Leadie
What SAAA press release? Are you talking about Martin Ongleys President newsletter that is emailed out to the SAAA members?
I did a EDIT/FIND and entered AOPA, the first hit in a 5 page PDF came up with this, and I quote.....
The dinner was attended by various dignitaries both from the local Narromine area as well as leaders of our sporting aviation groups. It was great to have members from AWAL, AOPA, RAAus and the SAAA all together under the one roof. Once the wine and plane stories started flowing, you couldn’t hear yourself think. A big thanks to the local caterer for the splendid food and for David Brown who stepped up to the plate to MC for the evening.
The guest speakers were all marvelous & had us laughing and crying with their aviation tales. Live music was by Ellen, Travis & Andrew - the only complaint was that there wasn’t enough of them playing and some of us missed their performance completely due to the raucous behaviour in the queue at the bar.
Ohhh and the BOLDING was in the newsletter, not mine, so jam that in ya pipe mate!
Now onto the bit about, who was involved....you clearly have no clue at the truth. The major paties contributed what they were able to, where their respective strengths were, and I can tell you for a fact
all the financial underwriting was done by SAAA. The generous help of the major contributors (including AOPA) and sponsors was mind blowing. And yet again you would not have a clue.
It is a shame you did not get to hear the speech by the (our - I am a member there too)AOPA president. You should be proud of his great work
On a separate but closely related issue, I am of the opinion that the policy positions being taken by SAAA and some in CASA has the potential to seriously restrict amateur building and take us back to 101.28 like days.
Now you are correct, this is a seperate matter, but it is TOTALLY UNRELATED, The only relation is SAAA being the underwriting contributor to AUSFLY. And a closing comment there, once again you have no idea what you are talking about.
The rest of your paragraph
The mandatory maintenance qualification, that has nothing to do with actual maintenance of amateur built aircraft, but is all about often irrelevant administration and paperwork, with a hefty price tag attached, including mandatory membership of SAAA is, I fear, the first tangible example of this trend.
Well that shows a distinct lack of understanding of what really is going on. Have you attended an MPC course? The answer is no, so lets move along, the vast majority of those who have, like me, found it often a dry subject matter, because it is, but we all learned many things that not only may make a difference in maintenance safety, but also retain value in our aircraft. Would you buy an aircraft with poorly or non existent maintenance records or details?
No way.
Mandatory SAAA membership, no it is not mandatory to be or keep membership with your MPC, unlike AWAL or RAAus which is mandatory. So you are
wrong again. The SAAA has a requirement for attendees to be covered by SAAA insurance, and for that they need to be a member. Simple as that. If you want to do a MPC course from another approved training organisation that is fine with CASA and SAAA, go for it. Heck start one yourself!
Once again you have been found out to be wrong, starting muck raking and serving no useful purpose to anything constructive. Telling mistruths is not something a person of high stature like yourself should be doing. I hate to say this but I do not sit here advising QANTAS on how they should structure all their internal flight operations departments, maintenance and training programmes, so how about you stick to what you know, and I will stick to what I know. I will try not to be an expert in your back yard in return
Hefty price tag? You have got to be kidding, if it were in 1972, yes, but in 2012, you are kidding. In fact it is done for too little. The price should be higher, and for the long term members in particular. I paid too little. I would like to see you tell George Braly or Walter Atkinson they charge too much a hefty price for their course
It is only slightly more, but that includes some meals. Interesting to note, all of the airline guys I have spoken to about the MPC actually rave about it, we think they are sick twisted individuals, but surprisingly they gained a lot and appreciated its worth. I could dig up written quotes, but you can just trust me.
On a closing note, and this will be the end of the debate on this thread at least, what I saw recently was a VH registered Jabiru ramped in Qld, the MR was 3 years out of date, when the CASA FOI asked have you done an MPC and the response was, whats that? It just proved one thing to me. Being someone who wants to enjoy extra privileges from the experimental category, it is your responsibility to stay up to speed. And the best way to do that is be a member of the organisation that best represents that group. Wouldn't you agree that being a SAAA member would have provided much education material over time on the owners responsibilities, the need for education on Maintenance Proceedures, and having up to date MR's?
I guess it is OK for AWAL membership to be compulsory. I guess it is OK for RAAus membership to be compulsory. I guess it is just fortunate that my AOPA and SAAA membership is voluntary and I pay all of them without being a tight arsed miserable sod like some folk do.
Now go focus your energies where they will do some good, and stop white anting the good work done by so many others with comments that are so far from accurate and are factually incorrect.
Thread drift OFF!
Hey Griffo.......... Now that we have that all sorted, the garmin gadget is the GLO
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=109827&ra=true