Jeeze JR, stop dreaming up good ideas: You is likely to end up wit brain
damage! I suspect that even the Insurance Pros are having trouble making their
100% profit, from gliding related premiums. I think that Mike Borgelt
{greetings Mike} might agree that if the GFA became involved, then premiums
would have to at least double across the board for the GFA to make the same
profit as these pros!
Just joking. I really think the Secretariat does a great job - administration,
but NOT insurance - under difficult circumstances, and as I have said in recent
posts, the movement requires more government funds, to keep the movement at
least viable, and a LOT more government funding to ensure the vibrancy of the
sport.
I am certain that there are rugged individualistic cavemen (and cavewomen - but
maybe the cavewomen have more sense?), out there who think that they can "go
it alone". Now this might have been possible in "good old days" - say about
1850 - 14 November 1938 when the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), was
established. From the latter date a few things began to change and they
continue to change right up to the present day. It is not a simple matter of
the goal posts having been moved (any good gliding caveman can cope with this),
but in fact the problem is that the game evolves and plays on an ever different
field, to the total bewilderment of our gliding caveman.
The 14/11/38, was when politics seriously entered into gliding. In 1949 some
glider pilots did something about it and formed the GFA.
Quoting directly from the current GFA website:
"The Gliding Federation of Australia (the 'GFA') was founded in 1949 when the
government moved to regulate, and dominate the sport. To counter that move, the
then scattered, almost fragmented, gliding community united to form a self
regulating national body which was offered to the Department of Civil Aviation
as an alternative to government control.
The GFA was established from the fundamental concept:-
"We have a philosophical, moral and ethical right to a very considerable degree
of freedom, from the modern trend to extend the powers to the State."We have an
absolute duty to fight for the freedom to be adventurous individuals in an age
of dull conformity if we so wish.
"We can plough our own furrow and if we make it straight enough the lack of any
need for interference will be so obvious that people who might feel a duty to
control such a thing will not bother with it".
(J.M. Iggulden, 1960) "
I am not entirely happy with what is written above, mainly because I suspect
that there was so much more. However that is quite a different subject.
As I type these words, it suddenly becomes apparent to me that here is a most
exciting story: That over and above its importance in the story of gliding in
this country, there are some aspects that have implications going well beyond
that - part of the shaping of the Australian Character if you like. In the USA
or the UK for example I suggest that researching and telling a similar story
would result in substantial funds being made available to an investigator, the
end result being a dissertation leading to the awarding of a PhD! There are
some pilots still alive today who were instrumental in forming the GFA, and
their stories, and the stories they can tell, need to be recorded, before it is
forever too late. Is there a journalist/historian out there up to this
challenge? Jack Iggulden himself was a powerful (and no doubt highly under
rated), novelist who wrote somewhat in the style of Hammond Innes, and Nevil
Shute, and was in my opinion at least their equal. I wonder if any person
attempting to tell the story of the founding of the GFA can equal Jack's style
in the telling of that story? Jack recently died, so goodby to a huge source of
information.
Since 1949 the movement has experienced changing fortunes. The present
situation is certainly much less than satisfactory, and trending downwards.
Keep in mind that the circumstances that led to the formation of the GFA, had
nothing directly to do with the promotion of the sport, or the funding of the
many aspects of gliding that exist today. However it is a given that to
understand the future, we must first understand the past.
Let me say again that any real solution to the current day problems demands
recognization and acceptance of the historical facts, and then trying for a
political solution. By definition a political solution requires the input of
Politicians. I suggest that the GFA Board "betta get drumming"! Failure to act
with less than ongoing total commitment here means that the Board will be
permanently out of a job.
Not Q.E.D. but R.I.P.!
Regards,
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: JR
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] AEF fee
Macca,
we of the south australian division of gliding, tried to get something done
about that, but it fell on deaf ears.
And another thing, why dont GFA become glider insurers, with reducing
premiums for those that dont make claims, and increasing those that do, surely
they must know where the greatest risk is, and could charge accordingly.
just thinking again sorry
regards
JR
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