Page 2 - RAC ISSUE 6

RAC STAFF & COMMITTEE PRESIDENT & CEO CONTRIBUTION to the AIRCHAT

DECEMBER 2013
CFI/CEO/CHIEF PILOT
Mike Loughnan Christmas again – a magic time of year for little kids and a nice space in our
busy lives to re-connect with family and friends.
Grade 1 Instructors We manage our business affairs with fairly sterile financial results, but
Mal McAdam Christmas gives us the opportunity to take a more human approach.
Dan Smith The Club’s financial results have allowed us to focus much more on the
Michael Schell Member activities program, an important element in maintaining and
improving the “Club atmosphere” that many members quote as the defining
Grade 2 Instructors difference between us and the major alternatives for their patronage. Look

Jarrad Smith forward to a significant focus on the Members continuing in the new
Adrian Bartholomeusz calendar year.

New Year – well if Christmas is here New Year is nigh. Typically we make
Grade 3 Instructor promises to ourselves we won’t keep. Maybe we don’t need to make any
Dan Crompton grand promises, after all “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is a very common
saying. The Club “ain’t broke”, by any interpretation of that term.
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Joan McGufficke That‘s a saying I don’t have much time for. A much more realistic approach
is “If it ain’t broke, sooner or later it will be. So what’s your next trick?”
Tania Dunlop After all, the world doesn’t wait for us if we sit tight, “fat, lazy and happy”
Siobhan Loughnan as another saying goes.

RAC COMMITTEE 2013 What does the crystal ball tell us? What are the “obvious” realities which will
emerge over the next 5-10 years? Try this for a starter list –
PRESIDENT Cessna has just upped the price for the C172 by 25%. Add a 10% or more
Greg McCallum premium with our currency moving to saner levels and we are looking at a

very expensive little item. The price has gone up because they are not
VICE PRESIDENT selling well, in itself an interesting business decision.
Jeff Tune
The implication of the price rise is that C172s will disappear off the
TREASURER production line some time in the next 5-10 years. After all, while it
continues to be the best GA trainer and PPL private hire aeroplane around,
Greg McCallum it essentially is a 60 year old airframe design which intermittently has its
innards upgraded.
SECRETARY

Mark Roberts-Thompson AVGAS will be well and truly gone. Power plants will be low emission
machines, e.g. electric. How soon is that change likely to play out? What
will that do to the legacy fleets?
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Ben Yaxley UAV’s will come into their own within the next 5-10 years. Why couldn’t
Ray Vuillermin regional charter be done by a UAV fleet centrally controlled, and integrated

Mike Cahill with other traffic? That would take the next generation of Air Services
Sam Keenan systems (i.e. after the one they are currently working on)? What will that
mean for training? For careers? For private flying?