[Peetwo]

Changing of the guard at AOPA Oz?

Via the Oz:

Veteran steps into in pilot’s seat

ANNABEL HEPWORTH
Stepping into a new leadership role, pilot Aminta Hennessy knows there’s a fight to keep the industry alive.

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Aminta Hennessy to head Australian Owners and Pilots Association

Aminta Hennessy, the first Australian woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1978, has a new challenge: to spearhead the push to turn around the beleaguered general aviation sector.

Ms Hennessy has just been made president of the Australian Owners and Pilots Association of Australia at a time when the sector is confronting costs and red tape.

“The industry has done a huge amount for me, so I thought, give something back,” she said.

These days, she’s a director of Clamback & Hennessy, a flight school at Bankstown Airport, but with 19,000 flying hours in Australia, North America, Asia and Europe, Ms Hennessy has seen the change across the sector.

For now, she is feeling very positive about next month’s general aviation summit planned for Wagga Wagga — in Michael ­McCormack’s Riverina electorate — that is aimed at developing a consensus proposal for changes to the Civil Aviation Act. “The trouble with general aviation is getting them all together and to stay together is very, very difficult because these are very inde­pendent, individualistic people, other­wise they wouldn’t be ­pilots,” Ms Hennessy said.

Earlier this year, businessman and former aviation safety chairman Dick Smith revealed that Barnaby Joyce, then transport minister, and Labor’s Anthony Albanese had indicated support for amendments to the Civil Aviation Act that would require the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to ­operate in a manner that recognised the need for “an efficient and sustainable Australian ­aviation industry”, as well as the “highest level of safety in air navigation”.

Already Ms Hennessy has her sights on regulatory reform around flight training. She favours the US system, which she’d like to see “superimposed” here. “The layers of bureaucracy that are being shoved on to flying training are just endless,” she said.

She points to part 61 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations that deals with flight crew licensing: to be a testing officer, there was now “another layer of bureaucracy” of an examiner rating which must be renewed.

CASA argued that the examiner proficiency check was not an extra layer but a “better way of doing it” and said it had flight examiners identifying “significant learnings outcomes” resulting from doing the check.

Ms Hennessy said: “The flying training industry is just slowly disappearing. It’s too hard. It’s just compliance, compliance, compliance, more cost, more cost, more cost.”

And via Oz Flying:

Aminta Hennessy Announced New President of AOPA
1 June 2018
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Aminta Hennessy has today been announced president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Ms Hennessy succeeds Mark de Stoop who was president for three years. As a result of a reconfiguration of the AOPA executive team, AOPA presidents are now limited to a three-year term.
Ms Hennessy, a well-known advocate of general aviation, is a director of Clamback and Hennessy Flying School at Bankstown Airport, grade one instructor and flight examiner. With over 19,000 flying hours, Ms Hennessy has been a vocal spokesperson of regulatory reform in general aviation. Her term commences as the Australian General Aviation Alliance (AGAA) prepares for a summit in Wagga Wagga in July, aimed at establishing a consensus for changes to the Civil Aviation Act. The summit is scheduled for July 9 -10.

The AOPA also welcomes five new board members: Ross Harrison, Shaun Kelly, Gerard Kitt, Richard Talbot and Ben Wyndham. “In two years, we’ve reconfigured the board,” AOPA Executive Director Ben Morgan said. “We now have a very powerful group of professional pilots from ATPL holders to RA-Aus specialists. Richard Talbot represents experimental aircraft; Gerard Kitt is a business owner within RA-Aus; Ross Harrison is a helicopter pilot and director of Cirrus Sunshine Coast, and Shaun Kelly is an experienced float plane operator. We are now represented across many sectors of the industry, which allows us to attain our goal of strong advocacy across general aviation.”

Regarding AOPA’s membership numbers, Mr Morgan told Australian Flying, “Our membership has increased from 2,300 to 3,100 in two years. Two and a half thousand young pilots have experienced our flight simulators since we commenced the program and the AOPA bus has generated over $38,000 in income this year. We’ve have had the largest investment in AOPA – over $85,000 this year – in thirty years. We are planning a series of workshops and seminars throughout 2019.”

Asked about AOPA’s investors, Mr Morgan said, “I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Dick Smith, Peter Clisdell, Bus Charter and Flight Charter. Without their sponsorship, we would not be in the strong position we are right now. General Aviation is ready for change. That is demonstrated by our growing membership, our strong board and our commitment to flight safety.”

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/lates...vfO0ZiR.99

Hmm...all this latest activity - see GAAG submits flight plan to DPM McNobody - is a little suspect don't you think?

Oh well I guess all will be revealed in the coming month?

MTF...P2