Agree the now $30 AEF fee is ridiculous. I have only been flying 4 years and when I started students were $5.
Is there any explanation for this massive rise? Or is it our GFA looking after our GFA, not the members and clubs? We are biting the bullet and getting the mod done on our Blanik and back on line with a life extension to 11,400 hrs (predominantly winch launch). We can take $35k for this but couldn't push that to $90k as touted by the GFA Pres. What he fails to mention is that if you borrow then add another $10k - $15k in interest. And then you have to try and do as many AEF's as possible to pay for it. So the members are flying the K7 after all coz the time is taken up flying joy rides. Defeats the purpose I recon. Agree with you both, people want to fly and don't really care if it is in the K7, Twin Astir or the Blanik. Kindest Regards Grant Davies A small club trying to stay aloft. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ian Mc Phee Sent: Wednesday, 7 September 2011 8:50 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] our magazine >From my 45+years in gliding I personally believe people want to learn and they want to learn NOW and time restraints are far more important than the bright sleek glass ship in our president article. Take a look at RAAus 10000+ members- People get to fly within 15 minutes arrival at airfield. The $30 for AEF to GFA is sure a large - Personally I would not mind as much if say people under 25 got it for $15. I do know GFA have a special deal with AAFC so why not all young people. .Despite this huge initial charge and no 3months Student Membership of GFA I am very encouraged the number of young people learning to fly in past say 18 month- there is a ray of hope out there. And as for CASA - As old Jack Iggulden would say we know and understand gliding CASA (or DCA as he always called them) do not Just a thought Ian McPhee 0428847642 On 7 September 2011 20:22, JR <[email protected]> wrote: Is'nt the new look magazine unreal,but I must say I was a little disturbed by the Presidents article on our ageing glider fleet. For starters my club had a plan to fly our blanik for at least its 3750 hours, which would have put somewhere near 60,000 dollars in our bank account, but thats not to be, and it would seem that, having had that taken away from us, we are now going to be paying more to GFA for AEF's aswell, where will it all stop. And as for nice new plastic gliders, I have seen some fairly shabby looking examples of them aswell, and the maintenance for me doesnt change from plastic, wood or metal, I do the same job on them all . It does'nt matter what its made from or how old it is, an inspection is an inspection. And on the subject of ageing aircraft, I noticed in CASA's booklet on ageing aircraft, GFA didnt get a mention, and we are probably leading the field in old aircraft and how to maintain them, something I think we should be proud of.... So I guess what will happen is all the little clubs will disappear, and all the big clubs will be left to cover the ever increasing costs of GFA and all the people who know how to maintain sailplanes will disappear aswell.I assume flarms will become extinct as there wont be that many gliders left flying.So I guess this means the end of the horse drawn zeppelin... regards JR PS sorry the humour content is low, but...... it happens _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
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