Pico club History

In 2007/2008, the Office bearers were:

Jos Weemaes, President (02) 60265658  

Rick Clarke, Vice President

Andrew McCarthy, Secretary (03) 52213274  

Jeff Hoffmann, Treasurer (02) 69206233  

Chris Drake, Vice treasurer (& appointed Vice Webmaster)  

Mike Forwood, Senior Safety Officer 0427310686   SSO

In 2006/2007, the Office bearers were:

Andrew Shipley, President and Webmaster for the web site 0407 511 451 or andrewshipley@netspace.net.au

Jos Weemaes, Vice president (02) 60265658 or jweemaes@bordernet.com.au

Andrew McCarthy, Secretary (03) 52213274

Jeff Hoffmann, treasurer (02) 69206233

Mike Forwood, Senior Safety Officer 0427310686

A brief history of "The Pico"

Here's a brief history of how we came about

• 1998 First “Pico-Light” fly-in at Jeff Hoffmann’s property in Milbrulong ( present: Jeff Hoffmann, Frank Fontyne and Jos Weemaes )
• 1999 Second “Pico-Light” Fly-in ( present: Jeff Hoffmann, Jos Weemaes, Tilo Schmidt, Murray Fraser, Rob Lithgow, Graham Sutherland, John Walmsley, Mark Cross and his Dad Kevin, Kurt Savage and Frank Fontyne)
• 2001 Establishment of “The Pico-Light Flying Club” with the aim:
  • Encourage participation in PPG
  • Information exchange
  • Communication via Email
• 2001 Establishment of The Pico Forum, compiled daily by Jos Weemaes ( 2007 we had 118 members on this forum)
• 2005 Establishment of “The PPG association of Australia ( The Pico) ” and Terms of Reference of the association defined
• 2005 Establishment of the association's web site “The Pico.com.au”
• 2006 “The Pico Club inc.” affiliated with the HGFA and established as a means for creating HGFA sanctioned PPG fly-in’s
• 2006 At the inaugural meeting of the club in Ardmona ( vic) during the fly-in at Dale Huggard's , the following appointments were made: President: Jeff Hoffmann, Vice President: Russell Diffey, Secretary: Jos Weemaes, Treasurer Andrew Shipley and PPG Safety Officer: Mike Forwood
• 2006 At the AGM of the association it was agreed to abolish the association and to extend the ToR of the incorporated club to include the ToR of the association. First election of Pico Club office bearers. The following appointments were made: President: Andrew Shipley, vice president: Jos Weemaes, Secretary: Andrew McCarthy and Treasurer Jeff Hoffmann
• 2006 Application to the NSW Office Of Fair Trading to incorporate The Pico Club., Public Officer: Jeff Hoffmann
• 2007 Tenth “Pico-Light” fly-in at Jeff Hoffmann’s property in Milbrulong 55 pilots
• 2007 Change from the forum moderated by Jos Weemaes to the public Yahoo forum
• 2007 Official recognition by the HGFA and State Organisations of the status of The Pico Club inc to be equivalent to HGFA State organisations
• 2007 Jeff Hoffmann and Jos Weemaes are awarded Life Membership of The Pico Club for outstanding contributions to the PPG community
• 2008 The Pico Club inc. becomes part of the " HGFA State Associations and Special Interest groups"
• 2008 Draft aviation law reforms (CASR Part 103 aka NPRM 0603os) published and includes Pico Club submissions. CASA agree to also amend CAO95.8 based on our work.
• 2009 The Pico Club proposes PPG mentoring and Restricted and Unrestricted Powered Paragliding to the HGFA Board
• 2009 The Pico Club exec takes over the organisation of the Annual fly-in from Jeff and Jos
• 2010 Mentoring and Restricted and Unrestricted PPG accepted by the HGFA and included in Revision 6 of the HGFA Operations Manual
• 2010 New PPG classification training underway based upon the PPG syllabus created by Andrew Polidano and Graham Sutherland.
• 2010 First PPG Mentor training takes place during the 13th annual Pico Fly-in

2006 Annual General Meeting

Here are the minutes from the inaugural meeting, held on 16 September 2006

Minutes of meeting.

Date:             16th  September 2006.
Location:         Milbrulong. NSW.

Present:
Jeff Hoffman                                       Jos Weemaes
Andrew Shipley                                     Ross Atkin
Mark Mitsos                                        John Longbottom
John Smith                                         Peter Bowyer
David Fowler                                       Andrew McCarthy
Rick Clarke                                        Dale Huggard
Russell Diffey                                     Mike Forwood
Jack Farrall                                       Thomas Dahmen
Andrew Polidano                                    Bohdan Philippa
Mark Cross                                         Geoff Sanders
Simon Wills                                        Neville Leo
Jeff Blunt                                         Craig Wilkins
Chris Fogg                                         Daniel Eakins
Jan Smith                                          Dean Fox                
Glen Sheluchin                                     Deborah Rein 

Apologies – None

Meeting open at 13.00

Members were made welcome by the president. 

Secretary briefly outlined the proceedings of the meeting.
 
The minutes of the inaugural meeting of 8th April 2006 were tabled,
accepted by Mike Forwood and signed by Jeff Hoffman.

Financial Statement to the affairs of the Pico Club incorporated were
presented by Andrew Shipley moved to be accepted by Jos Weemaes,
seconded by Mike Forwood – Accepted.

Office bearers vacated current positions.
 
Chris Fogg, General Manager HGFA took over the proceedings and called
for nominations, 

President, Andrew Shipley – Accepted
Vice President, Jos Weemaes – Accepted
Secretary, Andrew McCarthy – Accepted
Treasurer, Jeff Hoffman – Accepted
 

The position of Safety Officer / Senior Safety Officer was briefly
discussed:

It was agreed that the committee will define the further role of the
Safety Officer / Senior Safety Officer within the club.

Jos Weemaes requested inputs into the definition and purpose of the
club as the club has moved on from a means to organise HGFA sanctioned
fly-ins to defining future directions for PPG in Australia.

It was agreed that the committee is to discuss this further and put a
proposal forward on the Pico Forum for further discussion.

Glen Sheluchin proposed a methodology where by 51% of the members are
in favour of a proposal before it is presented as the official Pico
proposal to the HGFA. Motion was not Carried.

Meeting closed 14:00

Andrew McCarthy
Secretary The Pico Club inc

The first Geelong Pico Club Flyin 11th, 12th & 13th of May 2007

Rick Clarke and myself finally got our act together and organised the first Geelong PPG, Aero chute and Micro lite Flyin. It was held on the 11th, 12th & 13th of May 2007 at Swan Bay on the Bellarine Peninsular. The Pico Club agreed for this flyin to be sanctioned under the HGFA.

There where 30 registed pilots for the weekend. 20 PPG, 9 Aero Chute and 1 Micro lite. The weather was perfect, we could not has timed it better.

Friday morning pilots flew around launch, in the arvo the wing tuned to the south so we decided to fly to the coast and down to Queens Cliff and back. Unreal flying. Friday evening we held the pilots briefing and disscussed the days flying.

Saturday was much of the same, powered paragliders and Aero chutes going every. Saturday morning we all flew to the Coiro Bay in a light northly and in the arvo the wind turned again to the south so off we went to the coast again. Saturday even we held a pilots briefing which was very infomative. Chris fogg spoke on behalf of the HGFA..

Sunday morning only a few pilots decided to go for a fly the rest packed up. It was all over by 12.00 noon. Mothers day. I would like to thank all pilots and their families for making it a perfect flyin.

Regards Andrew McCarthy