LAA to take aircraft up to 5 seats / 450hp
To be fair, the UK has too many organisations and you can't join all of them.
Personally I'm a member of LAA, BMAA and RAeS: I could of-course join AOPA, GAPAN and you could think of a few more as well and it's easy to criticise people who belong to the wrong list of associations.
Personally, I think that we should all join and engage with at-least one of the national bodies, but be patient if not everybody joins our own favourite.
G
Personally I'm a member of LAA, BMAA and RAeS: I could of-course join AOPA, GAPAN and you could think of a few more as well and it's easy to criticise people who belong to the wrong list of associations.
Personally, I think that we should all join and engage with at-least one of the national bodies, but be patient if not everybody joins our own favourite.
G
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Reading this thread, if the LAA becomes much more popular it will have to be called the Popular Flying Association. 
PS. LAA member who thoroughly endorses all the previous good words.
PS. LAA member who thoroughly endorses all the previous good words.
I've been a member of PFA/LAA for the past 9 years - a fantastic organisation 
Even better when it moved down the road to Turweston and started doing the "old style" Rally (IMHO).
The B Word (an LAA fan)
Even better when it moved down the road to Turweston and started doing the "old style" Rally (IMHO).
The B Word (an LAA fan)
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Even Froggies are LAA Members
As new owner of a PtF Smyth-Sidewinder (G BRVH), I'm very glad of the services provided by the Association....As mentioned, the monthly LAA Magazine is very pleasant to read: small aircrafts, personnal histories, excellent technical subjects, excellent updates of the regulations (EASA / airspace) issues...
Join, Join, Join!!!!!!
Bertrand
As new owner of a PtF Smyth-Sidewinder (G BRVH), I'm very glad of the services provided by the Association....As mentioned, the monthly LAA Magazine is very pleasant to read: small aircrafts, personnal histories, excellent technical subjects, excellent updates of the regulations (EASA / airspace) issues...
Join, Join, Join!!!!!!
Bertrand
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Wow, What a change to see so many positive remarks for an organisation that does its upmost to keep GA alive in this country.
No one organisation can be perfect all the time, but with the limitations that are imposed on the aviation community in this country by the so called safety minded members of the EU, the LAA shouts load and clear to ensure we survive.
Well done to all and keep up this brillient PR broadcast to encourage as many people to join and strengthen what is a fantastic community.
No one organisation can be perfect all the time, but with the limitations that are imposed on the aviation community in this country by the so called safety minded members of the EU, the LAA shouts load and clear to ensure we survive.
Well done to all and keep up this brillient PR broadcast to encourage as many people to join and strengthen what is a fantastic community.
Wow, What a change to see so many positive remarks for an organisation that does its upmost to keep GA alive in this country.
No one organisation can be perfect all the time, but with the limitations that are imposed on the aviation community in this country by the so called safety minded members of the EU, the LAA shouts load and clear to ensure we survive.
Well done to all and keep up this brillient PR broadcast to encourage as many people to join and strengthen what is a fantastic community.
No one organisation can be perfect all the time, but with the limitations that are imposed on the aviation community in this country by the so called safety minded members of the EU, the LAA shouts load and clear to ensure we survive.
Well done to all and keep up this brillient PR broadcast to encourage as many people to join and strengthen what is a fantastic community.
I'd say that all three of our main sport flying organisations consistently do an excellent job, and don't attract much criticism.
The main problem is probably of people who take them for granted, rather than join and help their work. That and, to some extent, the people who forget that LAA isn't the only one of the three doing all this work.
G
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Genghis,
totally agree with you. On this occasion I was shouting on behalf of the LAA, but you are quite right they are not the only ones doing good work on behalf of the lighter avaition community on this country.
As for criticism, I hear quite a bit that is negative and it sadens me to think that these individuals are all too happy to take what they can and criticise accordingly without a single thought of the organisations themselves and the good work they do, but also the good work put in by individuals free of charge to ensure the survival and upkeep of the flying community.
totally agree with you. On this occasion I was shouting on behalf of the LAA, but you are quite right they are not the only ones doing good work on behalf of the lighter avaition community on this country.
As for criticism, I hear quite a bit that is negative and it sadens me to think that these individuals are all too happy to take what they can and criticise accordingly without a single thought of the organisations themselves and the good work they do, but also the good work put in by individuals free of charge to ensure the survival and upkeep of the flying community.
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I'm not sure I need an excuse not to belong to something just because you all do 
Seriously, there is a bit of an overload. I'm an AOPA member - I joined because of the wings scheme (even though I never quite seem to make it to Gold) - and I have nothing particularly against the LAA as such - it's more that I visit the US regularly and read some of the experimental aircraft magazines and am regularly frustrated by the lack of IFR and night privileges which make no regulatory sense.
Tim
Seriously, there is a bit of an overload. I'm an AOPA member - I joined because of the wings scheme (even though I never quite seem to make it to Gold) - and I have nothing particularly against the LAA as such - it's more that I visit the US regularly and read some of the experimental aircraft magazines and am regularly frustrated by the lack of IFR and night privileges which make no regulatory sense.
Tim
LAA: 8,000ish members, 2,500ish light, vintage and microlight aeroplanes
BMAA: 4,500ish members, 3,500ish microlight aeroplanes
BGA: lots of members (not sure how many): 3,000ish gliders
(To be fair, there are also BBAC, BPA, BHPA, BRA - but I'm sticking to talking about things roughly aeroplane shaped.)
G
BMAA: 4,500ish members, 3,500ish microlight aeroplanes
BGA: lots of members (not sure how many): 3,000ish gliders
(To be fair, there are also BBAC, BPA, BHPA, BRA - but I'm sticking to talking about things roughly aeroplane shaped.)
G
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Tim
I while you are free to not join your logic escapes me.
You are frustrated by the lack of night and IFR for permit aircraft so you haven't joined the one UK organisation that is actively fighting for those priveleges?
I while you are free to not join your logic escapes me.
You are frustrated by the lack of night and IFR for permit aircraft so you haven't joined the one UK organisation that is actively fighting for those priveleges?
A little less conversation,
a little more aviation...
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The CAA are supporting a proposal to extend the range of aircraft eligible for an LAA permit to include aircraft up to 2000kg, 300mph, 450hp and 5 seats! This would include things like the Yak 52. Aircraft with a c of a will have to stay, for now at least, but CAA permit types will be able to transfer.
Rod1
Rod1
Having until recently been part of both an LAA Permit Pitts S1 syndicate, and a Yak-52 syndicate - getting on for 5 and 6 years respectively - I have a modicum of insight into the engineering requirements of each. I sold my share in the Pitts partly - only partly - because it became clear that when the 50 hour checks and annual came around, it was largely muggins who spent a day or so rolling around on the floor in a Waltham hangar before and after the event spannering the bloody thing. I grant you that the major reason for selling the Pitts was that as a result of the excellent cuisine at Waltham, the most stressful part of any flight was getting in and out of it. I remain a member of the Yak syndicate - the seating arrangements are more than ample.
Regardless - a Pitts, RV, Cub or any of the other airframes currently operating on LAA Permits are a far cry from a Yak-52, which possesses some complex, arcane and downright odd systems, the spannering of which I personally would not undertake in a month of Sundays. A look at the toolkit which comes with a Yak-52 should be evidence enough - I can identify the purpose of about 10% of the contents of ours - the set of weapons-grade spanners and the great-big-sod-off hammer. The rest of the implements, frankly frightening pieces of metal worthy of Torquemada himself, have no clearly identifiable purpose, but the fact the Soviets decided they'd be a good thing to have in a field toolkit - they weren't given to whimsy in these affairs - is another indication that there are things in a Yak-52 the fertling with of which is best left to those qualified in the appropriate fertling art, and those wise in the ways of such fertling are thin on the ground.
Obviously, some relaxation of the frankly ludicrously short mandated official lifetimes of some components would be more than welcome, as would a migration to paperwork oversight by the LAA - because they're nice people at the end of the day, and understand we're just operating the aircraft for fun, a concept which the CAA Permit-to-Fly infrastructure has never really understood.
Whatever changes occur, I suspect the same people who spanner Yaks today will be those who maintain them after the change of arrangements, and they'll be paid to do it - and I have, generally, no problem with that.
Last edited by eharding; 9th Jan 2010 at 20:33.
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A Pommie,
You may have a point there. Not being a LAA member I didn't know it was an active campaign with a chance of success - I'd not seen that reported anywhere.
I'll take a look. But I wonder if I can justify AOPA membership as well... the latter costs me an hour's flying a year as it is...
Tim
You may have a point there. Not being a LAA member I didn't know it was an active campaign with a chance of success - I'd not seen that reported anywhere.
I'll take a look. But I wonder if I can justify AOPA membership as well... the latter costs me an hour's flying a year as it is...
Tim
