At the moment the thought of staging an air show in the Cape would not be a clever idea – we are experiencing heavy rainy and cold weather.

Luckily for them up north there are air shows or fly-ins nearly every weekend.

In May Rand Airport hosted an extremely successful air show. The ASSA/Denel joint venture was very visible and many great post show reports were received. The attendance figures were beyond expectation and although the airforce only participated in the form of the Silver Falcons the show was full and very spectator satisfying which is after all our aim to bring aviation to the spectators/fans.

Also during May a workshop was held at Rand Airport for the display pilots.

The attendance there too was surprisingly excellent – proving that all of the participants in the air show arena are ready and willing to join the movement of promoting safety and ruling out any renegade element. Des Barker, Scully Levine and Rikus Erasmus had the most seasoned display pilot stuck to his chair for 3 hours. ASSA is extremely proud and excited at this result and very encouraged to carry on the mission at hand.

The ASSA Board and Denel Aviation have allocated various air shows to help sponsor and in this way encourage the small air shows that used to be fly ins with illegal displays bringing aviation to the smallest corners and ensuring safety is NO ACCIDENT.

Please check out our calendar before planning your holiday – there are at least 2 events per month till the end of the year.

Louise (Admin)

APRIL & MAY 2009 NO. 04 & 5

We have decided that with all the public holidays during the next and past few weeks that we would combine the April and May newsletter.

There have been two very successful ASSA accredited events in the form of Bultfontein and Polokwane. From the reports we have received they were both very enjoyable and highly successful for the organisers

Before the Rand Airport air show in May 2009 Scully Levin and Des Barker will be hosting a refresher workshop for all display pilots – once again part of ASSA's Board's mission of getting all involved to operate from the same page.

We have also added contact details for all the performers on the website facilitating organisation of aviation events.

The 2010 calendar is also on the website with a few bookings made already.

Bob Allison has also been added under Special Services – Bob has been awarded a special dispensation of Aerodrome Flight Information Service from ATNS. This will alleviate the problem of ATNS's commitments during the Federation Cup of soccer and next year's World Cup. Bob is very keen to be of assistance.

Please take a moment to check out our incredibly informative (sometimes scary) insert under “Safety Forum” at the articles posted by General Des Barker by kind permission of Airnews Magazine.

If you should be interested in linking your website with a logo to our website at an annual fee of R1500 excl please contact Lee Holmes at

lee@airshowsa.org.za

Our very best wishes and hope to see you at the AIR SHOWS.

Louise

ASSA admin

Welcome to our website once again and a happy March to all

28 February 2009 started at 9am at Henley Air at Rand Airport with a very informative seminar for ASSA Safety Officers, Flight Directors and Event Organisers. The speakers were General Des Barker , Lt. Col. Hose Hanekom, Lt. Col Andrea Ehmke, Ricardo Afonso of ATNS and Rikus Erasmus ASSA Chairman.

We had a record turnout of 30 delegates and I am sure the rest of SA felt very unsafe knowing that we had nearly every Safety Officer in one room at one time. Stan Oliver from Aero Club, in closing, thanked all and congratulated ASSA on work done for general aviation.

Immediately after the Seminar the ASSA AGM took place - once again with strong support by the members. ASSA has proved after 5 years of existence that there is a very definite need for our Association and there has been some remarkable growth in membership and the finances are improving.

Service Excellence Certificates were awarded to Brian Emmenis, Scully Levin and Dennis Spence for their incredible contribution to Air Shows over the last 25 years.

It was also announced at the AGM that Denel Aviation has proposed a Joint venture with ASSA – Details will be announced at a later stage.

Rikus Erasmus and his Board were re-elected to the Board for 2009 and the motion to move the date of the AGM to early November each year was unanimously accepted.

The Air Show circuit kicks off on 14 March 2009 with the Bultfontein Fly-In/mini Air show and we look forward to another 23 events up until end November 2009.

Please spread the word that if you want to know “Where and When there is an Air event” you should please refer to Official Calendar on ASSA website which is updated weekly.

Till next time

Louise (Admin)

Hi to all Air show and aviation enthusiasts.

We are gearing up for a great Air show year with an average of 2 air events per month for 2009 beginning with Bultfontein on 14 March 2009.

To start the year ASSA is conducting a safety seminar at the end of February 2009 to accredit Safety Officers and Flight Directors and Event Organisers.

Most importantly we would like to take this opportunity of informing all our members that our Annual General Meeting will be held on 28 February 2009 .

We look forward to seeing a large number of our members there.

Communication is the most powerful tool and we would really like to spend 2009 communicating and informing all South African aviators, organisers and officials of ASSA's functions and how we can be of assistance.

First and most important Thank you and Welcome to our revamped Website. You will notice that we have a current list of Safety Officers and Flight Directors who are available to officiate at your Air Show.

Early in 2009 ASSA will conduct a seminar to validate the Safety Officers and Flight Directors for the air show year. This will ensure that the officials that you appoint to serve at your air show will have current ratings and will offer you peace of mind and leave you to get on with the money making side of hosting an air show.

We encourage all parties involved in organising air shows – from the organiser, safety officer, flight director, traffic controllers and of course all the civilian display pilots to be part of and to realise the advantages of being an ASSA member.

Our aim is to offer SAFETY of the highest degree and therefore we urge all participants to pay their ASSA fees which will then ensure that all involved will operate to the same high safety standards and thereby also maintaining our fantastic accident free record – in this time of many fatalities in the small aircraft division.

We strongly recommend that you avoid utilising display pilots or teams or officials who are not ASSA accredited as this could jeopardise any insurance claim you may have.

We are very hard at work negotiating sponsorship for the smaller air shows – with the aim of encouraging smaller airfields to host air shows and thereby reaching the widest circumference of SA public and our future aviation enthusiasts.

We would like to wish all of the Aviation fraternity a very Happy Christmas and a great Air show 2009. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Lee Holmes, Louise Hofmeyr and our Board members for their time and invaluable support during 2008.

Kind regards.

RIKUS ERASMUS
CHAIRMAN