BMAA News October 2020
A news roundup for BMAA members. You can read the text below or download for later.
BMAA Newsletter
01/10/2020
To all BMAA Members
I hope this newsletter finds you well and coping with the current problems that we are all facing.
Covid-19
Last week the CAA and the Department for Transport confirmed that so far the increasing cases of Coronavirus and the local lockdown and other restrictions do not affect your ability to fly, assuming that they don’t restrict your movement and ability to journey to the airfield. If there is any change in the coming weeks we will let members know through the website news and by email. Please check our website News section frequently.
BMAA AGM
Last Saturday we held the BMAA AGM using the Zoom Webinar platform. It seemed to work well, although just 41 members attended down on the last two events held at Popham. The minutes of the AGM will be available soon on the BMAA website in the Governance area under the BMAA navigation button. The Treasurer gave a full report on the 2018-2019 finance period which attendees would have heard at Popham in May this year if it had not been cancelled. The report will be in the AGM minutes. We have just completed the financial year 2019-2020 and will begin the audit process later in October. It looks as if we have managed to ride the storm of Coronavirus by careful management of funds and a reduction in promotion costs because we couldn’t get out and about. Thanks also go to the staff who had to take a salary cut when on furlough and to Karen Judd who with me worked through the period to keep things going as normally as possible. Looking ahead the Council has agreed a 2% increase in fees to cover inflation, other than membership. For information some of our insurance policies related to aviation have increased in cost by £7,000 for the forthcoming year. The fee increase will start from 1 October. For the significant majority of members they will only notice a £3.50 increase in the cost of a Permit revalidation once a year. Next year’s AGM is planned for 1 May at Popham all being well.
Qualification extensions
Many members will have taken advantage of the qualification validity extensions that were given by the CAA so that pilots had a further period to maintain a qualification by experience. These extensions only last until 22 November 2020. Pilots, Instructors and Examiners have until that date to complete normal revalidation requirements if they wish to maintain the validity of their qualifications. We suggest that members who might still need to fly with an instructor or examiner make arrangements to do so as soon as possible to avoid a break in privileges. The CAA website has details. Please see the CAA website here . In particular, open the section “Ending of current licensing exemptions 22 November 2020 and 31 December 2020”
BMAA Office
All the BMAA staff are now back working and are coping with the significant flood of work that has poured in since recreational flying was allowed to restart in mid-May. As you might expect with a workload so high we are working at almost full capacity most of the time. We are still mainly working remotely to minimise the risk of cross infection within the staff which would bring the work to a grinding halt. We are installing a new telephone system designed to cope with remote working and so any delays that members might have experienced when wanting to talk to a particular staff member should be a thing of the past. To assist the way that we are working and give you the best service we prefer any applications that are eligible to be in an electronic format, and payment through the website or website shop. This helps us keep tabs on applications, and saves paper. If you have an application with us for a licence or permit please refer to the BMAA website and use the Where is my Paperwork feature in the footer of the home page. This saves you having to call us and gives us more time to concentrate on getting your application processed.
Membership cards
We have decided to stop producing plastic membership cards. Members can download and print if necessary a .pdf version of their membership details in the MY Account area of the BMAA website having logged on. There will be a significant saving in time and cost by not continuing to print plastic cards, as well as helping to cut down on the use of plastic and the accompanying paper that is used in compliment slips and envelopes. To create an account for the BMAA website go to the Login tab on the far left of the website and follow the instructions to create an account.
We will keep you advised of further changes as they happen.
With best wishes.
Geoff Weighell
CE BMAA