Ultralight Aircraft Australia

Hi All,

This arrived in my inbox this morning … might be fun?

28 AUGUST 2011
GYMPIE (YGYM)
GYMPIE AERO CLUB “PROGRESSIVE FLYING DINNER”
“LEGENDARY STUFF”
this is the sixteenth annual Progressive Flying Dinner
Aviators of all strokes (two and four stroke/ fixed wing
and rotary wing/high wing and low wing) are invited to this Gympie Aero Club annual event

0830 to 0945 Breakfast Hervey Bay Airport
1145 to 1315 Lunch Greenfield Airpark, adjacent to west
of Lake Cootharaba E26º17.64 S152º57.90
Rwy 10/28 elevation 25′

1345 to 1545 Afternoon Tea Gympie Airport

WIN one of the many prizes to be drawn at GYMPIE:
including Wine; Pilot Supplies; Six Packs; Novelties etc
ONLY $30 per person; includes all food
PLEASE RSVP EARLY as BOOKINGS are essential for catering
contact robert robertfraser11@bigpond.com
OR 0417 219 167

Gympie Aero Club

75 year old Myrtle Rose likes to fly her 1941 J3 Cub in the Chicago area whenever the weather is looking nice. Our kind of lady.

So when her computer wasn’t working and she couldn’t look for current Notams, she didn’t really think too much of it. Until two F-16′s fell into formation beside her.

As it happened, President Obama was is town on that day, celebrating his 50th birthday, and she had inadvertently breached a temporary no-fly zone, hence the escort.

She thought the F-16 pilots had simply stopped by to admire her aeroplane, a recent best-in-class winner at Oshkosh.

What a surprise to then find herself surrounded by police when she returned to her home field.

As I said, our kind of lady.

Open letter to RAAus Members in South Queensland

Hi All,

My name is John McKeown, and I am seeking your support for a final term as one of your South Queensland Representatives on the RAAus Board.

My election profile is in the magazine for all to read, so I won’t list that again here. However I ask you to clearly consider the profiles of the candidates for South Queensland and cast your vote for the candidate who best fits your own values and philosophy.

I ask those of you who have a similar philosophy to myself to cast your first vote for me. I will do all in my power to represent the views of the majority, and make known to the Board the views of the minority. At the moment the biggest issue I see in the Association is a push by some for total secrecy of all Board matters. I fully agree in the need for some matters to be kept secret eg an accident investigation, or an in process disciplinary matter, however we are an association of members, we are not a public company in the normal sense, and you, the members have a right to be kept fully informed of what is happening in your association.

Currently I am the only Board member who has refused to sign the total secrecy document, and I have been bringing the knowledge of this document to the attention of local members. A formal motion has been passed and is still on the books binding not only all Board members but now also any observers at Board meetings to total secrecy. This current ruling has made every single matter discussed at Board level, regardless of how trivial, or relevant to members to be kept absolutely secret unless agreed unanimously by the Board to be made public.

In the past all association members had the right to sit in on Board members as observers except for matters discussed “In Camera” This has been my main argument for refusing to sign the document. By doing so I would be giving up my rights as an ordinary member. To overcome this objection the total secrecy people brought in the current motion covering all Association Members, and forcing them to total secrecy of all Board matters.

To me total secrecy breeds many ills, among them corruption, laziness, nepotism, and incompetence, to name a few.

If reelected I will do all in my power to have this motion rescinded at the coming AGM and do all I can to make the workings of our association open and transparent.

Regards

John McKeown
Ph, +61 4387 28311 Australian mobile
Ph, +372 5771 1483 International mobile

**If you wish to contact John, he is currently in Turkey. You can reach him on the international number shown above.

A message from Kelvin Hutchinson

RAAus Board Elections – South QLD Ballot

With many members showing concern about secrecy, lack of vision, rigor and executive oversight by the board I have decided to stand for a board position and respectfully ask for your vote.

My aviation, business and board experience has been outlined on page 64 in the RAAus magazine.

We need change, we need commitment and we need better managerial practices. If elected I am committed to work with other visionary board members to drive the changes needed to progressively make our organisation just that bit better. I have visited your club on a couple of occasions and met a few of the members.

Being based at Warwick I will be in a position to visit regularly to hear your thoughts and ideas also. Call or email me if you would like more information.

Please vote today.

Cheers

Kelvin Hutchinson
0407733836
kelvin at visioninaction dot net

A retired British Airways Captain died when his RV6 crashed following a mid-air collision near Shoreham Airport, in the UK.

The occupants of the other aircraft, a Diamond DA40, managed to land safely after the incident.

Full details from the Daily Mail.

Thanks to Martin Hone for the link.

It’s been said before, and here it is again: “a great time was had by all”.

Indeed it was. The weather smiled upon all those who chose to attend the fly-in; threatened thunderstorms were kind enough to wait until evening before appearing, so we were treated to a beautiful late Autumn day.

This year Gatton (YGAS) had a radio advisory setup manned (or should it be personned?) by none other than Sandra Johnson, secretary of the YGAS body corporate committee. Sandra advised those entering the CTAF of duty runway, circuit direction, etc. If it was obvious the ‘incoming’ were aware of conditions, she left them to their devices. The result was a safe, orderly flow of traffic into and from the Airpark.

Ground Marshals Col & Phil were successful in getting the arrivals parked quickly and safely.

Total aircraft arrivals were 54, down a little on last year, but, the Old Station Fly-in was on the same day, so not unexpected.

There were several pilots who came from interstate, including Russell Arthur who came all the way from Mangalore, Vic, in his RV4. And he did it in only 4 hours … are you Drifter pilots taking note? Russell won the prize for longest distance travelled to the fly-in.

Martin Hone gives Russell Arthur the Longest Distance Award

Also attending were several gyrocopters from Tamworth. Great to see you here, guys!

Sunday afternoon at the Airpark

As the crowd thinned, and the weather continued to bless us, several of the Airparks’ residents took to the air later in the day; it was just too nice a day to waste on the ground.

If you’re not yet a pilot, and still looking up enviously at those who are, when are you going to give it a blast? Come and join us!

Safe flying ’til next time.

*photos courtesy of Martin Hone

Now here’s something you don’t see every day. Not in Oz, anyhow.

Seems a young lady was enroute to Florida from NYC to see her Mum & Dad. (That’s Mom & Dad for any American readers). And then she sees the Space Shuttle Endeavour pop up through the clouds.

Space Shuttle Endeavour launch

You can or see her original post here

And another photo:

Pic # 2 of Shuttle launch

Not exactly Ultralight news, but I bet you found it interesting.

Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Cheers.