The J-Bay Boogie was held again at Paradise Beach from the 19th of December 2011 to the 2nd of January 2012.

We had a great turnout with a lot of teams as well as a lot of fun jumpers. We were rewarded with some great weather, with a few not so good days in between to recover and re-group.

On the skills development side, JP Ricordeau from France ran a freefly skills camp and Marco Ciocca did some Atmonauti coaching.

The PAC 750, ZS-BLU did a wonderful job getting everyone up to 12 000 feet again. Add to that the best scenery from altitude anywhere in the world and you can see why this has become such a popular boogie.

(Photos courtesy of James Williamson)

The Jeffreys Bay Boogie was honoured and blessed to have had Jean-Philippe Ricordeau, one of the top freeflyers and tunnel coaches in the world, present at the boogie to bestow on us mere mortals his knowledge and understanding of the art of freeflying. He arrived on the 27th of December and stayed for the duration of the boogie, clocking up a massive 56 coaching dives in the process. The SSA Freefly Committee arranged, along with the PAC Partnership, Pierre Marais Badenhorst, Brendon van Niekerk and Andre du Preez, to bring him out to South Africa and jump with anyone that is a current PASA member, free of charge.

Pierre Marais Badenhorst, Brendon van Niekerk and Andre du Preez did every second coaching dive with JP, clocking up 29 jumps in total. We were also blessed to have Naomi Kotzee, on a break from jumping and tunnelling at Skydive Dubai, join us on a lot of the skydives. These were the most exciting and challenging skydives we have ever done, combining different aspects of freeflying into single skydives. JP would mix up everything during the dives, including exiting in formation, VFS (turning points), flocking, tracking and carving, in anything from a 3-way to a 7-way. Examples would be launching a 5-way exit, breaking the formation and flocking, stopping the flock and building the formation again, and repeat. Other dives we would mix flocking and carving following JP around the sky. We all really loved and admired his free-thinking, free-flowing and unlimited approach to freeflying, breaking down barriers, connecting aspects of freeflying we never thought possible in larger groups, and always keeping you on the edge of your abilities while still correcting your mistakes, navigating the group to maintain safety relative to other groups on the jump run, and making jokes in the process.

JP also did 27 coaching jumps with the rest of the freeflyers, who were all very excited and overjoyed to have jumped with him. People gathered around to eavesdrop on briefings and debriefs, soaking up every little bit of advice he had to offer. He taught anything from basic freeflying, like how to sitfly properly, to advanced skills with Marco Ciocca in Atmonauti. Being the machine that he is, JP would arrive and do anything from 14-16 skydives back to back and then retire for the day, only to do it all over again the next day. The weather really worked in our favour as well and we jumped every day that JP was there, only stopping on 1 day for bad weather after doing a few jumps.

I believe that all-round this was an amazing opportunity for all South African freeflyers to watch, listen and learn from one of the best, and to take back the information and skills learnt to their respective dropzones to pass it on the others, dispelling misconceptions and uplifting this wonderful sport we all love so much.

Thank you JP! You rock!

Andre du Preez
SSA AE Committee

P.S. JP is organising a freefly tunnel camp for all South African freeflyers in Prague in the first half of this year, so if anyone is interested please sign up at www.facebook.com/JPhiFreeflyTunnelCamp and click on SIGN UP NOW! The dates have not yet been confirmed as we are first determining interest, so please sign up soon for this amazing offer.

Left to right: Louis Whittal, Ria Moothilal, Delphine d'Hoop, Andre du Preez,
Brendon van Niekerk, Julian Boulle and Jean-Philippe Ricordeau.

(Photo courtesy of Vivienne du Preez)

After the great success of the 4th annual tonto Boogie with multi-wingsuit Big-ways in November 2011, Taya Weiss and Jeff Nebelkopf were able to make it out for some more Wingsuiting Fun!

The weekend was held to focus on furthering wingsuiting skills as well as attempting to break the current national flocking record.

The record still stands but I am sure it will be broken soon, given that the skill level of the participants is ever increasing.

A big THANK YOU to Taya and Jeff for making the time and for all the effort they put in. You are both an inspiration to the sport.

Another team that stepped up was the PAC Partnership, Norman and Brendon; as they covered the camera Slot for all the Wingsuit Big-way jumps.

Thank you for making this a possibility. As usual, the judges were on standby to verify the attempts.

Thank you to Chanel, Stuart and Claire for assisting at such short notice.

If you asked me before the weekend what I was doing that weekend, I would have said: "I am going to have some fun in the sky", if you ask me now what I did that second last weekend of January in 2012 I would say: "I was in the most awesome flying school on the planet!".

Many that attended have already requested another Wingsuit Weekend in the next two months to carry on building the momentum. The knowledge and experience gained during these type of events are invaluable to Skydiving in South Africa. I hope to see more of these events appearing in the calendar not only from a Wingsuit perspective but for all disciplines of our great sport.

I am sure that in the coming months with a little help and organisation, we will break that elusive WS record!

If you are interested in wingsuiting and have the requirements to wingsuit, please follow this link  and chat to your closest Wingsuit Coach.

Finally, a big thanks to all wingsuiters that attended for making it a unforgettable weekend of Flights, Flocks and Fun!

Blue Skies,
Oliver Nothen

Left to right: Marc Bouwer, Taya Weiss, Eugene "Pottie" Potgieter,
Lehan Bornman, Dave van der Merwe, Oliver Nothen, Charles Barnhoorn,
Helge Harms and Sean Schook

 (Photo courtesy of Taya Weiss)

The 63rd FAI IPC Plenary Meeting was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during February 2012. This is the annual meeting where all the delegates from different countries meet to discuss the various disciplines, assess and vote for future competitions and determine rule changes for each discipline. Each discipline is represented on the IPC by a committee made up of delegates and advisors and during the year, they re-look, re-work at rules and test new ones that will be proposed at the Plenary Meeting. This year was no different with some major changes in our sport. Formation Skydiving introduced slow-motion judging and CP introduced a major change in the Distance event. The first ever FAI IPC World Tour has been approved and the first discipline to benefit from this is Canopy Piloting. The IPC has setup a working group to establish the concept, get sponsorships and move forward with this and hopefully we will have more detail by end of May 2012. Agnieszka Solomon from South Africa has been the driver of this initiative for the past few months and she has truly done South Africa proud.

The major event on everyone's mind is the upcoming Mondial in Dubai during November and December 2012. A Mondial is an event (parachuting) where 3 or more disciplines are hosted and this year will be an exceptional event as Canopy Piloting will form part of the Mondial and Para-ski will be a test event. The who’s who of skydiving will all be together in one venue and guess what scoring system will be used….. yip, once again, the Intime Scoring System from South Africa. Did I mention Jasper Williams being the Course Director for Canopy Piloting, Ettienne Bosch as an Event Judge for CP, talk about a South African Invasion!!! These are not the only South Africans involved, more information on who the other SA judges will be, will appear in the next issue of TT.

The World Games is the other hot topic at the moment with the event to be held in Cali, Colombia in August 2013. Only CP will take part and the competitors will be selected based on the results of the Mondial. A test event will run in August of this year based on results of the World Cup in Klatovy during 2011. I'm sure South Africans will feature again on several levels, watch this space for more information!!!!!!!

Atmonauti was presented at the Plenary by Marco Ciocca. The intention was to get Atmo added to the Plenary Agenda and ask for a Working Group to be established to investigate the viability of Atmo becoming and IPC discipline. We needed two-thirds majority votes to add this agenda item and lost out by only 6 votes.

It was a good Plenary meeting and it's always good to see how South Africans are interacting/competing on International Level and that a country with 700 members can compete with countries such as the US with their 31 000 members.

I'm looking forward to our next Plenary Meeting to be held in Bosnia Herzegovina in 2013.

Jacqui Bruwer
South African IPC Delegate

IPC Plenary 2012 Delegates

(Photo courtesy of Jacqui Bruwer)

Tim Mace was awarded the FAI Parachuting Gold Medal at the Plenary held in Buenos Aires in January.

The FAI Gold Parachuting Medal may be awarded annually for outstanding accomplishment in connection with parachuting.

The members present at the plenary voted in favour of awarding the medal for this year to Tim in recognition of the following accomplishments:

Tim started skydiving in 1977, and has 8100 jumps. In that time he has competed as a performer in every IPC discipline at World Championship level. He is probably the first person to do this in modern times when so many disciplines are active.

IT'S EASTER TIME SO BE READY FOR THE BIGGEST JUMPING WEEKEND OF THE YEAR AT SKYDIVE CENTRAL

Skydive Central will be hosting nothing less than 50 loads, YES 50 LOADS, over the course of 4 days during Easter Weekend...

BUT WAIT THERE IS SO MUCH MORE

Come and pitch your creative skydive shack (aka tent) on the dropzone for the weekend and stand a chance to win a FREE skydive!

Participate in our family friendly and exciting Easter Hunt and stand a chance to win a FREE skydive:

Yes you have heard right! LOTS OF PRIZES TO GIVE AWAY!

FACTS TO KNOW:

* 50 Bucks pp (this includes camping and entry to Easter Hunt Fun)
* Family Friendly DZ so bring your partners and kids
* 4 Way National Team training
* Guaranteed 8Ways will be put together (Great opportunity for C-Licence requirements)
* FS Coaching Available
* Pre-manifest system

For more info contact:

Christine Daffie:
@ qs3daffie@mweb.co.za /
0822111785

or

David Botha
@ davidb@mtn.co.za /
0832125767

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/events/246301858789088/

BE SURE NOT TO MISS OUT ON ONE HELL OF AN EVENT

Members are reminded of the official AGM notice distributed on 7 February 2012 and are urged to make every effort to attend in person or send a proxy:

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Parachute Association of South Africa will be held in the ground floor meeting room at Grand Central on Wednesday, 7 March 2012 at 18h30.

The business of the Annual General Meeting shall be as follows:

AGENDA:

1. To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting.

2. To present and ratify fees for the next year.

3. To receive and consider the individual discipline's reports on:
3.1 the statement of accounts for the previous year.
3.2 the activities for the previous year.
3.3 the budget for the next year.
3.4 the planned activities for the next year.

4. To set the limits of expenditure for the individual disciplines.

5. To elect the incoming Non-Executive Directors.

6. To ratify the office bearers as tabled by the SSA committees:
6.1 Formation Skydiving
6.2 Artistic Events
6.3 Canopy Formation
6.4 Freefall Style & Accuracy Landing and Paraski
6.5 Canopy Piloting
6.6 Wingsuiting
6.7 Atmonauti
6.8 Judges

7. Other business.

Motion of any proposal to be put to the GM other than ordinary business or amendments to the constitution, must be lodged with the Secretary at least 96 hours prior to the meeting and must be included by him in the agenda, which shall be made available to the members at least 72 hours before the meeting.

Proxy votes are acceptable as long as such votes have been lodged, in writing, at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of the General Meeting, with the Non-Executive Directors, and shall be applicable to specific agenda points on a point-by-point basis. Any one member shall be allowed to carry a maximum of ten proxy votes per agenda point.

Omission of receipt of notice to any member or affiliated body shall not invalidate the meeting.

By Order of the Non-Executive Directors
Johannesburg, 7 February 2012

PASA members are reminded that annual membership renewal falls due on 1 April 2012. We will be implementing a new admin system for renewal this year which should streamline the process. Once the 2012/13 fees have been set at the AGM on 7 March, we will get the renewal process underway. All current members will receive an automated email renewal reminder during March. This email will contain a link which you will need to click on in order to update your data online. Once updated, you will be prompted to make the required payment. For those members who have no ratings to renew or who are not applying for any new licences or ratings, this will be all that is required.

If you are renewing an existing rating or applying for a new licence or rating, you will be prompted to make payment and then to print page 2 of the PASA General Application Form which you will still need to get signed by your Chief Instructor and submit to the admin office via fax or email as in the past.

New members joining for the first time, will need to download and complete the PASA General Application Form (Form 2) as before. This form will be updated after the fees are set at the AGM.

Foreign licence holders must please take note that foreign licences will no longer appear on the PASA card. While FAI equivalent licences are recognised, only PASA licences will be printed on the PASA cards and only PASA licences will show on the PASA website. Holders of foreign licences will need to provide proof of such licences, as may be required, when visiting local drop zones.

More information about the fees for the coming year and the renewal process will be published in the next issue of the Toggle Times.

PASA Safety and Training would like to remind Vigil users of the following manufacturer's notice relating to use:

Vigil (A.A.D. sa) wishes to remind all users to switch off your Vigil after jumping, before leaving the DZ with your gear. Especially when there is an altitude difference of more than 150ft or 45m between the DZ and the place you are travelling to. If you forget to do this, please check your Vigil AAD before starting to jump next time:

If the unit is off, simply switch it on.

In case the unit should still be on, it is NECESSARY to first switch it off, and then start it back up again. This way, the unit will find its correct ground zero reference again. This is only valid if you forget to switch off your Vigil before travelling with your gear, or if you land on a different DZ than the one you have taken off from

** If you stay jumping at the same DZ and leave your gear there, you don't have to switch off your unit. Your Vigil will automatically switch off after 14 hours. For more detailed information on this subject, you can consult your Vigil User's Manual at pages: 4, 8, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 of which you can always download the latest version at http://www.vigil.aero/downloads

The following is an extract of an article published in the December 2011 edition of the African Pilot and is reproduced here, courtesy of the Aero Club, for the information of PASA members:

So what does the Aero Club of South Africa mean to you?
By Kev Storie (General Manager)

The question comes year after year – "What does the Aero Club do for its members and why do we need RAASA?"

In answering this, two main principles need to be agreed on. Most recreational pilots fly for pleasure because it is a passion and secondly, to do so they need to fund their activities privately, which means they need to work hard and hold jobs or own and run companies that afford them the time and the financial standing to pay for recreational aviation. Taking these two principles into consideration the vast majority has little time to keep an eye on what the government and various organisations are doing, attend these meetings and ensure that the very rights to fly that they hold so precious are protected - the right to 'freedom of flight.'

Yes, we have many sections with volunteers that give selflessly to look after their sport, but these committees and associations meet all too infrequently and change so often that it is difficult to maintain impetus to complete projects and to pay attention to every challenge which arises that may threaten recreational and sport aviation. On the whole there is an amazing amount of apathy and the feeling that somebody will do it. When this does not happen there is much complaining.

To this end, as the minutes capture back on 6 April 1920 a group of passionate aviators, mostly from the serving forces, founded the Aero Club of South Africa. The very things that were true back then are still relevant today. The Aero Club has become the most important organisation to protect the rights of freedom of flight. The Aero Club of South Africa is a distinguished organisation that has adapted and grown and in 2020 will celebrate its centenary.

Every other African country that has not had an Aero Club that is strong with permanently employed members has seen a radical decline of recreational activities and loss of rights and freedoms.

There are certain acts and regulatory requirements that have been formulated over the years to protect recreational and sport aviation. The Aero Club and more recently RAASA have various authorities and are recognised by various governmental and international aviation bodies as the governing bodies in South Africa. The Aero Club of South Africa is the officially recognised body representing all 15 affiliated sections on the various committees and forums listed below:

• Industry Liaison Forum (ILF)-deals with all matters relating to commercial and sport aviation
• General Aviation Safety Initiative forum (GASI) - deals with all safety in general aviation, which has already had a huge impact on reducing accidents
• National Airspace Committee (NASCom) - handles all matters with the design and regulation of airspace (this is very important to recreation aviation)
• Civil Aviation Regulation Committee CARCom - deals with all regulations and development along with ICAO compliance or difference initiatives
• Aviation Medical Department (AVMED) working groups - deals with the standards, training and all matters related to aviation medicals and especially the class IV requirements pertinent to recreational aviation
• Air Traffic Control (ATC)  working groups to deal with all air traffic control issues and special exemptions
• National Airspace Master plan working groups - the group designing the guidance document for all airspace design in South Africa
• Department of Transport (DOT) - provides guidance to the SA CAA and handles all transport matters
• South African Weather Service forums (SAWS) and work groups - deals with all meteorological data, the dissemination and the type of data required for aviation
• CAA budget Consultation group - Assists in debating the SA CAA’s annual budget
• Recreation Aviation Administration of South Africa (RAASA) - deals with all administration and legislation and oversight for recreational aviation
• Local municipalities and airports' safety committees
• South African Sports’ Confederation Olympic Committee (SASCOC) - deals with all sports in SA and controls the national and provincial colours for those federations that adhere to its rules and regulations
• Department of sport and recreation (SRSA). To improve the quality of life of all South Africans, foster social cohesion; enhance nation building by maximising access, development and excellence at all levels of participation in sport and recreation.
• South African Air Force (SAAF) - dealing with mutual airspace and air security matters
• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)- handling of all records and international sporting events and rules for each discipline
• DOT work groups against the theft of airspace by the protected areas act
• Insurance companies to provide professional indemnities for the AP scheme
• Group Third Party insurance for certain sections where we recently achieved gaining Insurance for Paragliding Tandem instructors for up to R50 million

In its current form the Aero Club is totally self sufficient, reliant on membership fees to finance the operations and thus fluctuations in membership numbers affect us greatly. We need more money to do more, but at the same time must be cost effective to our members which basically place us between a rock and a hard place. If we could get in an extra R500K per year we could radically develop many of the initiatives we need to develop and maybe we should use some of our reserves to embark on these ventures. However, many see this as a far too radical move.

Aero Club has a few hats that it wears. One is the custodian of aviation sport in South Africa, the second is as the representational body at various forums and committees to protect the interests of sport aviation in South Africa and the final one is to grow the membership and enable transformation and development in aviation sport.

Transformation and development does see Lotto funding and we are working on another revenue stream that should bring more financial support to these initiatives. The man challenge is for sections provide volunteers to work at these various projects and initiatives and this is not happening as much as it should. The route of paid employees seems the only route that will ultimately work as the pressure of our economy and time of members who may volunteer become limited further.

The Aero Club is the custodian of sport aviation and the competition aspects of aviation. We are a NAC and a proud full member of FAI. We adhere to the FAI sporting codes and must ensure that our various sections also adhere to the self same codes when running their sections, competitions and sporting activities. FAI is also made up of a section or discipline specific commissions that develop their specific disciplines along with the competition rules and safety requirements for competition at international level.  In South Africa we must adhere to the National Sport and Recreation Act which is governed by SRSA. Some of its functions include monitoring international events, the SA sporting codes and developing club sports. The awarding of National Colours is outsourced to SASCOC.

The Aero Club of SA is also the sole aviation National Federation and due to our numbers has little provincial operation, but does almost entirely at a national level. We have national events in the different provinces and hence do not belong to some of the sports councils. This may change in some sections if there is seen to be a benefit in future. There are many regulations that SASCOC ensures National federations adhere to and currently to get approval for events the requirements are getting stricter. The Aero Club generally approves most events from sections, but is duty bound to check on these events and to ensure that they meet both the countries sporting code and that of FAI. Based on this we issue approvals to FAI for these competition events and hence if they are international also ensure that national colours are as recognition is achieved by the competitors and duly selected teams.

Now unfortunately our sports are conducted in airspace and amongst both commercial and other aviation activities. This is where the department of transport, the CAA and specifically for us RAASA come into the picture. Whilst Aero Club is the body passionately involved with preserving free flight, it is no longer as free as it once was and the ever increasing airspace along with the South Africans culture to push the envelope regarding adhering to regulations comes into play.

To do this, sport aviators need to be part of a recognised body for each specific discipline or sometimes grouped disciplines.

The Aero Club is recognised by these organisations and ensures that the sections regulate and oversee all clubs and provincial flying activities from a sporting perspective i.e. for competitions, including pilots’ sporting discipline, ethics and airmanship expected and as laid down in the respective sections' MOPs.

A good few years ago it was noted that SA CAA did not have the knowledge or the necessary in-house experience to properly regulate and develop safety in sport and recreational aviation. To do this would be exceptionally expensive and due to the yearly change in section committees and the in-house politics - these committees were not effective in maintaining standards and thus ensuring our sports and recreation airspace users can operate taking other airspace users’ needs in to proper considerations. It was recognised that each of these sections have experts and are the custodians or their sport and facility is made for them in the SACARs in the form of ARO.

It became apparent that if CAA was to comply with ICAO they would need to deal with large GA populations and it made sense to form a body that has the sole purpose to oversee, regulate and control recreational aviation. Hence RAASA was born. It has been successful on the whole as the people who are full time employed are recreational aviators and take the responsibilities of looking after the regulatory matters of recreational aviation and sport aviation passionately and seriously. RAASA ensures that the sections’ MOPs are up to standard and that the sections’ members adhere to their very own disciplines rules and regulations, that they adhere to their very own licensing requirements and renewal requirements and that they conduct themselves professionally within the rest of the aviation fraternity. It should be noted that RAASA has no members and thus does not represent the members, but does represent the regulatory environment over which it presides.

This legal requirement is documented in 94.06.1(2) in volume two (2) of the CARs, requires participants i.e. pilots to be members of the relevant ARO or national body. The sections are responsible for operating their discipline as per their MOPs, developing respective discipline, developing applicable standards that RAASA and the respective body is able to enforce RAASA uses the section’s MOPs to administrate and provide oversight of each discipline by approving the respective MOPs along with adjustments necessary for uniformity. RAASA is the body that licenses all part 62 sections.

RAASA also is the liaison and the co-ordinator if you like of special air events and at time competitions to ensure that we get access and rights to use airspace in conjunction and simultaneously with other air users such as the Airlines, SAAF etc. They do this with consultation and often just informing CAMU of the requirements to get these events publicised via Notams or further in advance via AIPs. Some of the events have international status and need to have greater notification to the rest of the aviation users. Some of these events require approvals from provincial governments, local municipalities and if they are considered international sporting events from the Minister of sport and tourism.

Maintenance of recreational aircraft most of which are NTCA has had provision made by the AeCSA via our authorised persons’ scheme that can be used and is much more cost effective than the normal AMOs and AMEs routes. However, this is only accessible to members of Aero Club and therefore members wishing to use this scheme must be bona fide members of AeCSA and the relevant sections.

The relationship between RAASA and AeCSA is co operative, but it must be noted that AeCSA performs the role of watch dog for the recreational industry in regards to actions and plans that RAASA may wish to implement, but this is generally done via consultation which both organisations respect and openly embrace. RAASA provides oversight on Aero Club's Approved Persons' (AP) scheme and its technical committee. They also keep a close eye on each of the sections in regards to administrative functions and regulatory infringements. They are deeply involved in ensuring safety matters at aviation events.

The Aero Club of South Africa is the primary promoter of recreational aviation. Its primary task is to be a representative body which monitors regulations (basically the watchdog), various government bodies and organisations as well as ensuring that the members of the sections receive adequate representation on all matters within aviation which may affect the perseverance of free flight.

To this end the Aero Club's objectives are

• To popularise, co-ordinate, develop and administer sport aviation in South Africa throughout all the various disciplines practised by member Associations
• To encourage participation in all activities of the AeCSA of all South African residents irrespective of gender, race or religious denomination
• To diligently strive for the safe practice of sport aviation in South Africa
• Disseminate through the publication of regular magazines and other information platforms, the members of AeCSA and the general public of activities of the AeCSA and its member associations
• To encourage participation in sport aviation at international level
• Help each section, where pertinent, to achieve an Aviation Recreation Organisation (ARO) status, which will ensure each section has a manual of operation and procedures for the activities in which their members participate.

The Aero Club has 14 sections that most will ultimately end up with AROs. (Editor's note: PASA obtained it's ARO in 2006)

Each section either has completed or is presently busy with its ARO status, but this also brings with it a responsibility to maintain best practice, standards and high levels of safety. They are intimately responsible for standard of airmanship as well as codes of conduct and ethics.

Self determination
Each section of the Aero Club is responsible its own members, whilst the Aero Club via its sections must still continue to:

• Keep records of its members and discipline procedures
• Keep RAASA informed of any non-compliance as RAASA is the enabler of enforcement matters
• Hold and adjudicate competitions and ensure that approvals from the relevant oversight bodies are obtained
• Ensure that competitions are conducted in accordance with the sporting codes and that the various acts are complied with
• Develop new flying sites whilst maintaining their current sites at the same time good relations with municipalities and other bodies that form part of their flying communities infrastructure
• Work via defined systems to grow the sections' sport and numbers whilst simultaneously working towards the self-determined transformation of the sports to be more  demographically representative of the South African population
• Control and liaise regarding the sporting events and through Aero Club and its membership of SASCOC ensure that recognition for provincial or national colours are available for those that compete and excel to the standards that they have self determined in conjunction with Aero Club and SASCOC as documented in their MOPs so that these colours can be awarded
• Submit international records with criteria which are regulated by FAI or any other body recognised by the section or the Aero Club and are suitably documented and prepared by the sections and then submitted via the Aero Club for FAI ratification and recognition
• The development of all the requirements for licensing and the rules regarding the issuing of licences with consultation with RAASA and other bodies pertinent to ensure these are regulated and in place to be overseen by RAASA.

The Aero Club of South Africa assists with the following:

• Averting incorrect and unsafe rules prematurely placed in law without sufficient and correct consultation
• Provides the annual awards event to recognise excellence within each section and award national and provincial colours if applicable
• Raising awareness of recreational aviation by assisting sections to remain informed and showcase their marketing plans
• Ensuring that it is an active role player member of the FAI with equal status amongst the bigger nations to allow smooth movement of sport pilots to compete fairly in international sporting events and direct individual disciplines internationally
• Actively defending the stance against the mandatory use of transponders as well as legislated limitations of aviation activities and airspace
• Actively defending the stance for the abolishing of landing fees for recreational aviators
• Actively defending against environmental organisations and governmental bodies that try to curb the use of airspace above certain 'proclaimed protected' areas where all too often the airspace is not properly understood and where such legislation takes place without proper of effective consultation.

Fundamentally, the Aero Club of South Africa is the recreational pilots' direct representative that upholds pilots' rights to fly in South Africa and at the competitive FAI level internationally.

Presently an integrated database system is being developed for use by all sections so that each section and its members may have access to the latest information, be able to know what competitions and events are in progress that will ensure better cross-discipline involvement as well as support. This factor will ultimately reduce the administrative requirements currently in place at the Aero Club.

Discount buying power with service providers for AeCSA members

The Aero Club provides a discount structure for members from various suppliers of rental vehicles, tyres, air tickets, goods and services as required. The Aero Club provides assistance with cross border travel to neighbouring countries due to negotiated agreements that are in place.

Finally a defined and well-driven transformation and development strategy through a dedicated committee raises awareness regarding all forms or aviation, which is effectively funded and delivers demographical equalisation (where realistically possible) in aviation as well as bringing aviation to the less privileged and formerly disempowered.

The Aero Club of South Africa belongs to you so please get behind it in order to 'preserve free flight' in South Africa.