The first IMC Club will open in Australia in April with an inaugural meeting at a historic airport in Narromine, about 200 miles west of Sydney. The group, which features “hangar talk” get togethers where active IFR pilots swap stories that others can learn from, has grown from a meeting of four pilots in 2011 in Norwood, Massachusetts, to 120 chapters with 2,700 members now on five continents. “The first meeting of the IMC Club Australia group will be held in April of this year at the Narromine Aerodrome, which is the host of the IMC Club Chapter there,” said IMC Club founder Radek Wyrzykowski. Australian group founder Murray Fedderson said the IFR world is changing quickly in Australia, which is moving faster on ADS-B deployment than many other countries. “The introduction of Performance Based Navigation to be followed by progressive decommissioning of ground navigation aids in Australia and mandatory fitment of ADS-B are part of a rapidly changing operating environment and it is hoped that establishment of the IMC Club Chapter … will provide a forum where pilots can interact to improve the safety and efficiency of their operations,” he said.
Wyrzykowski said the informal but informative nature of club meetings encourages the exchange of real-world experiences and it’s good for active pilots and those whose currency has slipped. “IMC Club addresses a forgotten group of pilots,” he said. “Too often, pilots after obtaining their IFR rating don’t want to go to get their commercial license, they drift away and fail to remain current and proficient. We want to bring them back with help of other experienced and proficient pilots.”
