Presidents blurb.
January turned into a Missed Approach because I did not take my computer away with me. If you were flying into Wellington today it would also have been a missed approach. I arrived here at about 7.30am and it was fine with light winds but now it has been blowing 65 knots for the last few hours.
Here we are in February with only 11 months to Christmas. Frightening isn’t it. Scarier than that is the fact that it is only 51 days until the World Assembly kicks off. We are in the final stages now and it is pretty much under control. Just tidying up the last printing and getting speakers organised so that from the start it will go smoothly. I am an optimist at heart but once everyone is in Queenstown it should get a life of its own and run smoothly.
We really have a great turnout of international visitors with good interest and participation from the Worlds top regulators. Have a look at the website and view the programme which is finally taking shape. www.iaopa2018.com
I am going to admit to some nepotism here and say that if it had not been for my daughter Phillipa (who is a pilot) and her Husband Aaron’s website company www.redparis.co.nz the journey would have been nearly impossible. Phillipa has done all the graphics we need for printing things, made constant changes to the website to update the program and generally made my life easy. We use Team Viewer all the time for working together and she is now juggling a 6-month-old adorable baby as well. I believe we have taken a very professional approach to the publicity which will reflect on AOPA NZ.
Between now and the Assembly we still have to get the Summer Gathering 2018 over plus hold an AGM in Gisborne. Graeme Donald is doing the work for the Gathering and co-opted Granville Jones to do the AGM. We must have the AGM before the end of March and this was the only way to do it with the Assembly also in March. It will be a simple AGM getting the business done. There will be changes to the committee and with approval from the meeting we will delay the transition until after the Assembly. There will be a notice coming out soon from Mary advising of all this.
There is a plea from Graeme Donald below. Also, we need nominations for the AOPA Awards so get them in ASAP so the Life Members can judge them.
Tomorrow is the first New Southern Sky meeting for the year with lots to talk about. I am interested in hearing from anyone that has had trouble getting clearance into controlled airspace while flying VFR. If you have had an issue please drop me an email so that I can get a better idea of what is happening out there then take it to the appropriate person. We should not be stopped from transiting airspace and the controller should be able to vector us to make it happen. We are still battling the installation of equipment into VFR aircraft, trying to get the certification pathway easier and simpler. It will be interesting to hear Pete Bunce from USA who is making a presentation at the Assembly on how FAA is doing it. We also have a speaker from Europe as well to add to the topic. Again, we just want to make our flying safer by using the best equipment available.
Keep up with what is going on by using the website and while you are in there make sure your personal details are correct. Maybe you have changed planes or addresses which we don’t know about. Contact Mary at admin@aopa.co.nz if you are having trouble.
I look forward to seeing many of you in Gisborne and on the Summer Gathering.
Fly safe
Ian Andrews
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