2023 fees

[Cuban8]

I hear on the grapevine that bmfa adult fee is up to £42 and CAA going up to £12 from next April.

 

[Engine Doctor]

The BMFA increase to £42 has been ratified at the AGM. BMFA fees I'm ok with that but the CAA is IMO just another form of tax imposed on us with no benefits to the modelling community whatsoever .

Nothing I/we can do about it agreed. Last time an increase was announced by the CAA and i Posted on this forum  there were some replies of doom and gloom and I was almost castigated for having an opinio

[Andy Stephenson]

I just treat the CAA tax as another form of insurance because you could get into trouble without it.

[Cuban8]

The bmfa rise was due to be £4 but trimming the bmfa news budget (good thing imho) has reduced it to just £2. 

The CAA nonsense we'll just have to suck up for now until good sense prevails and the ludicrous projections that show our skies overcast with unmanned vehicles  are finally rubbished. Next big fuss will be the requirement to carry a widget to make our models conspicuous to other users sharing the low airspace.

[Chris Walby]

IMHO a worthless discussion as it is what it is + its only a small increase that I can't do much about. Life is too short.

[Maurice Dyer]

Watched the AGM, it is still cheaper than beer,football etc

E

[Cuban8]

16 hours ago, Chris Walby said:

IMHO a worthless discussion as it is what it is + its only a small increase that I can't do much about. Life is too short.

I quite agree, up to a point. The bmfa fee increase is very modest and worth every penny for the benefits it gives us. The caa charge is another issue and we shrug our shoulders and pay up without question at our peril IMHO. The caa charge is indeed only a few pence a week and at the moment once we've jumped through a few hoops to comply with the rules, paid up, can then  generally be forgotten about. Personally, I feel that the beaurocrats are steadily laying a minefield around our hobby and we may well be in a very different situation in the not too distant future. I sense that the bmfa know that and are planning for some very severe restrictions to be  imposed upon us - for no good reason other than that's what beaurocrats working for or on behalf of the government often get a taste for. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Cuban8

[MattyB]

59 minutes ago, Cuban8 said:

I quite agree. The bmfa fee increase is very modest and worth every penny for the benefits it gives us. The caa charge is another issue and we shrug our our shoulders and pay up without question at our peril IMHO.

You have stated this many times before…

 

 

..but it’s not clear to me what action you are suggesting that individual members or the national associations should take? We already fought registration -,we did all the letter writing campaigns, responded to the government “surveys” and the national associations represented us at various SUAS hearings, but ultimately the battle was lost. Are you suggesting the overall position would be improved if all members of national associations refuse to renew based on a £2 increase? Isn’t that just likely to result in the removal of our Article 16 authorisations? 

Edited November 22, 2022 by MattyB

[kevin b]

I don't think C8 was suggesting anything, just passing on information received and asking for comment.

Isn't that the purpose of forums ?

[MattyB]

4 hours ago, kevin b said:

I don't think C8 was suggesting anything, just passing on information received and asking for comment.

Isn't that the purpose of forums ?

 

To quote him directly...

 

5 hours ago, MattyB said:

...The caa charge is another issue and we shrug our our shoulders and pay up without question at our peril IMHO.

 

I am simply asking what he believes we should do given rather than paying up, which he clearly believes is a dangerous strategy. I am inclined to agree with the second half of his post which he edited...

 

6 hours ago, Cuban8 said:

...Personally, I feel that the bureaucrats are steadily laying a minefield around our hobby and we may well be in a very different situation in the not too distant future. I sense that the bmfa know that and are planning for some very severe restrictions to be  imposed upon us - for no good reason other than that's what bureaucrats working for or on behalf of the government often get a taste for. 

 

...as it is clear in the long term there will be more battles to fight (what is happening in the US with Remote ID shows that clearly). However, not paying registration charges en-mass because of a £2 increase would appear to be a great way of getting the authorities backs up at a time when they are actively working on what comes next, and is likely to reduce the influence of the national associations and putting their Article 16 authorisations at risk.

 

The BMFA et al need to pick and choose their battles carefully if they are to win the war, and this price increase appears to be something that they believe is not worth contesting at this point.

Edited November 22, 2022 by MattyB

[Cuban8]

3 hours ago, kevin b said:

I don't think C8 was suggesting anything, just passing on information received and asking for comment.

Isn't that the purpose of forums ?

Yes, that was my intention. Discussion is vital and points to how people think and whether their opinions are changing. 

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

4 hours ago, kevin b said:

I don't think C8 was suggesting anything, just passing on information received and asking for comment.

Isn't that the purpose of forums ?

"I hear on the grapevine..." is hardly what I would call information. Hearsay, rumour or extrapolation would be a more accurate description. 

 

Can we have a cited source before this thread devolves into another cycle of people getting their knickers in a twist? There have been enough speculative back-biting threads here already. 

[MattyB]

10 minutes ago, Cuban8 said:

Yes, that was my intention. Discussion is vital and points to how people think and whether their opinions are changing. 

 

Sorry, I'm still baffled as to how you reconcile these two posts which would appear to be contrary to each other...

 

22 hours ago, Cuban8 said:

The CAA nonsense we'll just have to suck up for now until good sense prevails and the ludicrous projections that show our skies overcast with unmanned vehicles  are finally rubbished.

 

...and...

 

6 hours ago, Cuban8 said:

The caa charge is another issue and we shrug our shoulders and pay up without question at our peril IMHO.

 

😕?

 

If you are suggesting model flyers and/or the national associations "question" the price rise en mass, surely it would need to happen via more channels such as a FOI request/letter-writing campaign/national associations representation, not this forum (which has zero influence on the powers that be)? Have you approached your BMFA or other national association rep to actively suggest what should be done?

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

£2 on both a year, rises on lipos, fuel, kits, etc dwarfs it, not getting out me pram for it myself.

Threads re running old questions, it's par for the course and this ones tame to many we've had.

Look to the future is my advise.

[SIMON CRAGG]

Life is way to short to spit the dummy out and bin the teddy in the corner, over the CAA fees etc.

 

I don't like it any more than anybody else, but I am sure the BMFA are fighting our corner, so it is what it is.

[RottenRow]

2 hours ago, Lima Hotel Foxtrot said:

"I hear on the grapevine..." is hardly what I would call information. Hearsay, rumour or extrapolation would be a more accurate description. 

 

Can we have a cited source before this thread devolves into another cycle of people getting their knickers in a twist? There have been enough speculative back-biting threads here already. 

 

The details are all on the BMFA's website, https://bmfa.org/bmfa-subscriptions-for-2023 and https://bmfa.org/caa-proposes-20-increase-in-operator-registration-fee-from-april-2023

 

Brian.

[andyh]

I see that there is a "Family Partner" membership, which I'm not sure there was previously - I think it was always "Family Senior" in the past.  it's also rather cheaper (£29) than the Family Senior last year (£40).

 

does anyone know if this means that there needs to be a full Senior member in each family membership and then any additional adult would be a Family Partner, or whether all Family adults can be Family Partners?

[andyh]

26 minutes ago, andyh said:

...

 

ignore me, I evidently can't read.  😞

[Andy48]

Given how much everything else is going up, its peanuts. Try buying a new motorhome, mine has gone up by 40% in just 11 months, and delivery has risen from 2 weeks to between a year to a year and a half

.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Andy48

[Nigel Heather]

The worst bit is having to do another CAA idiot test shortly.  Bad enough that we have to pay for the CAA’s folly that provides no benefit to us whatsoever, to rub salt into the wound we have to do the stupid test every three years.

 

I appreciate that it is easy but there seems to be so little value in doing it.  They will argue that it is important that we continue to be tested for safety reasons - well driving a car is orders of magnitude more dangerous and yet one test lasts a lifetime.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

1 hour ago, Nigel Heather said:

The worst bit is having to do another CAA idiot test shortly.  Bad enough that we have to pay for the CAA’s folly that provides no benefit to us whatsoever, to rub salt into the wound we have to do the stupid test every three years.

 

I appreciate that it is easy but there seems to be so little value in doing it.  They will argue that it is important that we continue to be tested for safety reasons - well driving a car is orders of magnitude more dangerous and yet one test lasts a lifetime.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

Lasts for 5 years now. Test couldn't be simpler though so no big deal.

[GrumpyGnome]

To

41 minutes ago, Andy Symons - BMFA said:

Lasts for 5 years now. Test couldn't be simpler though so no big deal.

 

Totally agree. No big deal. 

 

Conspicuity, if/when it arrives, may be a different kettle of fish!  If it does arrive, I'm 100% confident it'll be better than if we did not have BMFA fighting our corner.

[MattyB]

9 hours ago, Nigel Heather said:

The worst bit is having to do another CAA idiot test shortly.  Bad enough that we have to pay for the CAA’s folly that provides no benefit to us whatsoever, to rub salt into the wound we have to do the stupid test every three years.

 

I appreciate that it is easy but there seems to be so little value in doing it.  They will argue that it is important that we continue to be tested for safety reasons - well driving a car is orders of magnitude more dangerous and yet one test lasts a lifetime.

 

The test was never really about safety tbh. Fundamentally it just makes enforcement easier - anyone can have their flyer ID checked on the spot, and if it isn't there, instant fine. If it is there but you are doing something against the rules, then enforcement is again much easier as you signed off that you understood the current rules when you took the test. The rationale for redoing it every 5 years is because of the rate of change in the regs that they are expecting.

 

Re: tour final analogy, if driving had never previously existed but were suddenly were invented today in it's current form, imagine the elf and safety hurdles that would be needed to allow it to go ahead! We'd all probably be being retested annually, at great expense....

Edited December 2, 2022 by MattyB

[GrumpyGnome]

Given the appalling standard of driving often seen, an annual test might be a good idea!

[JOHN MOSLEY 2]

54 minutes ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Given the appalling standard of driving often seen, an annual test might be a good idea!

Especially around the East Coast I think we have 13 Camera between Wakefield & Huddersfield, where I live cannot get out of village without going through a Camera, and they often put mobile camera between them.🤣