It’s all very well to want a commercial
operation to fit in with the time pressures you have Mark, but how much would
you be willing to pay for that convenience?
Even a bare-bones operation would require
a tug (and tuggie) and glider(and instructor(s)): What would it cost pay for all
that?
I suggest it would be extremely unlikely
for you to find someone willing to provide those services for free, merely to
suit someone’s convenience.
If you feel that there is a living to be
made at it, why not set up such an operation for yourself?
BTW have you ever investigated the Southern
Cross operation? You may be pleasantly surprised. Although we don’t
tolerate pilots turning up for an hour or two then disappearing, there is no
expectation to commit more that half a day and we have a large fleet (3 tugs, 5
2 seaters, including the DG1000, and 4 singles including a new DG303)
Derek
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mark king
Sent: Sunday,
27 November 2005 9:14
PM
To:
[email protected]
Subject: [Aus-soaring] the future
of gliding
The
future of gliding
On this forum someone recently lamented there were no controversial posts.
Perhaps I can help here.
I learnt to fly gliders many years ago through the club system and at the same
time obtained a PPL, flew tugs and generally enjoyed both types of flying for a
number of years. As usual marriage, mortgage and career intervened and I
dropped out of flying until the last 3 years. I now happily fly a Cessna 182 as
well as fly high performance gliders.
I have read with interest a lot of the comments on this forum about the future
of gliding, how to arrest declining memberships, the role of GFA etc.
My own thoughts for what they are worth are
Gliding needs for each capital city a
commercial (For Profit) centre of operations
I am not interested in flying in competitions or only flying when you can
virtually guarantee a 500k plus day. What I like doing is just getting up there
and generally enjoying myself as often as possible. The way gliding is
structured now it’s actually difficult to do that. Yes there is a club
located close to Sydney where I am, Southern Cross but the nature of its set up
like most clubs I would think really requires you to devote a whole day to
flying with no real guarantee that you will get to do much flying. This is not
always practical for many people and certainly does not encourage pilots to fly
frequently.
What would get me gliding more is a commercial centre where you could book a
glider for a specific time or half day and it was ready to go on time at the
appointed time. This operation would also speed the process of getting you
whatever ratings you needed eg passenger or cross country or transitions to
more advanced gliders etc.
This is how it works with general aviation operations; they want you to fly
often so they get more return. Gliding clubs I think seem to work the other way
around, there is no real push to get pilots flying as often as possible and
advancing their experience unless you have the time to spend endless days at
the field for relatively little flying.
Yes I know all this would potentially cost more but would it really given the
premium many people place on their time?
There are commercial operations in the country areas and I have flown at
Narromine as well as a couple of weeks in total with Southern Soaring in NZ and
both operations were great with a minium of fuss. However it would be a lot
better if we also had access to a full time centre near Sydney open 7 days a
week. This would also lead to improvements in safety as pilots who fly
frequently have got to be safer then ones who fly infrequently.
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.
This centre would be run on a commercial basis and cater for pilots who want to
participate in sports aviation and fly frequently without all the hassles that
go with a club operation. And it would be an ideal way to attract new pilots to
the sport, as it would be a showcase for an efficiently run glider operation.
I also believe that GFA `should be trying to establish careers within gliding
and more commercial operations can provide the critical mass needed to do that.
It is interesting to note that the Parachuting Federation promotes on its web
site the idea of a career in parachuting and in NZ you can actually do a 12
month full time course on becoming a qualified parachute instructor!
Alternatively I could buy a glider and operate to some extent when I wanted to
but unless I get a self launcher I am still stuck with only flying when the
club operates. And to operate a self launcher on my own you have to have club
approval which in itself largely defeats the purpose of self operation and this
leads me to the next topic namely
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.
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. 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.
Someone will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong but I understand the
“Recreational Aviation Australia” organisation (ultralights) does
not require pilots to belong to the association or even belong to a club to
legally fly. You do have to have a Recreational Pilots Licence but membership
is not compulsory. Why cannot we do the same with gliding? Why do I have to
belong to GFA when all I want to do is fly a glider and not get involved with
competitions etc? Why can’t GFA issue “Gilder Pilot Licences”
and then let us get on with it and fly the same as I can do with my PPL? Why do
glider pilots have to be so closely supervised that in general they are not
considered “safe” unless flying under the auspices of a club?
Gliders are no more difficult and arguably easier to fly and stay safe in then
probably the average ultralight I would suggest. It would also make it easier to
have Australian glider qualifications accepted overseas if proper licences were
issued.
Each to his own applies equally to glider pilots and I do accept that clubs
work well for many people especially I suggest in the country but I feel if we
are to progress gliding it has to have a solid commercial base to increase the
professionalism and availability of gliding operations to pilots in the capital
cities where most of the population and market is.
Thoughts anyone on any of the above?
Mark
