LeSving wrote:
All these “never ending debates” boils down to personal taste, personal priorities, or other realities in life preventing this, enabling that.
Another place I know calls them “hamster wheels”. Quite apropriately I think.
Jujupilote wrote:
These clubs allows you to go beyond the basic local flight but you usually have to obey to the rules of the intimidating President or the chief instructor(who thinks the club belongs to him of course). All these clubs have a 90 day rule, often per aircraft type. I was in such a club where aller the aircraft were of différent types (no 2 identical) it was a nightmare !
In any club the personality of the bord will make or break the atmosphere.
boscomantico wrote:
y the way, out if curiosity, anyone know how come the biggest aeroclub in France is named “Aeroclub Hispano Suiza”?
It originated as the club of the famous engine producer who still exists today near Paris. It was founded before the war and re-emerged after the war in Pontoise. Today, according to their site, they own 32 airplanes of which 16 are declared flight school planes, the remainder are for renting out. Almost all are French made Cessnas and Robins, with the exception of some American C182 and Piper Cubs.
Being based at Pontoise, they have a great airport at their disposal which is IFR and night available and therefore quite attractive as opposed to some muddy grass fields which are not usable half of the time. Not sure how many members they have but it’s quite a lot.
The name originates from the founders, a Spanish outfit in Barcelona and a Swiss constructor by the name of Marc Birkigt from Geneva. The original outfit built cars in Spain, but went bust and got bought out by the banks, who named the resulting company Hispano Suiza. They florished in the beginning of the 20th century first in Spain and later founded an engine company in France, producing engines and later jet engines and weapons for the military. A lot of older airplanes as well as cars and trucks have HS engines. The company still exists today but is part of a large corporation by the name of SAFRAN who, amongst other companies, own Snecma, Turbomeca, Bugatti and several others.
In the Swiss Air Force Museum there are several airplanes and powerplants exhibited from them, and they still are quite a factor in the aviation industry building parts for Airbus and Rolls Royce engines, as well as guns.
LeSving wrote:
This is basically how it works. The Annual Meeting, a free and open democratic meeting for every member, is what decides. The (newly) elected board has no other mandates than to make sure the decisions at the Annual Meeting actually will be effectuated and to run the club the next year.
While I agree that the Annual General Meeting is the highest authority in the club, doesn’t it make it very difficult to run the organisation if the role of the board is only to effectuate decisions by the AGM? Generally the board has a much broader mandate. What if something unexpected happens that incurs new costs, like an increase in fuel price or unexpected repairs? Does the board have to convene an extraordinary General Meeting? If my club had that kind of rule I guess we would need at least 2 extraordinary meetings per year.
Airborne_Again wrote:
doesn’t it make it very difficult to run the organisation if the role of the board is only to effectuate decisions by the AGM?
As I said, the role is also to run the club on a day to day basis, administrative work basically, and to appoint persons to do the “heavy” stuff like chief of school, chief of maintenance and so on. This also include taking care of unexpected stuff happening. Larger things that will upset the economy to such an extent that prices has to change, will require a general meeting. I think we have had maybe two or three extra meetings in the last 10-15 years. The gliding club is much faster on it’s feet. There it can be several each year.
Airborne_Again wrote:
While I agree that the Annual General Meeting is the highest authority in the club, doesn’t it make it very difficult to run the organisation if the role of the board is only to effectuate decisions by the AGM? Generally the board has a much broader mandate.
In any association, the mandate the board has is determined by the GM’s. It should be enough not to require GM’s out of season if possible but it can happen that you need to convene an extra GM if something happens the bord can’t decide on it’s own.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Another place I know calls them “hamster wheels”. Quite apropriately I think.
Perfect.
On a check ride we left the pattern, and I thought something must be wrong with the GPS unit, because there were about 50 trails around the pattern, but ours was the first to leave it…
Took me a sec to figure it out…
The Hamster Wheel Effect…
Rule #1 in a club: never tell anyone where you’re going or what you’re doing.
They’ll just tell you there’s a prerequisite and additional training required. Don’t ask, don’t tell. (as long as you really know what you are doing, that is…)
AF wrote:
Rule #1 in a club: never tell anyone where you’re going or what you’re doing.
They’ll just tell you there’s a prerequisite and additional training required. Don’t ask, don’t tell. (as long as you really know what you are doing, that is…)
I wonder what other things you don’t tell about.
If a club requires special training of licensed pilots to leave the pattern, then it is the guys wo draw up such stuff who need to have their head examined and maybe the renters wo tolerate something like this.
So far, the only time I found a rule prohibiting from going places was in Las Palmas El Berrien where they don’t allow you to fly to other islands without telling them. That however makes some sort of sense.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
If a club requires special training of licensed pilots to leave the pattern, then it is the guys wo draw up such stuff who need to have their head examined and maybe the renters wo tolerate something like this.
Yes, but let’s stick to reality instead. 
I once worked at a school where a chap hired a pa28 and decided to land in a friend’s field. No runway. No 28 day rule. A field
Unfortunately he didn’t see a fence post and took the wing off.
How would people feel if someone did that to your aircraft?
So I don’t think it’s unreasonable for someone who rents aircraft out to know where they are being taken.
Someone who shows such poor judgement isn’t going to tell the club “Oh, I’m going to fly into a random field which isn’t an airfield today!”. Instead they’ll lie, or be economical with the truth. So the rule does no good.
All these rules do is just act as yet another piece of bureaucracy the majority of pilots have to put up with, and adds a further deterrent to continuing to fly after gaining the PPL.
