– Steve Hitchen
I can still remember the rampant enthusiasm for Ausfly when it was first proposed by CASA's Peter John at the SAAA convention in 2011. An event unifying GA seemed to be just what was needed to breathe life into a GA community that at the time was flagging under the woes of economic and regulatory burden. The SAAA leapt on board and initially recruited other associations to put in, making it a truly industry-wide undertaking. Now, the only GA association with claims to Ausfly is the SAAA; all others having dropped off over the years. To be blunt: politics and vested interest got in the way. I am going to have to parrot myself here: fly-ins are only ever as good as the people that go to them, and for mystifying reasons, Ausfly has not grown at a rate that it should have. Ausfly 2025 will feature the Silver Sharks, the Screaming Diamonds and Freedom Formation, three very skilled and entertaining teams doing their best to excite the Sunraysia community about general aviation. This is bound to generate some enthusiasm for GA, and it would be fantastic for as many GA people as possible to get up to Wentworth in two weeks time and bolster the energy on show.
Electric propulsion is proving to be a difficult child for aviation, hampered by battery technology and certification requirements that currently make it largely unviable at the moment. Companies like magniX and ZeroAvia are making great leaps forward, but this week it got all too much for Eviation's twin-engined Alice commuter, which has been temporarily exiled from Wonderland. The company is sitting on orders for 600 airframes worth $US5 billion, but still finds the development piggybank bare. To be fair, general aviation has a history of soaking up eye-crossing dollars in development to produce very little; think very-light jets, think Spruce Goose, think Beech Starship. But each of those was a great idea rather than an imperative. The Australian government has declared electric aviation to be the future of GA, meaning GA's future is now more uncertain than it has ever been. They have declared electric powerplants to be an imperative. That's got the frighteners running through the GA community, and they'll keep going until someone proves the technology viable and practical. Right now, the head-shaking sceptics are winning, turning their energy hopes wistfully towards running unleaded avgas, or SAF in diesel engines. But even those technologies have teething problems: unleaded avgas brings fears of engine damage, and diesel engine manufacturers are still testing SAF in their products. In sum, GA's foundation for the future has no keystone at this stage. However, should I feel like wagering a few dollars, I will put it on SAF-burning diesels being available long before practical electric motors, and the Australian government needs to be prepared for that.
There is now less than a month between us and the Australian International Airshow; Avalon 2025. It's aviation's biggest party, but sometimes is still not seen as an event for general aviation. That is probably because GA doesn't get much of a go on the big stage in front of the crowd; some aerobats, gliders and antiques landing on trucks has historically been the limit. However, the organiser AMDA Foundation has a charter to promote aviation at all levels, and the GA community is too quick to forget that many GA organisations have a presence at Avalon free of charge. If you wander around the GA precinct, you will be looking at aeroplanes that stand on free ground, with temporary infrastructure stumped-up by AMDA Foundation. That's a fairly considerable contribution, and it reflects AMDA's increasing involvement in GA that is also evidenced by them taking over Wings over Illawarra, funding Fly'n for Fun and staging RotorTech. There seems to be an increasing awareness at AMDA of the importance of GA in Australia and that they have a role in developing our industry and community. Putting GA in front of the general public at Avalon is a very effective way of doing that.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch