From the President.

It has been a long time since the last ESpinner. Unfortunately, I've been pretty busy over the last year, both with personal stuff and club business. Producing ESpinner is fairly time consuming and I'm afraid that it suffered by being relegated to come after other tasks.

In November/ December last year I completed revision of the clubs website by bringing it a bit more up to date and changing the look of it. I hope you like the new look. Any suggestions or criticisms will be seriously considered.

Club news will now be disseminated as part of the clubs website and periodically by a news sheet. The intention is also to have a quarterly summary of news which can be printed out and sent to those very few (less than 10) members who do not have email.

ESpinner may continue as a web site for longer articles and stories that may be of interest to members from time to time.

Club Open Day

The club will be holding an open day on Sunday 22nd of May.

All members are encouraged to attend. We will need plenty of helpers for setting up and getting organised prior to the day, plus of course for the many jobs that need to be done on the day.

This is the one day of the year in which we can showcase ourselves and GA and RAA to the general public. This year we will be attempting to push recruiting new students, particularly for our RAA operation.

A number of people have already volunteered their time, thank you. There will be a need for more volunteers closer to the time of the open day and we will be calling for more helpers then.

Shane Kelly

Sadly, Shane has moved along on his career path and left Freycinet Air Pty Ltd to go and work at Moorabbin - so once again we are somewhat short of instructors. I'd like to thank Shane for the sterling work he did while he was with us. He cheerfully provided his time under sometimes trying conditions (he learnt all about Tassie weather and its limitations for flying) and gave us that continuity of service that kept us flying when other instructors weren't available.

Thank you Shane, we wish you all the best for your future flying career which I am sure will be a good one.

Our Premises

As most of you know, our lease was up for renewal as from 31st October. After exceedingly protracted negotiations we failed to come to an arrangement with Airlines of Tasmania for a new lease under the new conditions which the owner wanted to institute.

Consequently, we have ended up by taking the option to renew our previous lease under its previous conditions which has a term of 3 years, expiring on 31st October 2013. This at least gives us some time to organise ourselves for what will very likely be fairly hefty increases in rental at the end of the lease period.

The main reasons we were unable to satisfactorily complete a new lease are:

If you have been to Cambridge recently you will have noticed that the new runway 12/30 is now under construction and is expected to be completed later this year. 14/32 will then become a taxi-way. For the time being runway 09/27 will continue to be available but the owner will not make a permanent undertaking that it will always be an active runway. It remains to be seen what effect the new runway configuration will have on our training operations.

Over the next 2 years we will be actively seeking to negotiate another lease at Cambridge whilst at the same time considering other possibilities for some of our operations, particularly RAA.

Instructors

From time to time we are short of instructors due to the constraints of now having only two part timers to assist our CFI Sam Merlo who is generally unavailable on weekends and at times has to be away from Hobart.

I am very pleased to report that we have appointed our own full time instructor who will be employed by and be responsible to the club for both RAA and GA operations whilst still working under the AOC and direction of Freycinet Air Pty Ltd for GA operations.

Peter Milne has accepted this appointment for a period of 1 year, with continuing employment into the future if all goes well.

Although it is a big commitment for the club to make in financial terms, there are a number of reasons why we have taken this decision:

Freycinet Pty Ltd will continue to provide GA instruction and supervision of Peter for GA operations under the direction of the CFI Sam Merlo. Sam will also continue as the CFI for RAA ops for the time being, but Peter will perform most of the RAA duties. The intention is that Peter will eventually become CFI for RAA operations.

There is a reasonable probability that we may have one or two more RAA instructors available to assist our RAA operations by the end of this year, perhaps even sooner. These instructors should be able to fill in the gaps for RAA training when Peter is not available.

Sam Merlo will of course be continuing with GA training, with both Peter Milne and Dave Wise filling in where they can when Sam is not available.

RAA operations

The RAA operation at Cambridge has not worked out as well as we originally hoped. There are various reasons for this:

I have had various discussions with a number of people regarding RAA/GA and there are a couple of business models which have been very successfully implemented elsewhere which may prove beneficial for us to adopt. This will require some effort and commitment but this needs to be made in order for us to make a success of it.

Now that we have the commitment for a full time instructor, we expect to be making changes to our operations in the near future along the following lines:

RAA Aircraft

The intention will be at some time in the future to try to have two RAA aircraft available, whether both owned by the club or one by the club and one on cross hire. This is not yet feasible but if we can build up the number of RAA students up we should be able to achieve this.

It has been mooted that we should sell the Sportcruiser and go for a simpler and less expensive RAA aircraft. Currently, this is not an option until our RAA operation has settled down and we can see which direction the club should go on purchasing another aircraft, either as a replacement for or in addition to the Sportcruiser.

I would encourage all flying members to get checked out for RAA flying. In time, I would expect that RAA will dominate our activities, just as it has already in many clubs around the country. Cost pressures will almost certainly force this upon us. The more members that obtain their RAA pilot certificates, the more likely it will be that it will be successful and the sooner we can think about a second aircraft for RAA flying - we will need a second RAA aircraft eventually in order to be able to service our students at times when our primary aircraft is out of action.

GA Aircraft

Our aircraft continue to perform well. However, KSR is approaching the stage where a significant amount of money will need to be spent on it in order to maintain its economic viability.

Last month there was a presentation by CASA on "Aging Aircraft" where the problems that occur with older aircraft were highlighted. For our types of aircraft, the primary problems are corrosion and deterioration of components such as electronics, wiring, switches etc which are not the kinds of things that are mandated to be checked or replaced at regular intervals. Fortunately, KSR is in reasonable condition as far as corrosion is concerned, but it will need a very thorough going over and repaint before too long in order for it to last many more years. It also is likely to need rejuvenation of wiring, electrics and electronics in order to avoid recurrent problems that will occur in these items as they reach the end of their useful lives.

No decision has yet been made as to whether we spend the significant amounts of money required to rejuvenate it or sell it and obtain a newer aircraft. A decision will need to be made within the next year or so.

KOT will be due for a new engine within a few months. We have the option of upgrading the engine to a 180hp instead of 160hp at the time of overhaul. This will increase the carrying capacity of KOT significantly if we take up this option.

Mogas

STC's for PIX and KSR have been obtained for them to be able to run on mogas. No action has yet been taken on using mogas as there are various issues that need to be considered before implementing this, particularly in regard to handling of fuel and pilot education.

If we take up this option, it can lead to a significant saving for the club and members who are flying. Fuel costs for avgas are going up regularly each month and it is likely they will continue to increase faster than normal inflation so the mogas option is becoming increasingly attractive as a way to moderate the spiralling costs of running our aircraft.

Club Communications

One of the problems that we experience as a club is continuity of communications with members. When this relies entirely on volunteers it can be difficult to maintain the processes required to keep this up because there is not a single person regularly at the 'coal face' who is responsible and up to date with all happenings. In addition, volunteers may not always be able to provide the time and effort required in a timely manner.

I'm pleased to report that this aspect of the clubs activities should improve in the coming months. Part of the duties of our salaried instructor, Peter Milne, will be to regularly update club news and events onto the clubs website and to ensure that members are kept up to date.

Club Competitions

For the past year, these have been provided at significantly less than cost in the hope that it would inspire a few more people to come and take part. Unfortunately, there has not been any great increase in attendance.

We will be reviewing the charges for these for the next sequence of competitions. There will no doubt have to be some increases but we will endeavour to keep them to a minimum.

ALACS

A small number of members attended ALACS which this year was at Maitland, NSW. Two aircraft flew up, the Musketeer with Mal Steane, Ed Ten Broeke and Bernie Samms, and PIX with John Broadhead, Daryl Scurr and Don Prairie. John Bright and David Chalk also attended, flying up commercial.

The aircraft had to battle the weather in order to get there, but managed to get through in a break after having to stop for a day or so on the way there.

Congratulations to Mal Steane for winning the "Wings" spot landing competition between Australia and New Zealand. The "Mighty Mouse" (aka "The Bullet") triumphs again! The Mouse syndicate have put the aircraft up for sale so regrettably we may not see the musketeer blitzing the forced landing comps at ALACS again.

Congratulations also to Mal for being second in the ALACS spot landing, and third in the streamer cutting. Also to Ed Ten Broeke for coming second in the streamer cut. Overall our members put up a very creditable performance with most attendees well within the top half of the overall scores.

Vale - Yvonne Burns

Contributed by Don Prairie

A sad snippet of news that will not mean a great deal to the membership generally, but Yvonne (Von) Burns recently passed away. I believe the last threads of the original club were severed when Von Burns died and was buried on 1st April.

Terry Burns was in the very first intake of students together with Jack Koerbin. Terry went on to be one of Australia's best known DC3 pilots accruing thousands of hours in them. He flew airlines nationally and internationally and later in life delivered aircraft all around the world, but always came back to his beloved DC3's flying them right up until his death some 10 years ago. I don't know how many hours he accumulated but must have been 20 plus.

His son Peter learned at Tasair and I believe has for years been flying for the Emirates as a 747 freighter pilot between London and Hong Kong.

I vividly remember in the late 1940s when I went to the club on a Sunday in the now Helicopter Utilities building and seeing Von Burns and Joan Grant preparing afternoon tea for the members who were all sitting in the sun watching the Tiger Moths  in the circuit.

The Future of the Club

I've had a few people comment to me about a "doom and gloom" attitude in the club. This I think has come about to a large extent because of:

I have even had it mentioned to me that a comment was made by a prospective student that "I'm not going to learn to fly there, they're going broke!". I'm not sure who put that about, but whoever did is quite incorrect, perhaps maliciously so!

Let me reassure you 100% that we are not going broke - but that does not take away from the fact that we are up against various factors that mean we need to work hard to ensure that we can maintain a full flying training operation that can meet professional operational standards at the same time as making a profit and not eroding our capital base.

In regard to our premises, we now have a couple of years to organise ourselves before having to meet higher premises costs whether at Cambridge or Hobart. There is still uncertainty about our long term position as we can not obtain a long term lease on our premises, but with the changes being made and money being spent on the airport it is reasonable to assume that we can remain at Cambridge for a number of years yet, though at a cost. It can be expected that when our lease has to be renewed, the cost of our premises may run to something over $300 per member (including all students) - and that's not including a single dollar spent on the cost of owning, hangaring or operating our aircraft.

That is a massive overhead for an organisation such as ours which is equivalent to the operating profit of around about 1000 hours of flying per year, or about 10 hours per member per year. However, it is one which we must organise ourselves to meet one way or another or else move somewhere way out of the city area.

An inordinate amount of time has been taken up in the last couple of years trying to work out what to do and obtain some certainty in our position which has pretty well come to naught.  We are at a significant disadvantage to many other small clubs around the country who often have substantially less than commercial agreements with councils for use of premises and runways. Unfortunately we have to live with the fact that, since conversion of the airport land to commercial zoning, we occupy some of the most expensive commercial real estate in Hobart and this is unlikely to change. The owner expects to obtain a commercial return and has not given us any indication that there may be any opportunity to have premises on land still zoned as special use and therefore more economical.

We will be further pursuing this matter over the next two years, but for the time being, we are putting this aside to concentrate on our key business which is attempting to ensure that we can run a club and flying training organisation that can pay its way in the situation that we find ourselves. In doing so, we will attempt to keep costs for students and members as low as we can.

In regard to instructors, with the appointment of Peter Milne as a permanent club employee and the expectation that there will be one or two additional part timers on board plus Sam Merlo  my expectation is that this problem may largely be solved for the coming year.

There's nothing much we can do about the general financial climate, but we will be exploring various ideas and options to try to improve the finances of the club and make things easier for new students to take up flying. Our decision to alter the strategy of initial student training to focus more on RAA is the first measure that we are taking.

Personally, I don't share the "doom and gloom" attitude, though perhaps my previous statements and warnings in regard to the clubs long term financial situation may have been construed that way. These were intended as a wake up call that something really needs to be done to halt the slow decline in the clubs financial position. I fully believe that, with a bit of effort, we can

It's up to you, the members both old and new, to put in your bit to enable the club to meet up with the conditions that now prevail. How can you help? Come and fly, get your RAA rating, keep in current practice, participate in club competitions and events. Help out if you can when things need to be done.

Happy and safe flying,

Graeme Martin

President.