CEO Report

I’m pleased to present the annual report for FY20-21 and the financial results therein. It’s a particularly impressive result given the uncertainty that COVID-19 has imposed on us all.

Having joined RAAus half-way through this financial year it was comforting to know that the Board had adopted a conservative budget for the year and that it allowed for flexibility, depending on how the year progressed. Although the organisation had budgeted for a deficit, the modest surplus achieved resulted from both prudent financial management and also a significant - and not entirely anticipated - bounce-back in financial memberships.

In the latter months of the previous financial year, we saw financial memberships decline significantly because of the COVID-19 lockdowns in place across the country. As these lockdowns were progressively lifted and we returned to somewhat of a normal life, we saw a bounce back of memberships by approximately 3.6%. Of course, due to the second extended lockdown in Victoria we didn’t experience as much as a recovery there as we would have liked. Had this not occurred I am confident our national growth during the year would have been greater still thanks to the resilience and continued enthusiasm of our members.

Fortunately, the year wasn’t completely dominated with COVID-19 and whilst we all started feeling a sense of normality, your team at RAAus was extremely busy completing our CASR Part 149 application. The completion of this work saw RAAus being the second Part 149 Approved Sport Aviation Organisation (ASAO) in the country. On his final day with the organisation in late-November, Michael Linke, former RAAus CEO, was presented with the RAAus Part 149 Certificate from the then CASA Director of Aviation Safety, Mr Shane Carmody. This certificate gives us our licence to operate, provides us with a clear understanding of our regulated responsibilities and, in operationalising the certificate, ensure we have the systems, processes and people in-place to enable our members to participate in safe and informed aviation activities.

“One of the areas I feel we’ve worked particularly well for our members is in our advocacy.”

Be it when Airservices dropped their Class E airspace proposal, supporting members at various aerodromes around the country, submissions to the Department of Infrastructure and Transport or to influence CASA to expand our privileges through regulation. There is a significant amount of effort that goes into this as well as lots of meeting with relevant stakeholders whilst ensuring we are aligned to our members wants and needs. Often this is the work that our members don’t necessarily see, but I can assure you that without this our operations would be significantly worse off.

At our last (my first) AGM I shared a presentation with members highlighting areas of my focus and I’d like to share our progress. These areas included: • Implementation of Part 149 – which we achieved this implementation and commenced our Part 149 operations on 31 March 2021. • Training – we partially met this due mainly to the inability to travel and present PDP’s to the membership. We have, however, continued to develop our Moodle Platform for instructors and higher approval holders and are very much focused on integrating this with our instructor portal. • Advocacy - we put forward a strong case to

Airservices to not implement Class E airspace at 1500 AGL, and won! Engaged with CASA’s technical working groups to protect our privileges in Part 103, just to name a few. • Financial - Our conservative approach to expenditure in lieu of reliable forecasting of revenue due to COVID-19, has meant we are financially sound as an organisation. • Engagement – We continue to develop our communications with members and are in the early stages of developing a new website and member portal that will make it much easier for our members to engage with us. • Initiatives – Through our work on the Part 103 technical working group, we are pleased to see

CASA acknowledge that an increased in the

MTOW for RAAus members will be incorporated into amended CAOs for the 2 December 2021.

We also expect CASA to conduct a consultation shortly relating to controlled airspace access and a reduction in limitations associated with the MTOW increase.We would expect staged implementation of these in 2022 with further refinements in out-years.

It’s fair to say that even with the limitations placed on us due to COVID-19, and as demonstrated above, your team continues to deliver for you. And as you’ll see in this report, we continue to see new members join and experience the thrill of being involved with a community minded organisation such as RAAus. We should all be very proud of what it is that RAAus brings the Australian aviation landscape and therefore we continue to protect our freedoms, not only for our members, but for the broader ecosystem.

Finally, I’d like to share with you how impressed I am with the capability of the (your) RAAus team. The commitment shown by this small number of dedicated staff is demonstrated in everything that they do. I would sincerely like to thank each of them for their ongoing focus to ensure our members preserve their privileges, operate safely and do so with as little ‘red tape’ as possible.

Matt Bouttell CEO