Soar...
 

Have heard they have entered Voluntary Administration, can anyone confirm?

Can't say they'll be missed, but feel bad for any students still enrolled and the instructors affected.

Why start a rumour when with a little effort you can post fact?

Name: GOBEL AVIATION PTY. LTD.
ACN: 006 160 658
ABN: 11 006 160 658
Previous state number: C0215994C
Previous state of registration: Victoria
Registration date: 1/06/1983
Next review date: 1/06/2021
Former name(s): BENDIGO AVIATION SERVICES PTY. LIMITED

Status: External Administration

Type: Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Locality of registered office: HAWTHORN EAST VIC 3123

Effective date either 28 or 29 December 2020.

Here comes the wave.

Trading whilst insolvent becomes illegal again from next week. Soar will be one of many companies that hand over to the administrators as we rip the economic bandaid off.

Speaking of...

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT AS LIQUIDATOR

Company details

Company: China Southern West Australian Flying College Pty Ltd
ACN: 000 863 123
Status: In Liquidation
Appointment Date: 21 December 2020

https://publishednotices.asic.gov.au...rict=&dnotice=

Geez, I disliked Soar very much because of their lack of ethics but it's still sad to see it go. For the Instructors and other Staff that used to work there who might read this stay strong, it'll be tough and make sure you lean on friends and families for support, that's what they're there for! If anyone who ran it happens to read this, rot in hell.

So just over a year ago the CEO was boasting how he had a personal wealth of 66 million. I also heard that same then ex CEO let the country a few months back.

Most of that money came from VET loans apparently.

This sort of rort just gets repeated over and over and every time there is millions of missing taxpayers money, CEOs in flashy cars who never seem to be accountable then vanish, staff and students left with less than nothing and no recourse, the money has all gone. These loans just create opportunities for people who see an easy way to get rich "There's a global pilot shortage! Never been a better time to learn to fly!" etc and then leave a trail of destruction, not only the staff and students who get shafted but the rest of the industry who have to pay higher prices to keep the suppliers afloat when they are left with bad debts, and the operators who have had to compete with these organisations whilst subsiding them with our taxes.

.And then the next one comes along...or sometimes the same characters...and round we go again.

Name: SOAR AVIATION PTY. LTD.
ACN: 159 695 379
ABN: 78 159 695 379
Registration date: 30/07/2012
Next review date: 30/07/2021

Status: Deregistered
Date deregistered: 7/10/2020
Type: Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Locality of registered office:
Regulator: Australian Securities & Investments Commission

SOAR AVIATION PTY. LTD.ACN 159 695 379Australian Proprietary CompanyDeregistered Select result



SOAR AVIATION (FIAD) PTY LTDACN 613 308 820Australian Proprietary CompanyUnder External AdministrationHAWTHORN EAST VIC 3123Select result



SOAR AVIATION MELBOURNE PTY LTDACN 619 893 186Australian Proprietary CompanyUnder External AdministrationHAWTHORN EAST VIC 3123Select result



SOAR AVIATION SYDNEY PTY LTDACN 613 279 048Australian Proprietary CompanyUnder External AdministrationHAWTHORN EAST VIC 3123Select result



SOAR AVIATION HOLDINGS PTY LTDACN 600 336 301Australian Proprietary CompanyDeregistered Select result



SOAR AVIATION HOLDINGS PTY LTDACN 626 081 089Australian Proprietary CompanyUnder External AdministrationHAWTHORN EAST VIC 3123Select result



SOAR AVIATION FLIGHT TRAINING Business NameCancelled Select result



SOAR AVIATION AIRCRAFT HOLDINGS PTY LTDACN 613 275 853Australian Proprietary CompanyUnder External AdministrationHAWTHORN EAST VIC 3123

Career-wise for the instructors and students, this is probably a good thing. A short term bump on a rocky road to a fulfilling career.

The corporate entities titled "Soar Aviation" are relevant but it is the AOC holder and operating companies operations that are principally affected by External Administration.

The AOC Holder and Company in External Administration is Gobel Aviation Pty Ltd trading as Soar Advanced Flight Training.

AOC Holder Name: GOBEL AVIATION PTY LTD
Primary Trading Name: Soar Advanced Flight Training
Town/City: MOORABBIN AIRPORT
State: VIC
AOC Holder Country: Australia
Type of AOC: Australian
CASA Office: Southern Region
Operations: Aerial Work, Aircraft Charter
AOC Application Status: Issued
Issue Date: 15/05/2020
Expiry Date: 30/04/2021

Is the Administrator operating the Company or are the doors closed? Their web site is still active.

Notice on the door of the building in YMMB states operations are suspended while KPMG conducts an urgent review of the group.

As much as I hate Soar, i really feel for the staff and the students, hopefully it all irons out over 2021, best of luck to all

Gobel/Bendigo Aviation Services
 

Been out of the loop for a while; can someone fill me in on how Soar got hold of Gobel's AOC?

Poor Chris would not be impressed. 😞

Neel bought it. Chris wanted to retire at the time.

The appointed external manager is liable for any new debts he creates from time of appointment. If he decides the entity can trade without creating any new debt, it will trade. If not viable/profitable, or the creditors will not underwrite any new debt, it will be liquidated - sold as a going concern or the assets sold to pay down debts. The Manager/Liquidator gets first cut of the funds!

Prior to SOAR buying the Gobel AOC I understand that SOAR was only an RA operation, doing training and charter (joyrides). Hence Gobel trading as SOAR.

I stand to be corrected.

SOAR (or Sour, depending on your POV) initially started as an RA operation with one Jabiru J-160, which later increased to 3 and a cross-hired J-170. Later they went to Foxbats, Aquilas, Bristells, etc.
There were a few AOC's that SOAR piggy-backed off before buying Chris Gobel's, Amber Aviation was one of them, and one of the flying schools long established at YMMB (can't remember which one..)
There were an awful lot of Trial Instructional Flights given that Neel had deals with Scoopon, Groupon, and other similar operations, before they became what they are (were?) today.

Nothing new here, GA operators are always on borrowed time. Covid obviously doesn't help.
Thinking back to all the YMMB based training and charter outfits that I have known over the years that are all long gone. Maybe RVAC still exists but what about Schutts, Civils, Peninsula, Ken Sharp's GFS, Campbell-Hicks, Combined, Australian Air Charters, Airchart, Bassair, Flinders Is. Airways, Phoenix, John Corrells, Nicholas Skyways, Jayrow, Pipair, Peter Bini and numerous others that came after I stopped frequenting Moorabbin. Essendon and Bankstown the same.
All have in common is leaving people without jobs.

Wow. What a list of names. Deja Vu, eh? :)

I was an instructor at RVAC at the end of the 80's and so also a customer at a lot of those places.

Neel Khokhani is a crook, plain and simple. I recall he said to me about the Scoopon/Groupon vouchers for TIF's, "I don't care if the customer never redeems their voucher as I already have their money". This summarises his attitude completely. The majority of these "TIF's" were sold to inbound Chinese tourists who couldn't even speak English let alone have an interest in learning to fly. It is ILLEGAL to advertise and operate JOY FLIGHTS in RA aircraft. Hence why they were marketed as "TIF's". Neel was obviously operating ILLEGALLY for many years and the authorities CASA and RAAus did NOTHING about it. TIME FOR THE FEDERAL POLICE TO FIND THIS ****** AND TAKE ALL HIS ILL GOTTEN MONEY, THEN EITHER DEPORT HIM OR PUT HIM IN JAIL FOR LIFE!

Mods, this post is not slander, it is the truth. I was there. I know this to be the true facts.

Is that because they were selling TIF’s? That is standard industry practice and all schools sell TIF’s for marketing purposes. In tourist areas it is very common and the TIF costs are highly inflated.

Then either you misunderstood or he did, because that's not how Groupon works. When a Groupon voucher is purchased the company it is for doesn't get a dime until it's actually redeemed, Scoopon are different but not always as well.

Don't get me wrong, he's a crook but stick to the actual facts. Can someone point out the actual reg that makes it illegal for a Joy/Scenic Flight to be carried out in an RAAus Aircraft, genuinely curious as it's not a field I've looked into much and a bit of googling around doesn't seem to reveal much unfortunately.

RAAus aircraft used by SOAR operated under CAO 95.55 https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018L00070 They must operate under the RAAus Ops Manual https://members.raa.asn.au/storage/6...ngle-pages.pdf and only for private operations or flying training. Scenic or joy flights for reward are charter.
From CAO 95.55

6.1 The following general conditions apply in relation to a relevant aeroplane:

(a) a person must not use the aeroplane other than for:

(i) private operations, including glider towing, but not an aerial application operation; or

(ii) if the aeroplane has been wholly built and assembled by a commercial manufacturer — flying training, to enable the person to obtain a RAA pilot certificate; or

(iii) if the person has wholly built or assembled the aeroplane, whether individually or with other persons — the person’s personal flying training;

There's no equivalent to a CPL or Class 1 medical in RAAus...both of which are needed to operate joy/scenic flights. If you want to operate an RAAus aircraft, you must be a financial member of RAAus, hold a valid pilot certificate (not licence), and self-certify that you're medically fit. The only exception is for instructors, who must hold a Class 2 or the RAAus equivalent.

Thanks Stikman, that explains a lot! I thought it was an exemption in the CASA regs to operate under the RAAus Ops Manual so was looking solely in the RAAus Ops for types of flights permitted but this makes a lot more sense now, cheers.

The next question though, Soar didn't solely operate RAAus so were they doing the TIFs in their VH Registered Aircraft I wonder. Would think that otherwise they'd have been pulled up a long time ago and this is how they got around it. Interestingly their website still makes no mention of the current proceedings either.

The TIF is achieved legitimately by signing up the student for a temporary free RAAus membership.

This system is well sorted and has been the case for many a years and is all legal.

All RAAus schools do TIF’s, however some do a lot more than others, particularly in areas with high tourist flow or other effective methods of advertising.

Option (ii) above covers Soar’s TIF’s.

Their business practices on the other hand, are not something that CASA or RAAus have control over.

I'm not sure of the history of Soar after March 2015, however, up until then they were pretty much strictly RAAus. Once Neel got hold of an AOC (interesting story as to why he didn't get his own..), he started doing the odd charter flight in cross-hired aircraft. As far as I know, all TIFs were done under the RAAus banner....certainly this was the case up until March 2015.

The TIF scam has been running for a long, long time. Students of SMS will be aware of the term ‘normalised deviation’. That’s what TIFs are.

When it goes horribly wrong, the ‘operator’ and CASA will be on the same rather than different sides of the court.

Cloudee quoted one of the key conditions on the main exemption under which the ‘ultralight’ community continues to escape the clutches of the regulatory Frankenstein’s monster. Someone walking off the street and paying money to be flown around in an aircraft s/he didn’t buy or build - pretend training or otherwise - doesn’t satisfy the condition.

Ahah! Who said the industry and the regulator can’t work together? !!!

They bought it

Obviously, you've seen how other RAAus flight schools operate, otherwise you're speculating. I don't believe that there is anything inherently illegal about a TIF done in a factory built and LAME maintained RAAus aircraft. Provided that the RAAus instructor acts within both the letter, and the spirit, of the rules, then the TIF is done as a TIF. We look on the ability to conduct TIFs as a major student influencer, and it would be a major setback were it to be made illegal.

This includes signing the person up via an RAAus 'temporary membership' form, giving them a fundamentals brief, then treating them as a student and not a passenger. In flight, they must operate the controls iaw with what's in the Lesson 1 (E & OC). 9/10 of the TIFs that we conduct here are with people who have expressed a strong interest in learning to fly, and we are in a major tourist location. If they want a joyflight, we direct them to the nearby GA school which has a C172.

happy days,

Glad i didn't do my training here, there seems to be a lot of crooks in the industry looking to break rules so they can make quick money.

A TIF in a RAAus aircraft is fine. Even for those students eventually wanting to go GA CPL etc it is a great and cheap way to get up to the same level as a GA Recreational Pilot Licence equivalency and jump into GA syllabus from there.
However at SOAR it was VERY clear to me and anyone else around SOAR at the time (2015 prior to Neel buying Gobels Aviation AOC) that the persons enjoying these "TIFs" were NOT POTENTIAL STUDENTS. They were Chinese tourists. Hardly ANY of them wanted to take the controls, they couldn't speak a word of English, and just took selfies all flight. They were clearly Joy flights which are ILLEGAL in RAAus aircraft. No doubt about it in my mind. I was there. I KNOW FIRST HAND!

Unfortunately that’s GA, there will be another to replace SOAR.

Ah, the outrage of the Aussie pilot who spots what they think is a monor infraction of Rule xx.yy, part ww, Section zz, paragraph tt. :D

If the aircraft were loaded with three Chinese tourists, flying for an hour and a half around the sight-seeing areas - perhaps. But what difference between a TIF customer who says "I just want to get a feel for it" and takes selfies, and a custormer who actually touches the controls?

Did you report any of your concerns? Did you conduct any of these flights?

I think I know the answer to both of these questions.

Some still going fine, some rebadged or taken over and still here in another form.

Be interesting to compare the numbers employed pre-COVID with those employed in earlier years.

Depends on the context of what he said to you. I said the same about some charity flights - more than happy to fly them even after some years have passed but I'm not going to chase them. Gee, until a year or so ago, most vouchers expired after a year and many Finance Managers would say the same - ever tried to use an expired movie voucher?

The joy flight gift voucher rate runs in the industry at about a 30% no-show.

You could sit a non-operational TigerMoth next to the highway and sell flights as vouchers.

Short of social media and word of mouth destroying your scam, you’d pick up 30% for doing nothing.

One thing I'm interested in, are the students creditors? Quite a bit of their tuition will have been forward paid. I doubt the students will have the capacity to refuse to pay the VET LOAN back to the taxpayer via the government, so the government will keep taking the payments? I seriously doubt that any tuition money will be refunded to the students by the administrator. If this is the case, will the class action target the government for charging the student for services not provided?

Maybe there is a day of reckoning coming for VET Student Loans and the aviation sector?

Whist most of you think they are overpriced and a rip off (that can be argued) most of the cost that goes on top of the aircraft hire charges stem from RTO compliance (significant) and actually employing the instructors correctly (award wages, structure of employment etc). It is not cheap to obtain VET Student Loans or RTO status for your organisation, this cost must be passed on, simple fact of business. Ragging organisations for the cost of a pilots license under VET Student Loans verse self funding is simplistic in the extreme.

If VET Student Loans disappear GA will contract significantly, maybe this needs to happen? Add to this the extremely poor trading relationship between China and Australia. China has options, Australia is not the only place cadet training takes place, their GA capacity is expanding significantly. If they walk away, another contraction.

It seems that most Australians seem to think that closing borders is keeping them safe, I wonder what being 'kept safe' will look like when the federal government runs out of patience with state border shutdowns. Tsunami awaits I reckon.

Most people seem to not understand the SOAR/BHI partnership. Almost all students studying at Soar were enrolled into a Box Hill diploma course. They are students of Box Hill, not Soar Aviation. Soar is contracted to deliver the training, but at the end of the day, it now rests with Box Hill to find a new way to deliver the training to students.

One thing that's not clear is the structure in which Soar was paid by Box Hill to deliver the training.