Seaplane Pilots Association AustraliaThe
Peak Body on all Seaplane Activities in Australia |
Meet the committee 2024/25 |
Wayne Inglis - President Wayne commenced as SPAA's President for the 2022-2024 term and will continue on in this capacity for the upcoming term. Wayne is the first to admit that he’s new to aviation having started flying in earnest just 12 months ago after getting started in the 70’s. Wayne joined the SPAA Committee during the AGM held in the Whitsundays in 2021 and quickly made a name for himself as a goal-oriented and well connected member of our Association. Wayne’s background spans engineering, hospitality, diving and tourism and he has been a skipper and diving instructor for over 20 years. |
David Skinner - Vice President David Skinner took on the position of Vice President for 2023-2024 and will continue to do so for 2024-2025. David has been flying for about 10 years having started with RAAus and moving into the GA world. He has aerobatic and tailwheel endorsements and mainly flies tourist flights in his Sirrus at the moment. David considers himself very lucky to have done his water endorsement with the venerable SPAA member Kevin Bowe before Kevin’s retirement and David joined the Committee in 2021 as a Committee member. |
James Fisher - Treasurer James Fisher has been appointed as our new Treasurer for 2024-2025. As the owner of Swish Projects (the Australian agent for Aero Adventure Amphibians as well as a bunch of other products to support the Experimental aircraft industry), James is already well known to many of our members. He is a pilot with diverse experience – qualified skydiver, paraglider, paramotor, trike, bush-flying (operates a Zenith CH750 STOL) and is just now really getting into amphibious operations with his own Aventura HP under construction. James also works on the National Council with the SAAA (Events and Marketing portfolio), as a full-time Air Traffic Controller (Avalon and Essendon Towers) and moonlights as the occasional Airdrome Safety Officer |
Keith Clark - Secretary Keith Clark has taken on the role of Secretary of SPAA for 2024-2025 and we will provide some background information on Keith shortly. |
Martin Peters - Committee Marty is very well known in the aviation community for his amazing aerobatic displays in association with the Paul Bennet Airshow group. Marty’s first flight was back in 2004, progressing through private and commercial qualifications before taking over the operations role in a commercial charter outfit in Wagga Wagga. With the charter company Marty flew all throughout Australia including freight and passengers which gave him valuable experience and insight into all aspects of aviation. Since joining the Paul Bennet Airshow Group the operation hours of their main aircraft have risen from 200 hours to 1300 hours, 90% of which is credited to Marty instructing. |
David Geers - Committee Needing no introduction to many of our members is David Geers, having settled into a committee position after two very productive years as our President and one years as vice president. David has been behind many of the Associations leaps into the peak body space including the seaplane ownership and incident databases, his seaplane touring guide, building relationships with the commercial sector as well as running the digital back end of the Association. David runs an IT business and is looking forward to a little more time to concentrate on this after throwing himself into the role of President over the last two years. |
Rohan Whittington - Committee Rohan has been a long time member of SPAA and is known to many of our members having given presentations at multiple events, most recently the Whitsundays splash-in and AGM in 2021 outlining his work with some associates on new propulsion systems for aircraft. He has also helped with writing parts of the water syllabus for RAAus after coming across knowledge gaps in what he calls a “very short” endorsement resulting in him teaching himself many water techniques. Rohan has been flying for about 35 years all told, however returned to flying 12 years ago after a post-pilots strike hiatus. |
Ivan Lizarralde - Committee Ivan is a Whitsundays local and is reprising his role on the Committee for another year. He’s been a valuable and committed committee member through 2021 and 2022 and has highlighted areas of interest to the Association regarding regulations in the region. He obtained his degree in Marine Biology in the US and gained his private pilots license having been unable to resist the temptation of the flight school on campus. Upon arrival in Australia, Ivan began hang gliding which evolved into powered hang gliding then onto microlights and ultralights. |
Graham Bunn - Committee Graham started in the flying game as a teenager in the UK, first going solo in gliders. After an engineering career in the oil and gas industry which gave him the chance to fly both gliders and powered aircraft in several different countries, he took up instructing in both GA and RA. He plans to instruct in Seaplanes too after getting a few more hours of water ops in the log book. He is a relatively recent member of SPAA, having joined in 2022 before obtaining a floating hull endorsement with Dan Bolton. Graham is based in Victoria at Lilydale airport where works as a part time GA/RA instructor. He owns and operates a Twin Comanche (not on floats!) which he has flown with his wife around most of Australia and NZ, and separately flies Tiger Moths, mostly in formation, for a local joy flight operation. Graham considers himself particularly privileged to be able to fly a friend’s Super Petrel, also out of Lilydale. Some of you may have come across Graham if you are an AvPlan user as he is part of the customer support team there. |