The EAA monthly Talk Show is just one of a host of services and entertainment provided by the South African branch of the world renowned EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association). Most people know now that EAA is not just involved with experimental aircraft, as the historic (1957) name suggests, but with many other facets of Recreational, General and Light Sport Aviation. While it certainly does still involve construction of experimental aircraft, it also encompasses such things as Warbird restorations, Kit built aircraft, Type Certified restorations, Light Sport manufacture, all types of Recreational Flying and indeed even Private Space Exploration. One of EAA’s most famous members, South African born Mike Melvill, was the first pilot of (another famous EAA member ) Burt Rutan’s X-prize winning “Spaceship 1”, to fly into space on a privately owned, funded and built aircraft.
Amongst their functions as an organization are some important activities for the future of private aviation in South Africa, such as the Young Eagles programme and the NTCA support programme. The Young Eagles programme is aimed at giving young people an introduction to aviation and flight. EAA aircraft owners (at their own cost) provide intro flights and lectures to youngsters of all backgrounds. Records show that these first experiences have led many “Young Eagles” to great careers in aviation. The head of the programme in the USA for the past 5 years is perhaps EAA’s most famous member, the actor Harrison Ford.
EAA have purchased a piece of land at Rand Airport which they acquired through the good graces of the joint owners of Rand. The management of EAA had hoped that the piece of land that they were purchasing would be the land on which “their” Auditorium now stands, but it appears as if the Rand Airport joint owners have other plans for that particular patch. We aviation enthusiasts hope that this doesn’t mean that the EAA’s marvelous work (shows, workshops, seminars etc.) will not be lost to GA.
In an interview with EAA’s Project Coordinator, Jeremy Woods, we tried to establish what their possible plans for the future are:
SA Flyer: You’ve been holding Talk shows and Workshops at the auditorium for more than two years now, how do you plan to continue?
JW: “EAA (in respect of Rand Airport Auditorium) is in a bit of a holding pattern for the moment.”
“We can’t complete the refurbishments to the existing Auditorium, such as the Bar and toilets, as it seems we will have to give it up and build elsewhere on the airport. This is obviously hampering our ability to earn an income. This is a problem because the management of Rand Airport also don’t know yet where they are going to allocate our piece of land as they are in the middle of creating their own Master Plan for the whole of the airport.”
SA Flyer: We believe that you have spent a huge amount of effort and money in getting the auditorium to its current stage of completion; can a non-profit organization such as EAA afford to take such losses?
JW: “We obviously took a calculated risk, believing with good reason that we would be allocated this particular piece of ground by Rand Airport Holdings. Our plans don’t gel with the owner’s plans so we will just have to salvage whatever material we can out of this auditorium and use it to build a completely new facility on our new piece of land when it is allocated.”
SA Flyer: You talk with great confidence, as if you have loads of money to achieve this feat?
JW: “We have paid half of what is due for the land only, we do not yet have all of the balance owing because we are busy raising the funds bit by bit from the proceeds of our shows and the bar takings and the occasional donation.”
SA Flyer: How will you then be able to pay for a new auditorium as well as the rest of your land if you don’t have the means to raise the funds?
JW: “That certainly is a vexing question for us. As you have said, if we don’t have the facility (the auditorium) with which to raise the funds, what can we do to raise the required funds? Membership fees certainly do not provide sufficient to be able to meet the need. But I am an eternal optimist and believe that there is a way to overcome the problem. We just have to find it.”
SA Flyer: What is envisaged for the development at Rand Airport?
JW: A Facility that will not only have an auditorium but also house our head office and workshops to accommodate the building programme of a number of really old vintage WWI warbirds. A squadron of SE-5A’s, for which we already have plans, has been mooted. If we can achieve this, we hope to introduce a copy of “the Old Rheinbeck” format from the USA to Rand Airport.
