Hallo Wombat,
Thanks for that clarification. I totally missed the point in Christopher
McDonnell's earlier posting!
The article and comments:Funny? Perhaps. A sad commentary on US journalism and
the knowledge of gliding by the average US citizen? No doubt.
Uninformed reporting such as comments like those printed in Daily Inter
Lake.com could never happen in Australia? I wish! This news report is a sad
commentary on the (lack of), gliding knowledge in the US by the general public.
In Australia, unfortunately, it is little different here.
I have followed all the Development ideas that have been advanced for the
promotion of our sport (and participated in more than a few trial projects -
all total failures in any absolute sense), over the past 30 years, but it is
seems obvious now that we have totally under-estimated the ignorance of the
public on even the most basic aspects of our sport.
I feel that this must somehow be rectified.
Especially at the political level.
The pitiful quantum of money that is doled out to the GFA for the
administration of our sport is a joke. Let me amend that - it is patently
totally and utterly inadequate, and is in fact a bloody insult to every member
of the GFA!
Political problems demand a political solution. Many years ago, Chris Stevens,
(COO), as a paid officer of GFA commenced some good work here. It was never
followed up. Those members with long memories, or with a love of history, know
that the GFA had more than a sympathetic ear under the patronage of (Sir) Don
Anderson who was Director-General of Civil Aviation from 1956 - 1973. There is
no doubt that Donald Anderson understood gliding and its value to this
developing Nation over and above gliding being "just another sport". I wonder
if it was totally co-incidental that many people regard this period as the
"golden years" of Australian gliding?
OK, so what do we do about our current totally untenable situation - which will
become worse if the declining membership issue is not addressed? The movement
is contracting - maybe dying. Like it or not, despite the contribution and best
efforts of highly intelligent,motivated and knowledgeable members of our sport
NONE of the promotion methods of the past 30 years have (in the long term),
worked. We therefore need to move on. To what you may ask.
There needs to be a real input of funds, to stimulate a serious and ongoing
campaign to raise the awareness of politicians, and thereby everyone else as to
the value of our sport. So where are these funds to come from? From the
government of course. So how do we get these government funds. Well it just so
happens that GFA has about $1,000,000 "in loose change lying around".
As many contributors to this forum have noted, the GFA Board is not elected by
the members and it does not have to answer to the members. I will not go into
this, other than to say that herein lies an opportunity. That $1,000,000 is
allocated to all sorts of projects.The Board has the power to unilaterally
decide where funds might be allocated. I suggest that as a matter of urgency
the Board gives very serious consideration to committing ALL of those funds to
achieving a political solution to reinvigorating our sport.
My initial inclination was to use the funds to pay a professional "drummer" to
make our case in the "corridors of power" -$100,000 over 10 years say, but as
we have a new government assuming power in the next few days it may not take
that long, if the right advocate is chosen and we as a movement move ASAP.
Alternatively, in a more extended scenario, the GFA can use the funds to
eventually get its own politician into the parliament, or distribute the funds
to educate many MP's so that they become sympathetic to the cause.
Of course, GFA may expend all its funds and not get a result. Funnily enough I
suspect this would not be a big deal. Hallo CASA - over to you! What are you
going to do about administrating everything that GFA does. [And make no mistake
about it, does very well.]
Lets move on to a worst case scenario.Frankly this something to shiver about,
but I guess "no gliding at all" meets this criteria. A total mind boggle, but
almost certainly amiable to a political solution.
One further point: I have run this idea past one Board member, and all the
competition pilots present at a recent pilots meeting in Kingaroy. I can say
that the reception to the idea was less than enthusiastic from the Board
member, and was greeted with total silence from the Kingaroy pilots! In the
latter case this is perhaps the right response, as it is something that
requires VERY serious thought indeed.
As a small aside relating to the value of getting your government on side, let
me remind you of the decision of the British Government many years ago to
supply 100 Twin Asters to the British gliding movement: These ships were state
of the art training machines at the time. In the bigger picture the cost was
peanuts, and the UK now has an enviable presence on the world gliding scene.
Do you think there might be a connection here?
Regards,
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Cleaver
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 11:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Grounded Blaniks
It was only last year that Australia (CASA) decided to automatically apply
all country-of-origin Airworthiness Directives to Australian aircraft, rather
than issue an AD of our own some time later. Thus it fell to the GFA to issue
tis own directive to call up the EASA one (as CASA does not issue ADs for
gliders and does not treat GFA airworthiness directives as CASR Part 39 ones -
so GFA is obligated to copy the EASA one and compel Australian glider operators
to comply).
It is unlikely that the FAA will get around to issuing the AD for
American-registered gliders for several months yet!
Wombat
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Mc Donnell
To: aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 11:47 PM
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Grounded Blaniks
Well, here is someone flying their Blanik. Like being caught on TV when you
are taking a sickie.
See the second image. Comments are funny. With all the mobiles around what
happens these days with outlandings and 000.
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_03955b46-aa67-11df-8c99-001cc4c03286.html
Chris
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