post from the RAA

I was riding on a vacuum cleaner all around the house this morning and could barely heard the door bell ringing. I wasn't expecting anyone and was really surprised to see the post man with a pretty big package. He wasn't mistaking and the package was addressed to me. It turned out to be post from the RAA. I was actually expecting a little envelope with my freshly earned pilot certificate. The package included:

• pilot certificate
• printed form of the operations manual
• member CD (ops manual, tech manual, tutorial, member forms, reference docs)
• March 2011 Recreational Aviation Australia magazine
• shopping bag with RAA logo

Somebody might say that I'm again praising foreign aviation authorities. The point though is to show that it's apparently not a really big deal to organize. The pilot has all the rules printed out and in an electronic form which may prevent him from asking embarrassing questions on discussion forums. Assuming he will make the effort to go through before formulating the question. Such a little thing makes the pilot feel good about being part of the association and also motivates him to pay the membership fees. He can also show off going shopping with the bag ;-) 

And no, it doesn't cost a fortune. A yearly membership will cost you A$ 185 and people are willing to pay knowing that in addition to everything they will get a monthly magazine to read.

I guess that's just a simple way to make it all work ...