From:

Boyd Munro, 2 May 2000.

www.airsafety.com.au

P0 Box 172, Balmain,

According to last Sunday's Canberra Times, AirServices Australia sued AOPA for defamation as a result of a Press Release issued last year by AOPA's VP Tony Mitchell (see www.airsafety.com.au/9816aopa.htm ).

The release accused AirServices managers of having their snouts in the trough.

The article says that our VP has to publish an apology, not only in AOPA magazine, but also as a paid advertisement in "The Sunday Telegraph".

It is a shame AOPA's good reputation is being squandered in this way. If AOPA's money is being spent on litigation and on publishing humiliating advertisements, that too is a shame. And so is the fact that we members find out about this, not from AOPA itself, but from the daily papers. AOPA's financial position is precarious (see http://airsafety.com.au/a354abgn.htm ) and what money is left ought not be spent on lawyers.

I wonder what will be said about this at the Annual General Meeting. The AGM is to be held at the Moree Aero Club on 27th May. Once again wouldn't it be nice if AOPA told us directly and in good time, instead of leaving it to the grapevine.

Moree is in the heart of Gwydir, the electorate of the Minister for Transport, John Anderson. I wonder if he is going to come. Our VP put a piece on the Internet on 18th February (see http://www.airsafety.com.au/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000001.html ) which says "Roll on a Federal Election so that we can get some candidates lined up against the Liberals in Marginal Seats, at the very least we can dilute the Liberal Vote and give preferences to Labor. More coming soon on how we can do this!! Anderson must go !!!"

Somehow I don't think the Minister will attend - not unless our VP stays away, that is.

If you are a member of AOPA, you will shortly get a request from the President for your proxy for this AGM. Don't give it! Come to the AGM in person if you possibly can, otherwise give me your proxy, please.

April's AOPA magazine did not reach our members until 1st May, probably due to efforts to make the accounts for 1999 look less awful than they are. A letter on 4th March from AOPA's General Manager to a member (see http://airsafety.com.au/a354abgn.htm ) makes the financial situation very clear.

The accounts reveal a tremendous loss ($360,000) due to a collapse in subscriptions (down from $800,000 to $500,000 - see note 2 on page 72). I will write to you again about this shortly.

The exodus of staff and management from AOPA continues. Bob Tait, David Wright and Mike Hart have resigned from the Committee, leaving four Committee Members who call themselves lawyers and only two who don't (AOPA gets more like the Law Society every day).

The magazine's editor Mark Barnett leaves at the end of this week. Our former General Manager, Mike Hart, has also resigned his membership of the Association. Again, shouldn't this news come direct from AOPA instead of the gossip mill?

There is one piece of really good news, though. The US government has decided to remove the deliberate random inaccuracy from GPS, effective immediately. See www.igeb.gov