Australian Army Aviation Association

The association works to assist financially, culturally and socially the handicapped and/or disadvantaged and/or infirm of the serving and ex-Service Army Aviation personnel, including their immediate family members. It fosters understanding in the public arena of issues affecting those personnel and Australian Army Aviation.

2012 photo competition

The Australian Army Aviation Association has great pleasure in announcing the 2012 Fouray Photos competition.  Following on from the success of last year’s competition we have decided to once again offer prizes for the best three images on the theme “Australian Army Aviation – it’s aircraft, people and activities”.

The competition will be run on the same lines as in previous years.  Entrants download and complete the entry form and email it to photocomp@fourays.org. On acceptance of eligibility, entrants will be provided the address tow which to email their images.  Once entries have closed the images will be judged by a panel comprising of Peter Simpson, editor of Fourays magazine, Conway Bown, noted aviation artist, and Melinda Rene, designer and editor of Fourays website.  

Prize money this year will again be $1000, with $600 to the winner, $250 to second, and $150 to third.

Images must be submitted in digital form, preferably 600X800 pixels and we accept scanned images of prints or slides that the entrant has certified were taken by him or her.  Files should be no bigger than 10Mb, and the entry form has details of (limited) allowable digital manipulation.  Entries close on 22 June 2012, so there’s not much time.  Winners will be announced by 13 July 2012.

We are interested in both historical and contemporary images, so time to get out the old boxes of slides and photos and review all your digital files. 

You may have an image that is worth $600!

download the entry form . . .

Welcome to the new Fourays website

After a good deal of work by the committee and our contractors, the new look website is finally here. The first thing you will notice is a cleaner look on the home page and more intuitive navigation. Dropdown menus appear from the top banner to allow you to move quickly and directly to any page on the site. 

The Fourays magazine title logo has been adapted and adopted by the website.  Almost everyone knows the Association informally as “fourays”, and it is our domain name, so hence the logo.  For those who haven’t worked it out, the colours on the crossbar of the ‘f’ represent the colours of Army Aviation, RAEME and RAAOC, all key players to the modern Army aviation capability

Once into the site you can review and amend your personal details (for those who haven’t been getting Fourays through the mail for a while this is highly recommended!) and you can contribute to the members only Forum. This is an opportunity to have your say and be heard by the wider membership (those who remember their login and password).  It will be moderated to remove any salacious, libellous or obscene material, but I am sure that no members of our Association will make such posts.

We will be looking to provide an opportunity in the future for those who wish to contribute serious discussion papers on matters of interest to the Army aviation community and perhaps an image library to show how Army aviation has advanced over the years. The site is  a work in progress. We are also open to suggestions as to what you would like to see.  So please comment on what you think would be any improvement.

I would like to express my great appreciation for the work by Melinda Rene of Rene Graphics and Yean Lee from Consortium Web who have done a sterling job in redesigning the website.

a quick look at the content . . .

 

The Home Page will have all the news of interest to the Association as well as upcoming events of interest.  About Fourays has some information on how the Association came about and what our objects are. In addition we have a short bio of our Patron and we will identify who is currently serving on the committee. 

The history section has been completely revamped, but is still a work in progress.  We have it covered up to the turn of the century but still need to encapsulate the hectic activities of the first ten years of the 21st Century.  Watch this space.  We will also provide more information on current units and their history.

Honours and Awards is a new area and here we have ambitious plans.  Over the years it seems that every Australia Day and Queen’s Birthday we have members of the Association and serving members of the Army aviation capability recognised for their work in the community, in the workplace and on operations.  But over time, the rich heritage of outstanding contributions is all but lost as memories fade. This section aims to redress this by gathering together all the awards made to Army aviators in whatever sphere and putting them up for all to see.  We have a long tradition of heroism and skill in the air, leadership and command in peace and at war, and commitment and service to the capability and the community.  We aim to preserve that.

The membership page is an opportunity for visitors to the website who are qualified to download the application form and join the Association.

 

In the Fourays Magazine section you can flick through the current issue of Fourays which will be posted onto the site a couple of months after it has gone out in hard copy.  You will also be able to review past copies.

You will get some ideas as to what we are looking for in articles for the magazine.  Advertisers will be able to see what the technical requirements and rates are for advertising in our magazine.

Advocacy and welfare are major objects of the Association, and on this page you can get an insight as to what we offer.  You can also link up with the DVA website and contact our Pensions and Advocacy officer.

In Contacts and Links you can contact key members of the committee or the production of Fourays magazine as well as the website editor.  There is also a useful list of links to other kindred associations, historical and artistic sites.

 

The Members Only section  is where the big changes will appear.  First of all our membership database has been revamped and updated. You will still need your login and password to get access to this section, but we have included a link to email for a password on the opening page. Don’t expect an instant answer, we all have other jobs to do, but we will get your login and password back to you as soon as we can.

Get surfing!

Honours and Awards – Australia Day 2012

Yet again a member of the Australian Army Aviation Association has been recognised in the nation’s premier honours.  Major Keirin Joyce (left), a RAEME officer currently serving with 20 Surveillance and Target Acquisition Regiment, has been awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross for his work in integrating unmanned aerial systems into the support of operations in Afghanistan.  No stranger to readers of Fourays, Keirin is an honours graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy in aeronautical engineering and holds masters degrees in Aviation Management and Aerospace Engineering.  He has operational service in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan and until recently was the Logistics Engineer at JP129 in DMO and was, in his words, “attempting against the might of bureaucracy to bring the Tactical UAV into service.”  (See the Spring 2011 edition of Fourays)

There is no doubt that Major Joyce has well and truly earned his award and the Australian Army Aviation Association is proud of his achievement.