Cath,
Remember, that as things stand, this $30 fee gives the lucky AEF person 3 days
membership of the GFA.
I therefore suggest to you that it is a measure of YOUR club's nous, as to how
you market this. Hint - the more you winch launches you give, the cheaper (on
average), each individual flight becomes. You mention 2-3 flights. With better
planning and application I am sure this number could be substantially
increased, especially over the 2 days of a weekend. For example when there is
no lift, the AEF person does 6 winch launches @ $6 per launch plus glider hire
at 50 cents per minute with each flight lasting 5 minutes, my maths says that
costs total $81, which means you can also add at least $20 - $30 for your
trouble! Grand total $111. Not a big deal. {You might almost have an adept
person solo after this many flights! Ha ha.}
If there is lift around then there is no reason why the winch launch should
not give an equivalent flight time to an aerotow launch. However I suggest that
the club may have to be a bit selective in just which pilot is selected as PIC
to do any particular flight, depending on conditions - like I say; use a bit of
nous!
If this is all too hard, then you could of course stop your whingeing, and not
offer AEF's. You will be well aware that statistics show that AEF's serve
little purpose in attracting new members to a club.
However see my earlier post this evening, as to the real solution. With
adequate Federal funding to the GFA, the would be no requirement to charge more
than an acorn fee (say 5 cents) to your AEF person to join them up with the GFA
(This requirement for joining GFA is based on legal advice - but to my
knowledge has never been tested in court, so make of that what you will).
I suggest that you carefully read my earlier post, and think very carefully
about the many implications of my suggestions - and then do what you can to
bring about some positive change.
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: Catherine Conway
To: AUS Soaring
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] our magazine
I'm really disappointed with the $30 fee. Might be great for Aerotow clubs
charging AEFs off the street at $150-$200 a flight. For a club that charges
$6 launch and can do 5 min circuits if there is no lift and an AEF visitor
generally only manages 2-3 flights. This means they pay more to GFA than we
make for the flight! We try to convert ours to members so they are not
expensive flights.
I know the AAFC are also very upset with the rise (they are affected too).
Especially because they have other insurance cover. So what does this AEF fee
actually give them? I believe Scouts are not happy either.
What can we do? Must be some way to get the message across.
(Go the Kooka's JR - mines been flying lots of kids - including passenger
rated kids flying their friends. they don't seem to mind that its not new.
They still teach spins pretty well).
-Cath
On 07/09/2011, at 9:13 PM, Grant Davies wrote:
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?
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