Microlighters

Herewith just a bit of feedback on what was discussed at the recent AGM and the year ahead for SAGPA.

The previous minutes and 2014 financials was accepted and chairman's report tabled.

The following items were discussed and agreed:
The SAGPA fees for 2015 will remain at:
R 450-00 for payment before 28 February 2014 (of which R 50-00 will be for Accident Assist fund and R 50-00 towards the AP Scheme)
and
R 550-00 for payment after 28 February 2014 (of which R 100-00 for Accident Assist fund and R 100-00 for AP Scheme).

Inspection of Flight Schools by designated examiners as well as Instructor ratings a priority for coming year.

The identification and training of AP's and the finalization of gyro specific AP training syllabus a priority.

The importance of a signed indemnity for taking people for a casual flip was emphasized. An example can be downloaded from the SAGPA website
Indemnity link: http://www.sagpa.co.za/wdocs.php

Carnarvon will host the next North / South event planned for March/April/May next year. Date still to be confirmed.

The following awards were handed out:
The Sean Klopper Remarkable Airmanship Award: Jean Tresfon for his promotion of gyro flying through his amazing photography over the years.
The Christa Vorster Remarkable Achievement Award: Juanita Kruger for her solo cross country / border flight to Otjiwarongo.
2000 hour mile award: Tom van der Meulen and Theuns Eloff
1000 hour mile award: James Turner and Andre Bezuidenhout

The committee members for 2015 are:
Chairman and technical: Eric Torr
Vice chairman, treasurer and communication: Marius Kruger
Training: Dickie Hagermann
Safety and events: Marcel vd Merwe
Website: Juanita Kruger

Regional representatives:
Northern Cape: Pieter van Niekerk
Freestate: Phillip Smith
Gauteng: Werner Swanepoel
Eastern Cape: Marcel vd Merwe
Mpumalanga: Gawie Steyn
Western Cape: To be finalized
Limpopo & North west: To be finalized
KZN: To be finalized

Regional representatives to organize at least one local fly-away / get together for the region and to assist organization of groups for the North / South get together.

The SAGPA website http://www.sagpa.co.za will be updated shortly with the latest information. Please also visit the SAGPA facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/121785571218952/ and share the joy of gyro flying.

Dear All

Kindly note that the Aero Club office will commence with the 2015 membership renewals on the 1st of December 2014.
The Aero Club membership for 2015 will be R395.00 and the SAGPA membership fees will be a) R 450-00 for payment before 28 February 2015 or b) R 550-00 for payment after 28 February 2015.
Members can renew their 2015 memberships onto FundiCRM (http://aero.fundicrm.com/en/) from the 1st of December 2014.

Please check and update your details on the system, especially ID no and e-mail address to enable us to communicate with all members.

Hi there.
Im still a student for wcm. I need to renew my Aero Club membership.
This might seem like a dumb question to the outoppies. But what is the aero club membership actually???
What is the need for me to be a member? Why?

Just for interest...

State of the Aero Club of South Africa December 2014
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By Kev Storie - General Manager
We trust that this will give more insight into the Aero Club and what is being looked at and dealt with in our segment of the industry. It is merely a tiny spotlight rather than the comprehensive list as we may need a rather large book. Year after year especially with new members joining and older members it would seem suffering ‘Alzheimer’s’, well our average age is not on the young side of the power curve,  we must continually re-confirm what AeCSA does for its members comprising all ARO and sport disciplines in AeCSA. In simple terms we protect the members’ rights to fly, against the constant barrage of ‘red tape’ regulations, incompetent application of misguided understandings by SA CAA officials when using the Civil Aviation regulations and regularly the miss-application of these same laws.

This takes up a significant amount of the Aero Club’s time and to be blunt also the SA CAA’s time. At the same time we use the representation of a substantial membership to ensure our voice is firmly heard while simultaneously working with the ‘unicorns at SA CAA’. Yes, they do exist, those few passionate dedicated SA CAA officials that do actually hold the interests of keeping aviation alive rather than treating their privileged positions merely as a job. To those and they know who they are we salute you and we just hope we have a herd of unicorns in the near future.

In Britain there has been a sincere move to reduce needless regulations, which has been proven do not attribute to a better safety record but merely make aviation recreationally more difficult. However, we see the SA CAA throwing regulations at problems as the answer. Since the advent of the safety campaign SAFETY First Aviator we have seen many more regulations brought into the bursting at the seams ‘blue bibles’ and yet the accidents remain almost as they were, if not an increase. This joined with the SA CAA complete disregard for ‘Just Culture’ and the endemic problem that SA CAA has that punishment will be corrective. Education we believe is the only way, having an accessible standard that is embraced by both the industry and the regulator so that together safety is achieved.

A success story, let’s look at the successful development of the latest Part 47 regulations that will serve the industry rather than making applicants complete one of the most impossible plethora of compliance requirements that merely keep aircraft out of the air or even worse forcing proudly South African aircraft owners to register their aircraft in USA or Swaziland. If it continues shortly, Namibia and Botswana may boast more aircraft than South Africa as we will move our aircraft to these more accommodating regulators that seems to embrace common sense in a timeous fashion.

Part 47 was a combined achievement where SA CAA listened, understood, embraced and actively applied a ‘how we can fix this’ attitude and everybody will mutually benefit from this. It would be good if other problem areas could be addressed with this approach. The recent SA CAA assistance with the IWAC and YAKWAC foreign license validations underway in Mosselbay was appreciated by the SAC and it was a clear example of the ‘Afri Can’ way rather than the ‘Afri Can’t’ attitude often experienced. Special mention must be made of the SA CAA licensing department’s team and Annie Boon from the SAC that went above and beyond to assist.

We have also had a recent long ‘heart to heart’ with the DCA who took ‘after hours’ time to hear and together develop a matrix of action to resolve long outstanding issues. We believe this approach from the DCA will allow better understanding of issues and early rectification of issues. However, with the good sometimes we must take a look at the crazy.  Nascom, ATNS and of course the DCA is working on rectifying the following situation: Let me highlight the absolutely crazy implementation of a hotly contested ENR – that being ENR 1.6 which the SA CAA has tried since 2005 in various forms and in 2011 did so clandestinely, without industry consultation, convincing the previous DCA to slip in this unbelievably flawed regulation forcing the mandatory carriage of transponders in the extensive vicinity of controlled airspace. This one is a shocker. If applied as per the letter of the law, a non-transponder equipped aircraft is legally allowed to operate in the Special Rules Area
with exemption to the ENR but upon leaving the special rules area into class G airspace in Gauteng has to do a ‘Channel Tunnel’ – yes you got it,  fly underground to be legal. To enable this maybe SA CAA will be inspecting for tunnelling equipment to be instituted on the equipment list for our aircraft. What is humorous in an unfortunate way is the previous board of SA CAA actively suggested to the SA CAA that they should start enforcing this requirement.

We believe we can keep the members further up to date on what is happening and hopefully we can come back in further write-ups to show SA CAA doing good. At this moment AeCSA is seriously concerned with the inefficiencies and silo approach rife within SA CAA. It must be noted that this is not in every department and some are actually operating to international levels of excellence. We hope to see the actual practical ‘sleeves rolled up approach’ to doing justice to the talk that SA CAA must foster growth in the industry, especially in recreational aviation the nesting ground for aviation, the wetland for the Aviation community. A healthy sport aviation sector is a healthy SA CAA and job creator.

Any latest news re the 2015 Carnavon SAGPA flyinn? Dates? Is it still happening? Got Calidus. Got to fly.