plastic card should be issued no more often than after 5 years or earlier if an endorsement is added (or removed). Still renew membership just don't send new cards every year.

Col, you've hit the nail on the head there. ACT Legislation is behind NSW. NSW does give us a chance to be more modern with postal voting. And, as Turbo says, we can re-write the Constitution to say pretty well anything we want as long as we stay within the Act. We do need the Constitution review Committee revived, again. That would make it CRC Mark III. I understand that our new CEO has some very relevant experience with Constitution reform and could be a great help in getting the reform happening.

The thing that causes most votes to be declared invalid is if the member number is not written on the back of the envelope or it is written on the ballot paper. There is, I agree, a terribly high level of informal votes and it doesn't reflect well on those who can't follow instructions particularly if there are only two candidates. The NSW ballot paper and instructions were not wonderfully clear this time but even still, it is not hard to write 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and your member number on the back of the envelope.