Two Years of Fun in December 2013, I was elected to be the president of CRUFC, and this month we are meeting to elect the new president, treasurer and secretary. It was two years of fun, knowing new people and learning a lot. Our club was a game changer in my life. In the past I knew two places, hope and work and I spent more than half of my day at work. But with me joining the club I had a new purpose of my life. It is taking part aviation and promoting flying among aviation enthusiasts. However, the main engagement factor I can look to and count on is the “from the cockpit” article that I had to write monthly for our Sky Writer. It was very interesting to go back and review what ideas and call for action that I put on paper and in front of your eyes. Therefore, I decided to summaries the past two years of call for action that I had in From the Cockpit.

February 2014: was calling the club member to act and support the club activities

We have to step up our game. We have to stand up, all of us, and bring up the CRUFC back to become the best in Western Canada and then in Canada. I hereby call on all of the members to step up their game, to come up with suggestions and ideas in what we need to do to make the club better and stronger. Make the club functions informative and joyful. We need you to stand up and point to the person that you feel he is the best in making the club better. I hope that each one of you is pointing out to himself… yes himself, because we cannot achieve our goals without your engagement.”

March 2014: Bring women to flying

“In 1910, the women represented about 3% of the pilot population at that time. One hundred years later, women still only constitute about 6% of the pilot population in most western countries. Piloting is an activity anybody can do and can excel at if desired. But why is it that only 6% of the pilot population is female! It supposed to be 50%. Should we face it and declare that, for the last one hundred years, aviation has been standing on one leg only?”

“In order of supporting and encouraging women’s into aviation, let’s challenge the status quo and the false assumptions. Let’s reach out and genuinely invite women to join the challenging and rewarding world of aviation, not as an accessory but as a desired partner. Let us bring the whole family to the aviation, make the airports more welcoming places, put them in the left seat and give them introductory ride, let them get the feel for the control, lighting the spark for flying and most importantly stop 19th century thinking, and live in the 21st century.”

May 2014: Buddy Pilot … What an Interesting Idea!

One of the major factors that impacts general aviation (including recreational), is the aircraft price. The price of new aircraft since 1950 has escalated at a rate that far outpaced the rate of inflation, making aircraft ownership less affordable over time. That is not good news, when the price out- paces inflation; less percentage of the general population will afford aircraft. Aging pilot community, in my humble opinion is the major hurdle to recreational flying, young people are less interested in flying compared to other recreational activities, and therefore less and less young people are joining the pilot community. The main reason for that beside the cost issue is the lack of awareness and lack of access. The lack of awareness to the privilege, the pilots have, in using the vertical dimension, and seeing the world from above. The lack of access to the tools, access to the aircraft, and the knowledge of piloting, access to the training are significantly and negatively impacting the number of recreational pilots.”

“Attracting people to piloting can be enhanced by introducing a buddy system, or call it “Buddy Pilot”. A Buddy Pilot is a pilot who becomes a buddy to a non-pilot in order of bringing him to the pilot community. A Buddy Pilot will provide his buddy an occasional access to his aircraft and take him in flying tour or fly-in. The Buddy Pilot goal is to transition the unaware person to a potential pilot and then hand him over to a training school. The purpose of the buddy system is noble and I believe it is worth further discussion.”

July 2014: Bring youth to flying

“Is the myth that youth of ages 18 to 28 are not interested in flying as a hobby correct? I think that we, the general aviation community, need to work on increasing the youth awareness about the safety aspects of the flying, provide them with opportunity to access the planes or at least reduce their burden to do so and set a raw model follow.”

January 2015: Another call for members to act

“Despite of all our efforts to expand the size of our club, we are still lagging on the effort to bring in new members. In addition, we see that we are slipping in maintaining the club membership and member engagement. I would like to reinforce that we are open to listening and working on new ideas to increase the current member engagement to sustain the size of the club if not increase it.”

March 2015: We need ultralight instructors

“We need more ultralight instructors to bring ultralight pilots to the sky. It is that simple. Two months into 2015, our membership declined from 64 members last year to only 42 members, representing 33% reduction in the membership. We believe that the membership decline is due to two reasons, first is the lack of new members joining the club and second is our current members departing the club or not paying their dues.”

“Last year I thought that we had lots of options to reach out and attract new members, but eventually I faced a very basic problem in the lack of ultralight instructors. Even if we were able to convince and attract new members to join the club, they eventually need to practice flying. They need two basic things, an airplane and a license. They can fly a friend airplane, buy a share in one or possibly rent one, but without obtaining their ultralight license to fly, they are only passengers.”

“It all boiled down to the fact that new members mean new pilots. This, in turn, means training is needed and instructors to provide the training. In Calgary, we have few instructors but need more. The lack of ultralight instructors is severely impacting the flying enthusiast to achieve their dreams and we have to work together to find solutions and bring more flying enthusiast to the sky.”

June 2015:

“I am calling on all of you to start the campaign to protect our freedom of flying, I would like to keep the feeling of the proudness that I am a Canadian and I have the freedom to fly, and I with my fellow pilot friends will protect this freedom to fly.” I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy winter flying season.

Bashar