Page 6 - MFW June 2024

Presidential Ramblings
Kevin Botherway

MFNZ President

Congratulations to the F3A Team NZ winning the Trans- youngsters. Many thanks to Chris Jackson and the team
Tasman in February Hamilton NZ for the fourth time in a who did a huge amount of work towards this promotion of
row. MFNZ.
Sadly, we had a horrible accident at a Helicopter fun fly in
Wellington recently. The pilot suffered some serious Many asked when the MFNZ display would be flown.
injuries as the blades cut through one of his boots – Please Sadly, due to our inability to secure insurance cover for
be super careful out there and ensure all our safety public liability, we couldn’t get Frazer Briggs there for his
standards are complied with. outstanding display.

Fun flys are certainly a great way to promote the hobby. The 77th Nationals will be held in Carterton from the 29th
Many of these events around the country have attracted of December to 3rd January 2025. We have started the
some stunning turnouts with several folks turning up for booking process for equipment and services.
the first time in a long time!
A huge thanks to Brad Pearpoint who is leaving his
Behram Bajan has been hard at work with Auckland position on council as Treasurer and has done an
University developing his “Young Blood Initiative” and in outstanding job– always very busy but has got things
the process helping us shape the future of model aviation. done, keeping the council within its budgets and targets.
Wings:
John Farmer, our Southern North Island representative
All Wings badges will be valid for a 5-year period (phased has also decided it was time to stand down after helping
in from 2025). The renewal process will include an online with some huge tasks. These included organizing our
airspace and rules quiz followed by a short flight test and participation in Wings over Wairarapa. – A super big
oral site related questions. All of these will be administered thanks for your time on council guys!
by Model Flying New Zealand Wings Examiners. Wings
renewal date will be based on Date of Birth (e.g. Wings MFNZ is in the process of looking into a new digital
holder born in 1966 the renewal year will be 2066 – and membership management system information will such
every 5 years thereafter) as wings qualifications, MFNZ membership cards and a
whole heap of other information will be available online.
Warbirds over Wanaka - While our attendance at the event This should make it a lot easier to keep everyone up to
had cost both time and money, all magazines were given date, significantly reduce the back-office workload and
out and 2000 stickers were passed to enthusiastic allow contest directors and clubs to check on
memberships etc.

WRP
WRPWRP
WRP
Wings Renewal Program

The upcoming changes to the MFNZ wings scheme have Discussions included;
created quite a bit of concern and debate amongst our
members. Traditional model flying practices have been under threat
for many years. That threat level intensifies on an almost
The reality is this is not actually an onerous change and daily basis. Each story of a drone preventing firefighting
should be relatively straight forward for most of us to aircraft for example hardens the resolve of the CAA and
achieve. public to ‘sort out the drone problem’ – and we as
responsible model fliers are wrapped up in that drive to
Discussions with small groups of members were held at a more regulation.
recent flying events about the Wings Renewal Program
(WRP) and other issues MFNZ members might be facing. In the case of New Zealand, a degree of that lack of
Some were immediately receptive while others were quite awareness to the threat to our continued normal model
negative to start. However, without exception, by the end flying may be down to the efforts of a handful of folks such
of the chat all accepted the need for the WRP and as Jonathon Shorer and Chris Jackson who have been in
acknowledged that it shouldn’t be too hard to get through. continuous dialogue with relevant Government agencies
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