November 03

November 2003
		AOPA-Panama Receives Provisional IAOPA Affiliation The Aero Club of Panama, acting as AOPA-Panama, recently received provisional IAOPA affiliation. Alfredo Fonseca Mora, President of the 40 year-old organization, states that he wishes for better operating conditions in Panama and surrounding states for general aviation. If approved by the IAOPA Board, AOPA-Panama will become the 59th IAOPA affiliate. New Aviation Legislation in Australia Recent Australian legislation introduces a number of new enforcement measures. Industry lobbying resulted in a key amendment to prevent the Civil Aviation Safety Administration from canceling a license without a regulatory breach first being proved in court. They include an automatic stay of suspension or cancellation decision not involving an immediate risk to air safety and the introduction of a demerit point system for minor regulatory breaches. The new enforcement measures ensure that people accused of breaches had an opportunity to argue their cases before an independent arbiter. AOPA-Australia welcomed the bill's passage yesterday but said it would retain a watching brief on the issue of suspensions. AOPA president Marjorie Pagani commended the Minister of Transport for listening to the industry and taking an important step with the legislation. But she said AOPA was concerned it would still be possible to have lengthy suspensions during the investigation and appeal process. "I will continue to monitor the operation of those provisions and the times being taken to bring any trials to a hearing in either the Administrative Appeals Tribunal or the Federal Court," she said. "If the time taken to hear the application is inordinately high, which itself can send somebody out of business, we will then come back and make further representations that something has to be done." New AOPA-Netherlands President On 11 October, after more than seven years as president of AOPA-Netherlands, Gerry Jacobs handed the power of the presidency to Jan de Vries. Also elected at this time were Sebo T. Woldringh, Vice President; Peggy van Ootmarsum, Secretary; and Dagmar Liebregts-Opheij, Treasurer. For a complete list of officers, see www.aopa.nl. COPA Conducts Online Member Survey The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association recently conducted its first online membership survey and considers the results quite successful. There are still some technical bugs to be worked out of the process, but COPA staff hopes that more surveying of this type can be conducted. COPA President Kevin Psutka commented, "One of the great advantages of these types of surveys is that they can be done on short notice to get member reactions to "pop-up" issues, such as fee increases. They are also comparatively labour non-intensive, compared to the paper surveys, such as the 2002 survey. While they are inherently "non-scientific" studies, the opinions gathered are still useful gauges of those COPA members who actually respond. These surveys are also valuable because they provide COPA members a voice in the association." IAOPA President Cites Influence of ICAO Writing for the U.S. audience in the November 2003 issue of AOPA Pilot, IAOPA (and AOPA-U.S.) President Phil Boyer makes the case for the value of IAOPA with regard to the regulatory influence of ICAO on U. S. Federal Aviation Administration regulations. The major point of the article is for general aviation pilots to realize that the FAA regulations are strongly influenced by ICAO standards and recommended practices. Therefore, IAOPA is the first line of defense against unwarranted standards that may find their way into the FAA rulebooks. The text of the article may be found at www.aopa.org/prez/prespos.html. AOPA-Thailand Update Elections were just held in the Thai Flying Club (AOPA-Thailand) with the following officers being selected: · Wichai Laksanakorn, President · Prof. Krisda Arunvongs, Vice President · Tom Claytor, Communications The new email address for the organization is info@thaiflyingclub.com. The website remains the same, www.thaiflyingclub.com. Plan to attend the IAOPA World Assembly in Toulouse, France 20-25 April 2004
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