> > For anyone interested, official comment on this topic has been added > to the GFA Website. > > Go to http://www.gfa.org.au/feedback.htm
A beautifully written piece of FUD, certainly worthy of a pass of FUD101, it contains all the necessary elements of FEAR (that nasty CASA regulator is out to get you), UNCERTAINTY (they'll make regulations that impede you), and DOUBT, (you will lose your freedom). Lets talk instead about some FACTS. The FACT is that CASA is the authority and if they chose to gound all gliding in OZ, then guess what, all gliders are grounded regards of what GFA says, does or otherwise. The FACT is that CASA is a Government buearcracy and we have to watch them but that doesn't mean that ALL rule proposals that they make are more restrictive, as some of the examples below show. The FACT is that CASA is not out to take over recreation aviation because they have been told in no uncertain terms by Parliament (remember those guys?) that they are to stop wasting the tax payers money on recreational aviation, streamline the damn thing and get back to administering the commercial stuff, vis a vis, this proposal to streamline pilot licencing, the new Aircraft Flight Manual document which arrived yesterday, (which incidently tells me that a Piper Pawnee 235/260 need no longer carry an AFM), the private use engine run on condition instead of the mandatory 2000 hourly, the new Experimental Cert of Airworthiness. Oh dear the Experimental stuff! The FACT is that GFA have chosen to refuse to administer this piece of liberating legislation, I have been forced to apply directly to CASA for my C of A. And what a pleasant experince that was. I downloaded the two page form off the net, filled in the required boxes, added the extra page of info as requested, Faxed it back to them and one day later by return Fax I received my Exp C or A. (4:50pm on a Friday mind you just in time to fly on the weekend). Now if that is an example of the loss of freedom that I can expect by dealing directly with CASA then bring it on! The FACT is that GFA will not be put out of business by the RPL proposal because there is still very much a need to administer the sporting side of gliding, (remember those things called the nationals, don't try and tell me that CASA is going to run those). Now there is a risk that the RPL may become mandatory to fly gliders in the future, that certainly is a possibility but not a FACT. However one cannot instantly have an RPL, one has to learn to fly first, and the only practical way to achieve that is under an instructional system very similar to the one that GFA currently administor. CASA is not in the business of running flight schools or even developing training sylybus, they are in the business of keeping recreational avaiation out of the front page of the newspapers. GFA's role may evolve but the need for a national body for the *sport* of soaring won't disappear. The FACT is that a fair proportion of glider pilots (as evidenced by this list) would like to be able to say that they have a licence for many reasons other than the only one acknowledged by GFA (flying internationally) have been given from the physcological reaction of family/friends, equal stature among other pilots (just yesterday I visited a GA site to ask about flying in in a motor glider as a visiting pilot and got the low brow about not having a "real" licence, let me tell you I really hate that!) to the benefits of cross-dressing from other forms of flying. The FACT is that the so called "freedom" that glider pilots supposedly have comes at a very high price. This is the freedom to be expected at the airfield by 9am, the freedom to be lectured at in a morning briefing where they read the Avfax to you (like I don't check the weather before driving two hours to the airfield), and then lecture you about possible sink in the circuit. The Freedom to DI the two seater for some student pilot, run wings and ropes and push gliders back, and stay until the last glider is put away, all because of the mistaken belief that these students will hang around and become new members. The FACT is that 90% of them go solo, take the T-shirt and piss-off, having learnt to "fly" on the cheap, but never DI'd a glider, driven the winch or performed much work around the club. There is no Freedom to form a gliding club of a few like minded people, a small group of us have between us a couple of gliders, a winch and access to a paddock. But we can't go gliding because we'd have to get a CFI, an instructors panel, become a GFA sanctioned club. Why should we have to do all this when we can (and have) taken our paragliders out to said airfield and flown using the winch. So much for the "Freedom" that the GFA secures for us. rgds Pete -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
