DonRamsay

They're all quite comfortable with somebody else's seat being merged just not their own.

Vested interests? Other than our state is better than your state crap or I don't want my seat merged out of existence, what vested interest could anyone have?

There is a move to ensure that pilots with L1 status actually know one end of a spanner from the other. It was OK when all us old stagers picked up spanners to work on our push bikes and went on to mend lawn mowers, our first car etc. But, kids these days have grown up with disposable bikes, 4 stroke mowers (pushed by "Jim"), cars that you only have to put petrol in and everything else is done by the dealer. So, we then give these people the right to do a 100 hourly on a Savannah? Does that make any sense? Is that a responsible thing to do. The test to see if you deserve to have L1 status will be a doddle for people like us. I doubt it will require a course but there may be some need to demonstrate that you do know a spanner from a screw driver. I've not heard any whisper that Ops would be requiring more compulsory training for Pilot Certificate holders. If we get equivalence with the RPL, as has been mooted, then we may well need to do some additional training for heavier aircraft and CTA.

We must get away from the postcode qualification for Board membership. The current system doesn't always deliver duds but it does narrow choices and can allow people to be elected (returned unopposed) on very few votes out the 10,000 strong membership. Bit like what's going on in the Senate . I wouldn't care less if all Board Members were from WA. Aviation laws and CASA's reach are independent of parochial region boundaries. Ther is nothing that a WA dominated Board could do to advantage WA and disadvantage, say, NQ. Geography is simply irrelevant - skills, qualifications and experience are what we will get value from. A Board member for NSW that lives in say Coffs Harbour is not going to be able to make drop in visits to people in Broken Hill. He/She are going to have to rely on modern means of comms - email, phones, etc. We need fewer Board Members and lets be grown up enough to not get our flaps in a knot if we don't have one from our region.

I don't know the status of the Ops Manual revision but I am happy that it is being read by 174 CFIs. We didn't say CFIs on the Board is a bad thing we said that too many is not a good thing. We need people with maintenance, legal, financial and strategic business skills as well. Imagine if we had people on the Board like Bill Cain (maintenance, airworthiness and business management skills), Kaz Gurney (legal), Mick Monck (management and business) etc. as opposed to 7 out of 10 of one particular skill/knowledge base. If you want to know where the Ops Manual is up to and how it is being proofed, why not ask a Board Member? Agreed it would be nice if we all knew and the info came from the Board to all Members. Similarly, a major review of the Tech Manual is well advanced and from what I hear around ther traps, it is going to be very well received. It would be hard to find anyone better than Darren Barnfield to be leading that project.

For somebody other than Eugene to be elected we need a good alternative. We had good alternatives but they didn't get enough votes and Eugene got too many. Why? Members did not know of Eugene's performance on the Board. We also need good old fashioned campaigning even candidate debates at local aero clubs. We also need the President has to turn the wick up under those who coast along basking in the reflected "glory" of being on the Board. The President needs to start reporting routinely on the performance of individual Board Members. Things like who voted for, who voted against and who didn't get around to participating in the debate and voting at all. We should know who worked on which project - e.g. Trevor Bange did a great job on the Insurance. For the democratic process to work, members needs to know who's rowing, who's coasting and who's doing a "Sally Robinson". Then we can rely on the good sense of members to vote and vote with good knowledge of the candidates.

Kev, I think you just wrote very well what most of us are thinking. I reckon the Board would agree with you as well and know they have to do better. I believe it will happen and I just hope that it is soon before we all doze off again and leave them to it. You are absolutely right about the Magazine. Contributions to the September mag will be a month old by the time we get to read it. That is crazy in the 21st Century. As I said, we need an email system. Once things settle down a bit and we are through the biggest changes, then the need to communicate can get back to monthly. The Board should be focussed on long term strategy issues like organisation structure (size of the Board, etc.) where RA-Aus should call home (not Canberra!), progress on on IT projects, CASA relationship issues, OPs & Tech issues, initiatives to provide benefits to members in the areas of insurance, fuel discounts, saving airports from closure, etc., etc. With those big issues, we don't need minute by minute updates but we do need milestone reporting.

Wouldn't be seen dead in one. But plenty of the target market for RA-Aus (baby-boomers) still use libraries. Personally, in this day and age if people want to read the paper or a magazine or a novel, I think they should go to a newsagents and buy one rather than bludge on ratepayers. Same story for CDs and DVDs. Reference libraries are a great asset for students of all ages and that's where the Library budget should go not on the latest edition of House & Garden. Don

Not sure I agree with you there FT. Every so often, I drag out the Magazine and quote passages from Eugene's column when he was President, especially remarks about what a good CEO Robbie Costmeyer was going to be only to hound him out the door after a week or two and appoint his mate Tizzard with no recruitment/selection process. You are correct of course that if that report was on the net it would be readily available for any current member to read about the bad old days and wonder. Can't speak for Eugene but the main reason most Board Members other (than Ross and Jim) don't often get involved here I think has to do with the fact that their own Board Forum is a pretty busy place (and should be) and it must take precedence for them. Being a Board Member is a very time consuming activity - especially if you are doing it right. However, I think most do at least monitor what is said on here. Another reason is that some have copped untold abuse just for stating their opinions. Intellectual criticism of a point of view targeted at the opinion not the holder of the opinion is fine but there are times when that line has been crossed. What RA-Aus needs, I believe, is a mailout (email) to all members utilising the email address on the members register. For that to work, members need to be able to update their personal data more often than once a year at membership renewal time. Online access to your personal data would certainly result in a more accurate and up to date members register. How anyone can function as a pilot without access to email and the net now is something I wonder about.

Some very good points there Downunder. I'm pretty sure that all members, including affiliated Clubs and FTFs get a copy. I doubt that we send copies to Libraries and that I think could be useful in getting the message out. I wonder who uses Libraries these days? Pensioners and kids? Not sure too many Gen X or Y wander in to a library too often. Anyhow, perhaps you could suggest copies for Libraries to your local Board Member? The marginal cost of a few more mags is not a big ticket item. We could even consider knocking a buck or two off the price - as long as we're covering the marginal cost we are not losing anything. However, I think a web based version is going to get a much wider (& free) circulation than we could ever hope for from a print magazine.

Whyalla may be in SA but OldK is in Darwin and looking over our shoulders. Wonder if he's been out to MKT?

Old K, always optimistic. We can dream . . . That one day common sense will stage a comeback and infect the odd Government office. (How's the sun up,in Darwin? Wouldn't mind getting out of a Winter for a while myself) Don

The Magazine is the major means for RA-Aus Board and Managers to communicate directly with pilots, instructors and maintainers. And most on here have said that they want to know more not less. With the popularity of iPads and the like an electronic version would be well received. However, it would have to be one or the other. To add an electronic version and keep the print version would add some costs. If you reduced the print version by making it optional the savings at the margin would be, well, marginal. Alternating print and ezine versions month about could well be an acceptable cost saving without damaging communication. There is no doubt in my mind that all magazines will over the next few years go electronic. The trend is well established in the market with all Mag sales on the decline. Personally I, and a I suspect most on here, would be more than happy with an electronic version with the opportunity for the addition of video. Better to hear the President's report than read a column?

Kev, I agree with most of what you say here and it is reasonably deduced from what we can all see happening and not happening. We really do have a new Board compared to where we were back at the extraordinary General Meeting in Queanbeyan February 2013. And we do have a new CEO only weeks into the job. My understanding is that we will be hearing some good news by the AGM on 18 October and I'm prepared to wait that long to find out. I've been finding Mick Monck's reports in SportPilot good reading and informative. No sign of the waffle from some of our previous Presidents. When I was on the Board I was frequently told no point trying to do things by email because as many as 25% of members don't use a computer. Well, I doubted it then but we now know this is no longer the case. We enabled in the Constitution that formal Notices can now be sent by email and it won't take too much to get more regular briefings via email. The website is still not getting updated with anything like the currency we would like to see. That has to change. An RSS facility is something I've asked for because that would clue you in every time something on the website changes. We have that with our own Club and it works great.

If you buy in Europe, you'd expect to pay their VAT or GST or whatever they call it and it is often double the Aussie GST. Buy in Europe and export and you are exempted (or refunded) their GST equivalent but attract Aussie GST. Of course, you could over time buy it in pieces with each piece being worth less than A$1,000

Funny to see there have been over 900 viewings of this thread. Nothing like a bit of toilet humour to peak the interest. I've got no suggestions for the ladies but I carry a gatorade bottle (wide neck) as an emergency but work on Andy's 2 hour leg principle. Don't want to boast but I did the flight from Heathrow to Singapore recently without leaving my seat but then I wasn't having to concentrate to hard on keeping the aircraft in the air. Proper hydration really is vital. I used to ride motorcycles to their design limits and once or twice beyond (ouch!). We were told by the instructors that if your hydration drops your ability to concentrate drops 20% very quickly. At speed or altitude I cannot afford to drop 20% of the small capacity that I have.

I doubt I've read more uninformed nonsense in quite a while. Yes, RA-Aus Board and particularly Management have a long way to go in terms of providing a running commentary on what's going on within RA-Aus. To my mind, it is the role of the CEO to keep members informed about what's developing - more so than the Board. To the extent that the new CEO has been in the job 5 minutes and inherited a pile of poo, I'm prepared to give him a few months - say until the AGM in October - to show what he can do. I think people have to be realistic that a lot of things can't be communicated while they are in process because that information could be detrimental to RA-Aus. Also, good manners may dictate that the matter should stay confidential, e.g. why a staff member leaves the employment of RA-Aus (unless of course it is a dismissal for gross misconduct and even then there can be legal reasons for not being totally transparent). I'd like to see more information about cost reduction initiatives but, our biggest costs are in salaries and showing your hand too early could be very counter-productive. Similarly, a move out of the very expensive Canberra may be a good way to reduce costs but you have to have all the details worked out before you spook the staff. If you really want to have a say in where RA-Aus heads in the future there are a few things you can do: 1. Get involved in campaigning for the Board either as a candidate or in support of somebody in whom you have confidence. 2. Talk to your local Board Member and possibly invite him/her to a meeting of your club. They can often say stuff one on one that can't readily be written down. 3. Offer your services to the CEO and Board stating the sorts of areas where you have particular skills or expertise. 4. Attend the AGM and Natfly General Meeting. Meet and talk to a few Board Members. 5. Try sending your Board member(s) an email - all the addresses are in SportPilot. If you don't get an adequate response go back to 1 above and get cracking. I think the Maj has given a few insights into what the current priorities are and I can't disagree with the ones they've chosen. Thanks again Ross

I got my first one recently after avoiding ASIC airports up until now. If you had to fly into Mudgee, say, to get some work done on your avionics, a call to the workshop first would ensure that you get an escort from your aircraft to and from the workshop. Some think it OK to just pull up and refuel and leave with no ASIC without going near terminal buildings. But, still a big fine if challenged. Hopefully, something good will come out of the Aviation review and we'll see the end of these things for low risk regional airports. It may be that you get your photo on your Pilot Cert card and have to do a security check at least once but that should be the end of it.

Maj, I completely agree with your assessment that we should have diversity of experience, qualifications and skills on the Board. Going back a few years, 7 out of the 10 on the Board were CFIs - not a lot of diversity there. Equally not good would be nobody on the Board with maintenance or instructing credits. I think we have quite a good mix at the moment. The other thing not to forget is that we have close to 10,000 aviation enthusiasts as members - many of them have considerable skills and experience that is available to the CEO and the Board for work on sub-committees. This is a valuable resource that has been severely under-utilised in the past.

Great post Maj. Everything I hear these days confirms what you have written. In January last year I was very pessimistic about the future of RA-Aus and for good reason. But, in August 2014, I would say the prospects for RA-Aus have not been brighter any time in the last 5 years. This is not just optimism based on hope but confidence in the new Board and Management to re-establish RA-Aus at the pinnacle of Self-Administering Sport Aviation Organisations. I believe this turnaround is the result of member activism overcoming a long tradition of member apathy and voting in a Board that is both dedicated and capable. The next big step is going to be cutting costs and lifting service levels by modernisation of our IT systems and reducing the Board from 13 to 7 or even 5. Potential annual savings in excess of $500,000 are realistically achievable and should be reflected in the Budget for the 2015-2016 financial year. Don

Sorry, of course you are correct there were other candidates for Tasmania. Clearly, we didn't work hard enough to get some new blood.

I haven't seen all the results yet but I understand the Maj was returned, Mike Smith (SQld) , Mark Christie (NT) and Eugene Reid (Tas) returned unopposed. Congratulations and thanks to them all for their commitment to serving the members of RA-Aus.

Just re-read my comment about DAMES. it was intemperate and regretted. All they can do is work within CASA's rules. My beef is with the CASA AvMed mob. In the USA, the trend is to allow more pilots to fly without an aviation medical. In Australia, CASA have made the drivers licence medical more difficult to obtain for most than a Class 2 medical.

Congratulations and thanks to Andy Saywell and Michael Apps for accepting nomination and being elected to the two NSW/ACT board positions. We should be grateful that we now have three excellent Board Members from NSW/ACT.

I did say it wasn't directly relevant other than to assert that a mature product should not require constant monitoring over many variables. The last car I had overheating problems with was in about 1980. And then it came about through coolant loss not the normal environment it was operating in. The Jab engine, to my consumer view, is not (yet?) suitable for the application it is sold into. Does anyone believe a Jab engine is cheaper over 2,000 hours than a Rotax?