mark king wrote:
What I am suggesting is that the GFA consider investigating the feasibility
of establishing a “Sports Aviation Centre” near a capital city like Sydney.
This centre could be multi use eg ultralights and gliders/self launchers.
Funded and owned by private investors and perhaps part owned by GFA or at
least fully supported by GFA.
If private investors want to get involved in something like that right
now, there's nothing stopping them.
If private investors have investigated the idea and determined that
the risks are too high, it won't happen (and hasn't happened -- there's
probably a signal buried in there somewhere...)
If so little private investment can be found that it can only run by
being propped up by the GFA, then the implication is that the moneymaking
opportunities are too low for more private investment to come in, right?
Which would mean the GFA would be essentially wasting our money. Wait and
hear the howls of derision if that was allowed to happen...
A "Sports Aviation Centre" for gliding could start tomorrow if someone
with cash and a desire to run it was prepared to put their money where
their mouth is...
(Tocumwal is an example of one of these -- But it isn't near the capital
cities. Perhaps capital cities are too well-served by clubs, which the
commercial venture would need to compete with to survive. I suspect
that folks don't mind paying Toc's fees due to Toc's soaring conditions,
which aren't present at any capitals due to their coastal proximity)
*Gliding is over regulated and we would be better off letting CASA regulate
gliding * I hold a PPL and can fly anywhere in Australia, carrying passengers
and doing my own DI. CASA leave me alone, they send me NOTAMS and other info
from time to time and tell me when my medical needs renewing but other then
that they hardly feature in my PPL operations. I hire a near new advanced
C182 from an efficiently run aviation company that encourages and supports me
advancing my skills. The aircraft is ready to go at the appointed time and
the only time I have to have a check is for the BFR or if I want to
transition to a more advanced aircraft or learn something new. I pay $100
every 2 years for the medical, there are no other fixed costs associated with
my licence apart from an ASIC if I want to fly into security controlled
airports from 1 January 2006.
If you want to operate a glider under the auspices of your PPL, you can
do it legally -- Nothing whatsoever stopping you. People like Mike Borgelt
have been doing it for years.
If you want to be an aircraft owner/operator, the GFA system jumps all
over the CASA system, of course. Lots of people who aren't LAMEs charging
LAME rates to do maintenance, AD's and AN's developed and distributed by
GFA, world-respected technical standards for repairs and maintenance
techniques. Compare the cost of operating a motorglider under the GFA
system with the cost of running a single-engine light aircraft under
the CASA system --- Whooo-ah! (and no cheating by running your light
plane under an "experimental" designation -- We're talking about the real
McCoy here, right?)
Contrast that with the GFA system. I have to belong to a club to legally fly
a glider and I have to pay club and GFA fees of around $400 a year.
You don't have to do any of that. It's a choice you make.
The gliding clubs have also made a choice: They've decided to be
affiliated with the GFA, which means they need to run according to GFA
rules, including the rule which says they shouldn't let people fly
their gliders if they aren't GFA members. So if you aren't a GFA
member and you're flying under the CASA system, you can't fly your
local club fleet, and they won't launch you with their tug.
So choices have upsides and downsides, right?
If you want to choose to buy a self-launching glider, and then you
want to choose to operate it under your CASA PPL instead of your GFA
qualifications, then go for it and stop complaining. I'm pretty sure
that those choices will have upsides and downsides too, and the freedom
from the club operation which irks you so much will cost you many, many
dollars to buy.
Given the
club nature of most of our training its also harder in practice to progress
quickly through getting a DI ticket, getting a rating to fly passengers, and
moving on to the higher performing single seat gliders which most clubs don’t
have anyway.
Some clubs make this stuff easy and offer encouragement and support all
the way; other clubs make it hard and erect officious red-tape barriers
in the way of you doing what you want to do. If your club is one of
the latter, you can try another one; Or you can get on your club's exec
and change it.
- mark
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton
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