In fact I think it's 9 days GFA membership for $30 but the RA(Aus), the ultralite boys, give their AEF's 28 days for free. How can they do it and not us?
Reg Moore From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net [mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of gstev...@bigpond.com Sent: Thursday, 8 September 2011 2:01 AM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] AEF fee 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 <mailto:con...@agile.com.au> To: AUS Soaring <mailto:aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net> 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? _____ _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
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