I f lew many sales expeditions
in various Beech demonstrator
aircraft, criss-crossing our
beautiful country and meeting
graziers, farmers, RFDS
personnel, charter companies,
f lying school operators and
many professional buyers such as
doctors and lawyers.
In 1978, I joined sister company,
Hawker Pacific and progressed
to Board Director in 1988 being
responsible for aircraft sales and
support activities in Australia,
Oceania, South East Asia and the
Middle East before retiring in 2000.
During this time I worked
with colleagues to expand the
number of aircraft manufacturers
represented. These included
Airbus Industrie, Dassault
Falcon Jet, de Havilland Canada,
Raytheon Aircraft, Britten-
Norman Islander and Bell
Helicopter Textron and ATR.
Also, the sales and support
territory for Beechcraft was
expanded into Southeast Asia.By association
The Australian Business Aviation
Association (ABAA) was formed
in 1981 and became a well
respected association in the 1980s
and early 1990s. Unfortunately,
the "recession we had to have" in
1992 led to many business jets
being sold overseas, mostly to
USA and Europe and the ABAA
became dormant from mid 1990s
until 2002. I was asked to assist
with the reformation in 2003 and
was happy to accept as my golf
handicap was going nowhere.
The ABAA has grown
substantially during the past 15
years with over thirty members
who operate in excess of 120LEFT: One objective of the ABAA is to encourage a high degree of
operational efciency and safety in connection with business aircraft.
ABOVE: David Bell lew a S35 Bonanza similar to this one
right throughout PNG early in his career.australianflying.com.au 69
July – August 2018 AUSTRALIAN FLYINGbusiness jets and some turbo
props, plus many associate
members who support our
industry. These include, aircraft
manufacturers (OEMs), fuel
companies, aircraft handlers,
maintenance organisations,
finance, legal, simulator training,
aircraft sales and the list goes on.
The ABAA is one of 14
Business Aviation Associations
throughout the world, by far the
largest being the USA National
Business Aviation Association
(NBAA) with in excess of 10,000
members. All are members of the
International Business Aviation
Council (IBAC), headquartered
in Montreal Canada, in the same
building as the International Civil
Aviation Organisation.
What is business aviation?
This is a question I am often
asked – there are quite a few
misconceptions, even in the
aviation community.
I favour the definition which
mostly aligns to the NBAA's:
business aviation is the use of any
aircraft for business purposes by
entrepreneurs, organisations and
companies of all sizes, located
throughout the world.
Re-defining business aviation
is a current agenda item for IBAC
and member associations in this
ever changing world, which now
includes RPAS.The aims and objectives
of the ABAA are:- to promote the aviation
interests of persons, firms
and corporations in Australia
operating aircraft in connection
with their businesses - to encourage the highest degree
of operational efficiency and
safety in connection with
such aircraft - to exchange information
and suggestions relating to
operational matters - to advance and maintain an
enlightened understanding on
the part of government and
airport authorities regarding the
requirements of business aviation - to take such measures as are
desirable in order to promote
better relations with and to
make its suggestions known to
regulatory and other agencies
and to bring members of
the Association into closer
relationship with one another.
By means of the foregoing to
attain wider recognition of the
fact that the aviation activities of
the members of the Association
are of primary importance to the
domestic economy of Australia.
The ABAA has achieved
many positive outcomes for our
members during the past 15 years
but we still face many challenges.
More on that next time.
there are quite a few
misconceptions, even in the
aviation community.TOM FLEISCHMAN