I would like to welcome our members here this evening for tonight’s AGM and lecture and to start with a few thank yous.
First to the GFS for hosting us this evening.
Secondly to our members for their support to the society and our various events and initiatives over the past year.
Thirdly, I would also like to take the opportunity to say thank you to our committee for the generous contribution of their time and their great commitment to ensuring that their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm for our great industry continues to manifest itself in a comprehensive, educational and entertaining events programme for our members.
In particular I would like to express my thanks to Raymond Hung from HKCAD and Albert Chan from GFS who are stepping down from the committee this year, for their hard work and dedication to the Society.
Events Summary
We had another diverse and interesting programme of events last year. Thomas will be talking about our Young Member’s events in his section next, so I’ll concentrate on the balance.
Our last AGM was held on August 23rd 2018 and was followed by a tour of the Aviation Research Services Centre where members had the opportunity to see at first hand the latest innovations and solutions that are being developed locally in support of the industry.
We had three events in October - starting off with an evening lecture “The Engine for MRO tomorrow, by Mick Brown, General Manager Operations at Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Limited which explained how HAESL had prepared for the introduction of the XWB engine for A350 and which also included a tour of the facility. Later that month we had the first of the EB Teacher’s Career Tour to HAECo and HAESL - part of a programme to raise awareness of Careers in Aviation and give teachers a first hand understanding of the opportunities and working environment.
We finished October with the “The Cheetah is in the Air” event at the Hong Kong Government Flying Services which showcased their new Airbus H175 helicopters.
On 16th November we held our annual JK Swire Dinner and Lecture where our guest speaker was Bob Bell, Renault Sport Racing’s Technical Advisor. In his lecture entitled “Engineering in Formula 1 - A Personal Journey” Bob shared a range of insights, and experiences from his distinguished career which saw him working with and alongside some of the most famous names in motorsport.
To get 2019 off to a strong and energetic start we held two events in January - the first a presentation by Paul Neff from Honeywell Air Traffic Management Initiatives about the Challenges and Promises of Big Data Maintenance Solutions for Commercial Aircraft, giving us a glimpse of what new digital solutions available to the industry and the second a feature by YS Wong on the use of drones in aviation explaining the various laws and regulations and explaining how they can be used to support, mapping and photography work together with a range of other applications including law enforcement, fire rescue and environmental protection.
In early April we were lucky enough to have Boeing Vice President Bruce Dickinson with us to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boeing 747, Queen of the Skies. Bruce’s presentation included a lot of original footage of the test programme for the B747 and I think he set a new record for the length of a Q&A session following a lecture.
In April we held the second of the teacher’s career tour to HAESL and HAECo
Earlier this month Ronald Shing, Resident Instructor at HKCAD gave a lecture “Bad Weather is Coming, Air Traffic Management at Work” which explained how HK ATC manages the high volume of air traffic when bad weather strikes and ten of our lucky members had the opportunity to visit the ATC tower and simulator.
Tonight we’ll be following this AGM with lecture on the Role and Training of a GFS helicopter winchman.
I’d like to pass on my thanks to those involved in organising and supporting these events, together with lecturers that have kindly shared their time with our members.
Membership Summary
Our membership continues to be in good shape and my thanks go to Nuwan our Membership Secretary for his great work. Membership numbers currently sit slightly above 600, with 421 full and 188 student members. This is a good number for a branch our size.
Demand remains strong and we have seen a 9% increase in full membership and an 18% increase in student membership this year alone.
In closing I think it is an interesting time for aviation - both globally and in Hong Kong.
Our society exists to raise awareness of the industry, to exchange ideas, to promote safety and high standards in our work and encourage ongoing professional development. We are also here to showcase the many extraordinary and exciting opportunities available in Hong Kong for those interested in aviation and ultimately to highlight the many great things that can be achieved when people with passion and technology come together
We will continue to look for great local examples of this that we can share with you in the year ahead and thank you again for your support.
It has been a fruitful year to young member section as we have added one more activities dedicated to our young members.
Thanks to the great support of GFS, 15 of our lucky young members were able to visit GFS last year in October. They joined the tour: “ The cheetah is in the air” which is actually an Airbus Helicopter EC175 visit. They were all amazed by the modernization in avionics systems as well as the capabilities of the new fleet.
In December, we again had our flagship event: Aviation Quiz held at Aviation Club again. It was oversubscribed as usual as we tried very hard to squeeze two more teams joining us. It was a great evening of friendly rivalary, networking and good food. We have to send our special gratitude to our committee member WK Chan and HAECO for sponsoring our four new tailor-made trophies, being made of Boeing 747 seat tracks.
Last by not least, 13 teams battled for the AeroChallenge this year in March at Cathay Dragon Sport Hall. It was record-breaking that we had oversubscription of more than 20 teams. All of the flying competition winners were university students and most of them are majoring in mechanical engineering. It’s great to spend such an exciting day with a group of youth who are passionate and energetic. We would like to again take this opportunity to thank IVE and The Boeing Company for their continuous sponsorship and support to this special event.