Postby bobthebuilder » Tue May 03, 2016 10:26 pm
I know I don't do enough to support MISASA, but really do appreciate the hard work that our committee volunteer. Thank you to each and every one of you.
While I cannot criticise MISASA in any way, I could perhaps offer the following for consideration:
The EAA does have its act together. I'll give them that.
This doesn't mean that we don't have ours together though.
For those who dont know ....
The EAA consists of various groups, or chapters, as they're known, spread across the country .... or world, if you want to look at the bigger picture.
Each chapter will typically meet once a month in their area for the purpose of sharing knowledge and assisting their members with their various aircraft builds. It's rather informal and very social. Fly-aways and build site visits are usually well attended. They have their own award and trophy ceremonies. Members usually become good mates. They enjoy very active participation, that's where their success lies. (Now, let's all sing kum-bah-yah)
Misasa, while well run, is left to a handful of people. Why is this? Get the microlight community as involved as the EAA boys, and we could be just as strong.
Could MISASA try and mimic the EAA philosophy?
Split the membership into regions. Each region has a monthly social activity that is hosted at a different field in the region each month. We then have an annual gathering once a year where all of the regions get together. In other words, reinstate our shoot-out event.
Dish out some brass for the trike who's travelled the furtherest, the cleanest and neatest, among other stuff. We could even have a wooden spoon award for some petty violation of sorts. A closed, short circuit air race with pylons ... regions could compete, although Gauteng would obviously clean up, so you're wasting your time anyway. Not all of us are super excited about nav rallies. Make it cool, make it exciting.
Food for thought, maybe we should have a poll and find out what our members really want.
WCM, CCM, and LSA aircraft are supposed to be an affordable means to get the average dude in the sky. That is, it should be if we plan to sustain the sport, yet alone grow it. Could we perhaps rip a page from the Soaring Societies book?
Glider pilots are trained on club equipment at a small rental fee. Instruction is essentially free. A bunch of well experienced instructors with funny frilly hats volunteer their time to share their knowledge. This dramatically reduces the cost of instruction and makes it more accessible to the general public. Sure, there are some issues that would need to be addressed, but if the glider boys have overcome these challenges for years, why can't we?
We need to rethink the way we train pilots.
Ok, we partnered with the EAA, with some success I'm sure.
But! .... what if ......
Each and every one of us, at four or five years old looked skyward and dreamed of flight. We joined SAMAA and became RC pilots because that's all we were allowed to fly at that age. We learned about flight exactly the same way that Burt Rutan did. Model aviation was, and is, a stepping stone toward obtaining a pilots license. Why not partner with SAMAA?
Invite the model guys to our events. Flip! (Pardon the pun), offer them flips and try to attract their members into our fraternity. You could buy a used Aquilla trike for less money than some of the models on the market now.
Get hold of Bob Skinner. (SAMAA chairman) I'm sure he'd be more than happy to run an editorial in his magazine each month. There's an opportunity there to grow our membership and sport.
We also really need to drag Jay Hyde and the other Snake formation team boys out of hiding and get them to represent us at the airshows again. Promote the socks off the sport.
Byron Kirkland
