Australian Flying - July 2018

I

7474

AUSTRALIAN FLYING July – August 2018

t seems that no time has

passed since I stood at

Narromine airfield on a

cool Sunday morning last

October. AirVenture had

just concluded and by a

number of measures had

proved successful, despite the

challenges of organising an event

of this calibre.

The team at RAAus put our

part of AirVenture to bed and got

on with the business of running

our busy and large organisation.

Since that time we’ve had our

AGM, progressed our proposals

with CASA for increased

weighted aircraft and more access

into controlled airspace. RAAus

has 8% more members than we

did last October and we recently

declared a half-year surplus.

We’ve recently launched our

Aviation Safety Management

System at an organisational

level and are now rolling it out

to schools to help lower their

costs of compliance. We have

also developed and begun to

implement our Maintenance

First program, whereby we are

providing our members high

quality practical hangar based

maintenance training. More

recently we have concluded

our Professional Development

Seminar Series where we

trained some 350 of our

instructors and maintainers.

What does all this have to do

with AirVenture you ask? Stick

with me.

I have been reading and hearing

a lot about the so-called death of

aviation in Australia. Specifically

General Aviation (GA). Although,

no one can really define GA to

me. Recently the Australian

automotive industry died as the

last local manufacturing plant

closed. That’s a death. This isn’t

the case with regard to aviation.

Sure there have been school

closures and some manufacturers

have closed or moved overseas. But

in reality, we still have a vibrant

and sustainable sector. RAAus

has 10,000 pilots f lying and 3200

aircraft f lying using the services

of over 160 schools with over 400

instructors. We are bigger today

than we were yesterday and more

financially stable today than we

were yesterday.

Is RAAus part of GA? Some

say no. But we are fueling the

next generation of pilots, aircraft

and maintainers. I see us at the

cross roads of all aviation. Before

RAAus, people whet their appetite

for aviation by buying a drone or

experimenting with a simulator.

After RAAus, they go onto

private, commercial or military

careers in a range of disciplines.

Maybe GA isn’t dying, it is just

changing, and RA is the new GA.

And maybe, just like AirVenture,

it is time we embraced that

change. And it is worth noting

that this experience is not unique

to Australia.

In the US AOPA produces

statistics on the state of aviation.

Well over half of general aviation

there is made up of piston

powered aircraft and these

numbers peaked in 1984 at

197,442. This number has fallen

to 155,180 in their most recently

published information. That’s a

decline of about 21% and would

surely raise some eyebrows.

Having said this, when

factoring in the same types of

aircraft that RAAus administers

in Australia the numbers are

much different. In the US, these

Is AirVenture

the Answer

Recreational Aviation Australia CEO

Michael Linke believes a successful

national y-in could lead to growth

in all sectors of general aviation.

(^7474) A Spot of Recreation RECREATIONAL AVIATION AUSTRALIA
JABIRU AIRCRAFT