Page 5 - MFWDec 2023

In an effort to solve this issue and to ensure that the issue
of complacency isn’t more widespread, we have
contacted all MFNZ clubs who have flying sites within 4km
Presidential Ramblings of uncontrolled aerodromes. Ensuring, and documenting,
Chris Jackson that an agreement exists between the club and

MFNZ President aerodrome.
Compliance and Reporting A draft template MOU has been generated to help with any
Summer is coming and flying is starting to become clubs. So far response has been really great, and it looks
feasible again! Please make the most of it, however, do it like the only issue was this particular club.
safely and in compliance with the rules.
All the standard operating procedures, for how we do
Unfortunately, Model Flying New Zealand has had a anything, are listed in our CAR 102 Operations manual.
number of Aviation Related Concerns (ARC) raised The manual is available for all of you on the MFNZ website
against us in the last few months, having an ARC raised https://www.mfnz.org/members-pilots/documentation/.
results in the Civil Aviation Authority investigating.
Many of these procedures are completely in alignment
Model Flying New Zealand is a certificated organisation, with CAR101, just more explicit and presented in a more
we work to Civil Aviation Rule 101 and 102. Part of this holistic manner. Please refamiliarize yourself with it.
certification requirement is that we have a healthy and
functional reporting system. When things go wrong, we
raise our hands and acknowledge it, then we fix it.

Compliance
We have had an MFNZ club operating within 4km of an
uncontrolled aerodrome and breaching the Civil Aviation
Rules in doing it.

To operate within 4km of an uncontrolled aerodrome the
regulatory requirement is –
• An Agreement with the Aerodrome operator
(normally in the form of a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU))
• A Qualification (Wings)
• An Observer

Reporting
Reporting in aviation isn’t about getting people in trouble!
Its about making the system safer. The reason we don’t
have full sized aircraft lawn darting all over the place is
through many, many decades of reporting incidents and
solving them – before it becomes a lawn dart situation.

My role, as Prime Person, is to make sure that as an
organisation we operate safely and in compliance with the
rules. If we aren’t achieving that, through whatever
The club has existed at the location for decades, however reason, we need to report that and solve it. I, personally,
has never had an agreement with the aerodrome, despite am legally responsible for the organisations performance
communication channels with the aerodrome.. no one - if we breach the rules its myself in front of the court room.
actually checked if they were compliant with the rules and
assumptions were made. The incident discussed above resulted in MFNZ filing a
CA005RPAS incident report with the CAA, which is what
To be very clear on this, the requirement for an agreement we are legally required to do. The report is against MFNZ,
is not new, it has existed for decades as well! not against a club, or pilots, as an organisation we failed to
comply the rule. The report includes what we are doing to
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