PPRuNe Forums - Royal Newcastle Aero Club suspends operations

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I'm with you Horatio, It doesn't need to be this difficult.

When we first became a Part 142, I ended up putting in a Significant Change Request to change the process for making Significant Changes! The process to make what we would normally call a "small" change required a full on risk assessment, a formal assessment of the risk assessment by the change management committee, send off the change to CASA and wait for them to approve the change. Minimum turn around was about 4 weeks with one change taking just on 12 months for a change of address. Yes a change of address is considered a Significant Change requiring CASA approval before you can pack up your desk and move to the new building you are probably paying rent on waiting for CASA to approve....

Over and out.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clare Prop (Post 10538653)

I don't know anything about this particular situation, but the whole thing of having committees full of amateurs who want cheap flying for themselves interfering with the running of the flying school is something I have seen over and over again. In the past I have managed aircraft on behalf of clubs, even with a very clear contract it has always ended with them telling me how to run my business, even "white anting" my own clients right under my nose. It only takes one rotten apple and every committee has one.

Depends on the club of course, but not every committee or board is "full of amateurs" who want "cheap flying".

Our club (which incorporates a flying school and engineering facility) has strict rules in place; directors receive no fees for their service and no discount whatsoever. We believe that this ensures the directors are in it for the right reasons. Just about every member of our board is a working professional, some are highly qualified, with a good mix of backgrounds from aviation and non-aviation industries.

My experience Clare was the exact opposite. The running of the flying school took precedence over the interests of the members to the point where I found it difficult to book and hire a certain aircraft for some touring because it would muck up some foreign students training schedule. The aircraft hadn’t even been booked. They just wanted it available in a few weeks time when they had finished some classroom IFR or cross country nav. I left the club because there was no value whatsoever in staying. Everything was geared to churning out foreign students and members were regarded as a nuisance.

By “value” I don’t just mean cheap aircraft hire. I mean access to experienced instructors and training that could advance my very limited knowledge of airmanship. There was none to be had. The experienced, capable older folk (male and female) had either left of their own accord or been pushed out in favour of cheap instructors pushing out a very low quality commercial foreign product as fast as possible.

Re 'and his advice was "you know what boys? If it's too hard, my advice as a small country accountant is just walk away and have a nice life doing something else"=left

And 'That', fellow GA aviators, just about sums it all up...…..Unfortunately...…

No Cheers here...NOPE none at all...….
:-(

Many flying "clubs" and groups in the USA where shared ownership in a number of aircraft works well. Maintenance is contracted out and the "club/group" has an honorary manager who looks after aircraft bookings. FRom what I've seen works well! [I realise that there has been or are a few here already]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunfish (Post 10539719)

Yes I hear of that too, gone too far the other way! Certainly nothing clubby about training huge amounts of foreign students, apart from the favourable tax status. Funny when I was managing aircraft for a club that had 5, they were cross hired out for a few months contract Monday-Friday ...to another "club" training huge amounts of foreign students! The committee had seen the dollar signs and agreed to it, but the everyday weekday flying members were furious. You can never keep everyone happy!

Very sad news.
Years ago I flew a Pitts out of Rutherford & obtained a formation endorsement.