President’s Message

I was looking through some of the previous issues of the ‘Club News’ and I noted in the President’s message written in 1980 I had referred to a milestone in the Club’s history. I reminisced in the article stating, ‘the Club commenced operation September 1975 and now operated two aircraft. The growth had not come about through the Committee’s hard work, but with a combination of your support and the committee’s judicious operation and planning.’

I further stated at that time, ‘ This time of the year proves to be the worst period in our Club, for we do not know how many member’s support we will have for the following year. This makes budgeting difficult! Early January renewal notices will be forwarded to you. Please complete and attach a cheque for continued support.’

History has a habit of repeating itself, we now move to the present day message, for we are again asking for your support, not only in renewing your membership, (although this is an essential if CFC is to survive). Perhaps even stronger affirmative action is required of you in our move to Minovation.

This move to Minovation has been a positive exercise. Curtin Flying Club has the opportunity to grow into a real club. Min as CFI/Manager of Minovation is enthusiastic and will welcome you to her organisation. Minovation Pty Ltd. is enlarged on elsewhere.

We have a great fleet of aircraft and with your support, we will make the fleet better. I look forward to the growth in our club, with more modern aircraft.

An article regarding the calendar of events leading up to the move is printed in this Newsletter. While I would not want to dwell on the negative aspects of the change or the sequence, members should know how difficult a process it was and the amount of time spent by your committee relating to the organising of the new location in such a short time.

I would also remind you of the Club’s Website, (maintained by Peter Taylor), an excellent venue to gather information relating to the Club and its activities, or to download a membership application for a friend. The rates are also mentioned, with links to other aviation activities. You can now type in the URL ‘curtinflyingclub.com.au’ and hey presto up comes the page.

Enjoy your flying.

Bill Clarke

Curtin Flying Club Moves to Minovation

Most members would have received 2 letters recently from your Club President, Bill Clarke, in relation to the Curtin Flying Club (CFC) leaving the Royal Aero Club of WA (RACWA) and moving to its new home at Jandakot with Minovation Pty Ltd.

The Club started operating from Minovation from Saturday 14 October 2000. The month leading up to the move was a frantic period for the Committee. Here is a diarised summary of the whole affair.

RACWA expressed concerns about CFC members being able to hire CFC aircraft at a lower rate than RACWA

members can hire the equivalent RACWA aircraft. The CFC committee has been working with RACWA since December 1999 to attempt to resolve this issue and other associated matters.

CFC and RACWA Committee members meet to progress the rates issue. RACWA insists on establishing parity between CFC and RACWA hire rates. RACWA stated their position was non-negotiable.

John Douglas, General Manager of RACWA wrote to CFC advising what rates CFC must charge its members for all categories of aircraft hire from 14 October. The proposed rates established parity with RACWA hire rates and would impose a significant rate increase on CFC members.

CFC distributes a Request for Tender for flying instruction and other services to 7 flying training organisations at Jandakot. Over the following 10 days, CFC Committee members visited some of the organisations to address queries and to inspect facilities.

CFC Committee met and agreed CFC must retain the right to set CFC hire rates and voted to cease operation with RACWA from 14 October 2000.

CFC President, Bill Clarke, responds to RACWA letter of 20/9/00 stating that CFC must retain the right to set its own hire rates and advised that CFC will cease operation with RACWA from 14 October 2000.

CFC President, Bill Clarke, writes to Club members advising them of events to date.

Tender closes. 6 responses received.

CFC Sub-Committee meets to evaluate Tender responses.

CFC Committee conducts further Jandakot site visits to complete Tender evaluation.

CFC President, Bill Clarke, writes to Club members advising them that Minovation Pty Ltd was the successful Tenderer and CFC intends to start operating there from Saturday 14/10/00.

Bill writes to all unsuccessful Tenderers advising them of the outcome and thanking them for their interest in the Club.

Interim operating agreement with Minovation signed by all parties.

CFC Committee members relocate CFC aircraft at parking bays near Minovation.

CFC commences operations at its new home, Minovation!

To date the transition has progressed smoothly. While details of bookings beyond 14 October were provided to us by RACWA and carried over to Minovation, Members are strongly advised to re-confirm all outstanding bookings with Minovation.

Glenn Ryan

Welcome Note

I’d like to take this opportunity to say hello to the club members, and on behalf of all the staff at Minovation welcome you to our school and your new club home. Naturally we were very excited upon learning of our successful tender to provide aircraft management and training facilities to The Curtin Flying Club and we hope that the association between our organizations will prove beneficial for all.

So far, the transition appears to have gone smoothly and you can rest assured that we will be working hard to provide you with the best possible service.

Minovation was started by myself and my husband Karl Valentin in October 1997. Before coming to Australia I completed my initial training and instructor ratings in Jersey, Channel Islands as well as training in France and the USA. Prior to starting Minovation I had been working as a casual instructor at some of the other flying schools at Jandakot. We originally occupied the two blue demountable buildings, which used to be in part of the then Malaysian Flying College on the runway side of the Eagle Drive, just before the tower.

Those facilities, whilst quite small, were a good springboard for us to establish Minovation to what has now, with the addition of the Curtin Flying Club aircraft, the second largest aircraft fleet at Jandakot. Our aim has always been to provide a high quality of service in a friendly informal atmosphere whilst maintaining the highest possible standards in training from student level right through to CPL.

Minovation has two Curtin Flying Club members who are on line as instructors. They are Randall Brink who has been with us for the past 18 months and Jim Sturrock who joined us only this month. "Welcome aboard Jim". We will try to match Curtin members with Curtin instructors wherever possible.

Our office hours are generally 9:00 am to 6:00 pm however if you require an early departure, the keys can be collected from our office on the evening prior. For those who return after the office closes, we will soon be providing a night drop chute on the airside door to our office.

At the moment, hard standing aircraft parking spaces are at a premium all over the strip. So far, three hard standing parking spaces have been leased for club aircraft on the centre apron. These spaces are on the cabled section adjacent to the Swift Aviation maintenance hangar and two have "Curtin" painted within the white box, to indicate your bay.

Please ensure that at the end of your flight, the aircraft is returned to its correct position, tied down, control locks fitted and covers, if provided, are replaced over the windscreens and/or windows.

We share our car park with Alert Aviation and we would ask that parking of cars be confined to the area on the Minovation side of the roller door of the Alert hangar Monday to Friday. Additional parking is available in the public car park on the opposite side of Eagle Drive.

Our facilities are for all to enjoy. Feel free to come in, have a cuppa or just sit and enjoy the view. We will also be progressively be improving the outside grass area for your use so please make use of the barbeque and outdoors areas as much as you like.

Again, welcome to everyone and with the arrival of CAVOK weather for the next few months we hope to see you all enjoying your flying and club facilities.

Safe Flying

Min Stokes

Chief Flying Instructor

Visiting Mecca

"It is the pilot's Mecca; the place to which all true believing fliers must journey at least once in their lifetime."

Oshkosh is something that you just decide that you have to do, or at least that is how it happened for me. First there was Graham Smith, a friend from Adelaide who was going to join me. Then Bill Dearle thought it sounded like a good idea, and then Glen Ryan didn't want to hear second hand about how much fun it had been so he threw his hat in also.

So there we were in Chicago all of a sudden and the trip was starting. Three days in Chicago was great, even the unexpected ride in the police car at 3:30am was something to be savoured for a lifetime. But that is another story...

We arrived at Oshkosh on the Tuesday just to check it out and buy a weekly pass. I was thinking maybe the weekly pass was an overkill, just 3 days would probably do it. However there was lots of activity, lots of aircraft arriving...looked interesting!

The next morning we did the 20 minute drive to a "special" parking spot as advised by "Mike" of Maxair. That was a good plan! As we drove in we tuned the radio to the Oshkosh tower frequency (rebroadcast on a local FM frequency) and listened to the unbelievable dialogue; one controller managing about 3 streams of landing aircraft, 2 streams landing (short and long) on the same runway!

Things only got better from there on. There was the ultra light section with it's own runway at one end, hundreds and hundreds of superbly presented aircraft on display (with owners nearby only too willing to show you and talk about their pride and joy), workshops and lectures on all sorts of aviation topics, new aircraft, aircraft for sale, warbirds, jets, flying displays, the EAA Airventure museum, aircraft rides (Ford tri-motor, B17 flying fortress, ultralights), hang gliders and trikes, homebuilt helicopters.

Also homebuilt jets, hundreds of exhibitions, the fly market, aircraft parts market, kit planes, the seaplane base (free shuttle, a couple of miles away), flight simulators, avionics for sale, people like Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover, Bud Anderson, Dick Rutan, Jon Johanson, movies, videos, memorabilia of all sorts, Jimmy Buffet's Albatross, and more. In the evenings there was more free entertainment on the airfield (Theatre in the Woods) for those who were still standing!

So what was the highlight for me? Well, these things remain in my memory..

Oshkosh was just huge, and 6+ days there was not enough time to absorb it all. We must have taken 500 photos between us plus video. Graham had a new digital video camera for the trip and I now have 6 hours of video to ponder over. Needless to say we are all planning to return in 2002!

Some interesting facts & figures about Oshkosh:

* Estimated attendance 760,000

* More than 35,000 people camp on site at Camp Scholler

* Another 5,000 people camp "under the wing"

* Estimated 2,300 overseas visitors form 77 countries

* 1,044 portable toilets on site,

* toilet paper consumption at 13,850,000 sheets

* 12,000 aircraft at the event (more than the number of aircraft on the Australian civil register).

Not a bad show given that not long ago Whittman airfield was just a cow field in eastern Wisconsin!

Following Oshkosh we hired a C172 (N4609G) from Maxair at Appleton airport and headed off for 5 days of flying. But that is another story also...watch this space.

flying. But that is another story also...watch this space.

Rob Slater

New Domain Name

This will allow us in the future to have more mailboxes, be more easily found on the Web and a number of other improvements.

Come in and browse around.

All the contact details are there, new member form, latest rates, newsletter etc

Let me draw your attention to the Cessna Comparison page under Member Services. Here you will find a very useful comparison table to help you decide which aircraft to hire.

Don't forget to check out the links, especially the 'Jandakot Tower' one - its hilarious!

Until next month, happy flying!

Peter Taylor

Current Rates

Current hire rates/hr (as 16^th October 2000) are:

WFV $ 91.00 $135.00 $159.75

MVD $105.00 $149.00 $173.75

WFU $105.00 $149.00 $173.75

CFG $121.00 $165.00 $189.75

CFC $130.00 $174.00 $198.75

JAH Landings $8.80 JAH Touch & Go $2.64

Airservices Landings CFC $9.93

CFG $8.07

WFU $8.07

MVD $7.74

WFV $5.62

Radio contact with Perth $22.00 plus other airports charges and these differ depending on aircraft and airport.

All prices are inclusive of GST

Curtin Flying Club (Inc) Newsletter

Contributions to this newsletter via email to:

Armando Rubiano

Mobile 0412-096 466

Email: man_rubiano@yahoo.com