– Steve Hitchen
AOPA Australia is planning a series of town-hall meetings around the country. There's not a lot of detail in the plan at the moment, but AOPA says the idea is to engage with the membership as part of a plan to "open up the doors somewhat". Interesting language; opening of doors infers that doors are closed. And at AOPA, they have indeed been somewhat closed. The perception that AOPA is operating with a level of secrecy can be traced back to the death of the AOPA magazine. Association magazines convey vital information and are emotional and intellectual connections between the membership and the organisation. Unfortunately, they are expensive things to produce, so AOPA Australia was forced to stop publishing theirs and convert it to an online channel. That also has become derelict, which has cut a vital link to the members. That is most likely the genesis of the impression that AOPA has become non-communicative, despite the flow of videos coming from CEO Ben Morgan. Clearly the board recognises the issue to a degree and is at least taking steps to rectify it. The town-hall meetings won't completely solve the problem; there needs to be other avenues for the members to communicate with the board, but it is a good start and hopefully a lack of connection to the members will be one of the issues canvassed.
Vertiports are coming and so is the accompanying regulation. If we're being honest, a whole new sector of aviation is coming that is going to need new regulation, new legislation, new technology, new training syllabuses, new standards and a mass of other changes. In the CASA Briefing Newsletter this week, CEO Pip Spence outlined what steps CASA was taking in order to be ready for the emergence of vertiports and the accompanying urban mobility industry. But I do have to wonder if the rest of the aviation industry is adequately preparing for this or if they're still following a head-in-the-sand strategy. The rotary aviation community is embracing the change because of the impact sharing low-level airspace is going to have. They adopted a similar attitude towards drones. However, the fixed-wing operators don't seem to be preparing themselves for what is coming at them. That is probably because most fixed-wing operators don't fly through low-level airspace unless they're taking off and landing; potential conflicts with eVTOLs are limited. As I see it, the problem is that existing air operators and airport operators are not embracing the potential of urban mobility. Anything that doesn't grow, dies, and too many operators are not seeing urban mobility as a potential for growth.
In only one week the aviation community will gather at Wings over Illawarra. Right now, the spectre of cancelation due to bad weather is still lurking in the shadows, but the forecast of possible showers with minimal impact is encouraging, and a heap better than possible drenching rain. We've all had enough of that causing the demise of air shows on the east coast. During the week WOI released the flying schedule, which looks entertaining enough despite the absence of some military assets. It looks like a real crowd pleaser and shows the level of support Bright Events had throughout most sectors of the aviation community in Australia. Unfortunately, rain over the past months has been sufficient enough to put the kibosh on under-wing camping again, but there's still plenty of other reasons to get to Shellharbour Airport and soak up the atmosphere at what will be the last big air show for 2022.
Next Friday is a traveling day for me; I'll be on my way to WOI. Traditionally I don't put out a newsletter on the day before the show and the tradition will be continued this year. My next LMH and e-newsletter will come out on Monday 14 November, so we can include all the best bits about WOI. Sorry to disrupt your week, again.