Royal Queensland Aero Club

[C82R]

When the Club vacated their premises there were a large number of pilot log books that were still held in the club's custody. These log books were placed in archive boxes by the Administrators and then placed into storage. The Administrators are no longer prepared to continue to pay the storage fees and the log books have been released back into the custody of the club. A group of volunteers went through the log books over the weekend and they have been catalogued. Some of the log books start in 1981 and some in the early 2000s have only one or two entries where the log book owner seems to have ceased flying. There are also log books from pilots who use to fly with Archerfield Flight Centre or Air Training Centre.

These log books may have some significant value to their owner or may have no value at all. However the club is trying to get the word out there to present and past pilots that the log books are available to their owners subject to identification. Unfortunately the personal details recorded in the log books are either out of date or not recorded at all and therefore it is not possible for the club to contact each and every owner. It is the club's intention to hold the log books until the 28th February 2019 after which time all those log books with the last entry being prior to 31st December 2011 with will destroyed.

Any enquiries regarding the log books should be sent to the club secretary at [email protected]

[cowl flaps]

Well done to you for trying to reunite the logbooks with their owners.
Most likely, most of the owners just gave flying away for one reason or another.

[Ejector]

That's fantastic to see the Aero Club resurrected again. I thought it died.

For those others like me, here is their link here. Royal Qld (https://rqac.com.au/)

It looks like it is in a new building on the west side of Archerfield. Is it a social club only, do they operate planes ?

[Judd]

When the Club vacated their premises there were a large number of pilot log books that were still held in the club's custody
There is no CASA requirement for pilots log books to be held in flying schools custody. They are belong to their owners especially as they have usually paid for them. When students decide to transfer to another flying school for whatever reason, there are cases when the first flying school has deliberately held on to these log books to spite the student for leaving. Some years ago in Victoria a fire in the club building caused the destruction of all students log books. That caused a real administrative headache which the students wore.

[Ramjet555]

I recall seeing scores of old log books in the late 70's in Vic. Most had just 1 or 2 flights. But rarely did they have lots of hours.
There were a couple with low hours but in the front, you would see an old log book referred to that might have been Spitfires or Lancasters. Back then it was not uncommon for a fit looking middle aged guy to walk in, want to get back into flying and you would discover that their last flight was in WW2.

Perhaps the books could be kept in storage and the names placed on their web site.
I cannot imagine CASA assisting as they would claim it was an invasion of privacy.

The other alternative is for high quality scans to be made of the log books before their disposal in
the very rare probability that someone older than 60 is going to show up looking for an old logbook.

[holdingagain]

The new location is towards the rear of the old Flight Training building. A couple of rooms, one with a bar.

The bulk of the logbooks consist of a used page or two. Rather than destroy unclaimed books why not rip the couple of used pages out and give the books to Ian at the pilot shop to sell for a few bucks with a cut to the club. Saves waste and there are plenty of young pilots who could save a dollar and resurrect the logbooks for a new life.

To join, $85 plus $50 joining fee, complete a 2 page application ( is that excessive ) find a proposer and a seconder.

I heard there is a centenary dinner planned for next year, not sure where.

[wateroff]

These logbooks would not have been ‘held’ by the company. It was practice to allow students to store logbooks on the premises until they achieved a license, accessible safe and not prone to damage or loss. Some kept them on their person. Most of these types of logbooks would have been owned by students/privaties who had completed 2 or 3 lessons and not returned for other reasons. RQ certainly had an interesting last coulple of years unfortunately, run by wannabes, but RQAC proper - as its own entity - was not that type of place. Not when we were driving anyway.

[megle2]

The Centenary Dinner was held within Archerfield’s Hangar 5 last night attended by 150
Congratulations to the organisers on achieving this milestone
Not an easy task after the flogging RQAC has experienced

[chance]

Apparently a grand event in Hangar 5, the original Qantas Hangar on YBAF.. The RQAC Patron, the Governor of Queensland attended and the Chief Pilot of Qantas was the guest speaker. Hangar 5 was apparently nicely fitted out for the event with a couple of business jets and a Spitfire and Mustang surrounding the attendees. Looks like RQAC is on the way back after the dramas of a few years ago which is good to see.