BMFA Achievement Scheme ReviewCommittee
Meeting
Minutes of the meeting ofSaturday 3rd September 2016, at Chacksfield House, Leicester
Those present: AreaRole
Terry Rounce(TR)LondonASRC Chairman
Duncan McClure(DM)South MidlandRC P&SF Controller & Sec.
Andy Symons(AS)NorthernASCClub Support Officer
Brian Cooper(BC)South MidlandCE
John Harris(JH)WesternCE
Mick Eames(ME)South MidlandASC
Peter Willis(PW)SouthernCE
Invited attendees:
Dick Whitehead (DW)South Midland
ITEMACTION
1WelcomeApologies for absence:
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
The Secretary reported that he has received apologies from Phil Gutteridge (PG) and Peter Jenkins (PJ).
2Minutes of the meeting of 31st October 2015:
Proposed: BC, seconded: JH, unanimously accepted as an accurate record of the meeting.
3Matters arising (actions) not covered in agenda:
Item (4)DM reported that he had passed a list of all Heli. ACEs to PW.
Item (5b) DM reported that he had been in contact with the Tech. Sec. regarding guidance on Multi-Rotor safety and safe operation etc. in the BMFA member’s handbook. The Tech. Sec. had reported that there had been no progress on this. As a result of this, DM enquired if the Tech. Sec. would like the ASRC to talk to the individuals who had assisted in the development of the Multi-rotor tests, with a view to providing the Tech. Sec. with a draft Multi-Rotor section.The Tech. Sec. had indicated that this would be helpful. DM reported that he has prepared a bullet point draft, which he will forward to Chris Bradbury and the FPV racing association for comment and ‘fleshing out’. DM
Item (7) AS reported that the BPC test forms are now available on the web site.
Item (10) DM Reported that he had written to Model Balloons UK.
Item (12) No input/feedback had been received from PG on the subject of any potential helicopter ‘C’, action carried forward. PG
4FPV Extensions for the BPCs
DM & AS reported that they have not completed the action on them to prepare draft FPV
extensions for the BPCs. It was noted that whilst the basic outline of the flying elements of these tests had been agreed, the formal test guidance document had not been developed. AS DM agreed to produce a first draft during the coming week, which would then be circulated for comment and feedback, to a timetable that would permit implementation in 2017.
DM & AS
5Video Guidance Document – review/feedback on draft M-R DVD:
The general consensus was that the DVD circulated by PW was an excellent 1st draft and the committee thanked PW for his work. There was a useful debate during which a number of suggestions were passed to PW. These included; reducing the overall length, removing some of the technical content not directly related to the M-R tests, improving quality and adding explanatory text.
The committee also agreed that, as hoped, this form of guidance appearsto work well for Multi-Rotor flying. PW also indicated that he would be pleased to receive any further detailed comments via e-mail. Target completion for the DVD is a 2017 launch, to accompany all the other reviewed AS materials. PW & All
6Rotary wing Training Manual:
PW reported that due to other commitments he had been unable to make any progress on the Helicopter version of ‘A Flying Start’. He also reported that he had not received any additional feedback from the committee or the AHA.
It was agreed that this document wasn’t necessarily the highest priority, but that development would hopefully pick up in 2017 as more effort became available.
After some discussion, it was agreed that the document would cover Multi-Rotors as well as Helicopters.PW indicated that any input to the content would be welcomed. All& PW
7Train the Trainer Workshops:
There was further useful discussion on this topic, which developed some of the ideas raised at the previous meeting.DM indicated that he thought that it would be useful if the workshop could cover more than just how to run a workshop. There was some discussion on who should be invited to attend, and it was agreed that attendance would be offered to a wide audience of Examiners and Instructors, at both Club and Area level.AS suggested that it could be more like the recently organised regional Chairman’s conferences, and ME suggested that ‘Achievement Scheme Conference’ would be a better title. The purpose would not only be to encourage Areas to embrace the workshop initiative, butat the same timeit would provide an excellent mechanism for the ASRC to establish contact with grass roots Examiners and Instructors, something which it would appear isn’t necessarily happening via the Areas Committee route. The conference would also provide a useful forum to disseminate information regarding recent developments within the scheme, as well as the opportunity for a Q & A session for the attendees. Potential content of the conference would include:-
- Guidance on running workshops – feedback from first hand experiences
- New AS materials - BPCs, FPV extension etc. – the thinking behind them etc.
- Video Guidance – Screen M-R guidance and solicit feedback / discuss effectiveness
- Mandatory Questions – Explain philosophy and importance
- Q&A Session
- Call for more rotary examiners
- What can the ASRC do to help examiners and instructors ?
There was universal support for the revised concept. It was agreed that in the first instance, two conferences would be organised, one in the North and the one in the South. AS suggested Brighouse Sports Club (HD6 4LX) for the Northern conference, as this had been used previously by the BMFA. This was agreed, and the venue booked during the meeting for 25th February 2017. DM suggested a hotel or similar venue close to the M4 / A34 intersection (Jnc. 13) as a Southern venue. A date of 18th March 2017 was agreed for the Southern conference.
DM to arrange a suitable Southern venue and circulate details. It was agreed that the members of the ASRC would deliver the programme of presentations, discussions etc.
DMwas tasked to prepare a draft Programme of day and circulate to all for comment ASAP.
TR indicated that he would discuss funding for these events with the Hon. Treas. Potentially funds could be made available from the training/development budget. DM indicated that he could use funds from the Controllers budget, if required. The intention would be to provide lunch for all attendees. It is difficult to predict numbers, but it was agreed that we would budget forapproximately 100 attendees at each conference, using the Chairman’s conference model.
DM to prepare a BMFA News advert for the events and submit to the editor ASAP – copy date for next issue is this coming week.AS will publish details on the website when finalised. DM & AS
8Review of all Achievement Scheme Materials for 2017:
After some discussion, it was agreed that the existing Achievement Scheme materials remain fit for purpose and don’t require any modification for 2017. It was felt that a period of consolidation was more appropriate given all of the recent developments within the scheme, and that a theme of ‘promotion’ of the scheme would be adopted for 2017.
There was specific discussion regarding the loop in the Multi-Rotor ‘B’ test. AS & DM reported that they had witnessed a number of different machines fly this manoeuvre quite competently at the recent ‘Rotor fest’/Queen’s Cup meeting, and as such they felt it should remain. This was agreed. It was recognised that this might make it difficult for heavier camera carrying machines to take the ‘B’ test, but this was considered to be a good thing. The test is primarily one of pilot skill and competence, and is not intended for any licensing purposes.
AS reported that there have been in excess of 3700 attempts at the Mandatory Questions on-line quiz, and that as a general trend, the percentage of correct answers was improving. He also indicated that he thought there would be benefit in generating additional quizzes for FW and Heli. ‘A’ & ‘B’ tests. All present felt that this was a good idea and agreed to provide AS with questions and answers (including three wrong answers!) for the various tests.JH, DM & PW agreed to prepare Helicopter questions and TR, BC & ME Fixed Wing. All
There was also some discussion on making all test forms available as downloads, like the BPC forms. It was agreed that this isn’t necessarily a major issue, but that it would be kept under review for the future. It was recognised that in order to do this the current forms would need changing from their existing format, but this wouldn’t necessarily be a problem.
PW indicated that at some point in the future (i.e. not now) that he intends to look at adding content on stabilisation technologies to the FW flight training manual ‘A Flying Start’.
It was agreed that all 2017 Achievement Scheme documents would be posted on the website, in advance of going live on 1st January, in order to allow examiners and instructors time to become familiar with the content before implementation. A target date of 1st December 2016 was agreed for the posting of the materials, as this would allow for any minor adjustments/corrections at our November 12th meeting.
9AoB
DMindicated that he had received an e-mail from PGsuggesting mandatory re-assessment of Club Examiners. Copies of the e-mail were circulated to the meeting. There was some discussion on this, but the universal consensus was that any move in this direction would be seriously detrimental to the scheme, due to the likely reduction in examiner numbers. JH pointed out that this item had been discussed at the previous meeting, and that alternative solutions had been agreed, along with suggested solutionsto the specific problems PG has encountered in the East AngliaArea.
DM reported that he hadrecently authorised a Heli. Club Examiner test on Jersey using two examiners, one Area Chief and one Club, as the ACE was not Heli. qualified, but the CE was.
All agreed that this was a sensible pragmatic approach. It was agreed that in general, more Helicopter/Rotary examiners were need and that we should mention this as part of the planned AS conferences. There was also some discussion on the merits of generating a separate class of examiner for Multi-rotors, but it was agreed that this was not really necessary or desirable.
AS reported that a member of the a particular clubhad contacted him stating that ACEs and CEs within the club were refusing to conduct Achievement Scheme tests to the new format. It was agreed that AS would follow this up, initiallywith the Area Co-ordinator, and report to the Controller if further action was necessary. It was agreed that if this report turns out to be true, the ASRCs advice is that the examiners involved should be invited to resign. AS
10Date of next meeting:
This was set for Saturday the 12th November, and it was agreed that the Hon. Sec. would be invited to attend. DM