its a wonderful country that we have so much choice in 20 years time, gliding will not be what it is today.
Those that want to soar and not be in ‘club’ will be able to do so. Why put a GP15 into glider category, why not have it as light aircraft? > On 30 Jan 2017, at 1:59 pm, Mark Newton <new...@atdot.dotat.org> wrote: > > On Jan 30, 2017, at 11:09 AM, Richard Frawley <rjfraw...@gmail.com > <mailto:rjfraw...@gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> in time my view is the sport will change. electric self launchers and more >> ownership will be the norm. small clubs will die. big clubs will go >> commercial. it will take 15 years to migrate to a new model. > > In my direct observation, people who are exposed (particularly early in their > flying career) to the command-and-control mentality of gliding don’t buy > $200,000 electric self-launch gliders. They join RAAus instead, where the > basic pilot certificate is equivalent to a GFA Level 2 Independent Operator > rating which almost nobody in gliding holds, and buy Kitfoxes or Jabirus or > SportStars. > > Of all the trainees I had as a GFA L2 instructor, and all the AEFs I > introduced to the sport, far more of them have gone on to PPL, RPL and RAAus > than GPC. I’ve notched up 3 PPL and RAAus pilot certificates in the last five > years by giving people first flights in my RV-6, which fills me with immense > satisfaction; In contrast, I feel like I busted my guts out for a decade in > GFA to simply maintain the status quo. > > So I’m not a member anymore. Too hard, too many alternatives. > > (maybe, as someone who has drifted away, it’d be worth GFA’s while to consult > with people like me: I’m clearly a person who’s been prepared to invest > significant effort in the past, and now I’m not, maybe they’d like to > understand why) > > Anyway: > > My view of 2017 GFA is that it’s a top-heavy organization whose primary > purpose is to distribute the cost of training, regulation and administration > for a very small number of aircraft owners and competition pilots across a > larger number of members. If you’re not an aircraft owner or competition > pilot, your duty and function as a GFA member is little more than to pay your > membership fees, so that they can be used to subsidize those who are aircraft > owners or competition pilots, so they can keep doing what they enjoy doing. > > Which is fine, as far as it goes — There’s nothing wrong with that, as long > as it’s transparent, and the people involved in it aren’t in denial about it. > > > > I think it’s prudent to view the future of gliding and the future of GFA as > two independent concepts. > > The largest aviation marketplace on the planet has six decades of > demonstrated track record to show that you don’t need a national private > quasi-regulator to tell everyone how to fly gliders: The real regulator > already does that job at least as well. > > Richard is speculating about a future in which the club scene changes and GFA > remains roughly the same. A more realistic alternative, in my view, is a > future in which the GFA shrinks to become a membership-optional > FAI-sanctioned competition administration body like the SSA, and much of the > rest of their day-to-day functions are overseen by CASA. Give it another > decade worth of retirements and membership shrinkage, and GFA simply won’t > have the manpower to be effective or safe for many of the functions that it > fulfills right now even if it still has a million bucks in the bank, and the > regulator will simply take them off GFA’s plate. > > It may very well be that the most important work the GFA could be doing is to > influence CASA to make that almost inevitable transition agreeable to GFA > members. > > Working with CASA to make sure that the GPC syllabus is a qualification for a > CASA RPL (in the same way that an RAAus certificate is) would be an excellent > first step. At present, if GFA collapses, so do all the pilot credentials it > has issued, and nobody will be able to legally fly the electric > self-launchers you’re envisaging as the future of gliding. If GFA members > qualified for an RPL with a glider endorsement, at least there’d be a path > forward for them to fly domestically under the CASA system when the GFA > system stops working. > > Regards, > > - mark > > > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > Aus-soaring@lists.base64.com.au > http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.base64.com.au http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring
