From your new President
Whew what a week we had at the IAOPA conference, great time and a wonderful showpiece of New Zealand aviation for our international attendees. However you will see Ian’s roundup; my job is to guide our organisation forward for the rest of the year and into the future.
We have a new exec group following from our Gisborne AGM. Stephen Brown (me) President, Graeme Donald is Vice President and thanks to Graeme for accepting this role (a nomination was withdrawn at last minute). Graeme needs no introduction as he has been our Southern NI exec rep for a number of years. He has been flying for decades and has special interest in Home Built aircraft and facilitating the installation of uncertified gear into GA aircraft.
Geoff Van Asch has been flying since 1991 and is the proud owner of a big wheel cub… and he also built a Murphy Rebel. He has been busy with the Marlborough Aero Club until recently and we are lucky that he has chosen to now put his energy behind AOPA. His accounting skills will come in useful.
Andrew Bowmar has also been a pilot since he was young. He flies a C185 and has been closely involved with the ‘Back Country Fliers’; recently pushing to get permission for access to the landing strip at Masons Bay Stewart Island – the grass strip not the beach. This is still a work in progress but it would be great if we could get access.
Paul Hood is now living part time in Auckland and is going to be the Northern NI representative on our exec. Paul will be looking to meet with Northern NI members and assess what social events could be arranged and what other services we could provide. Paul is also half way through his IFR training and is going to keep us all informed about how out of date this training is. Watch this space.
Ian Sinclair hails from South Canterbury and has stories from attending fly-away’s with the Kitty Hawk club – our predecessor – which he attended as chid. He is passionate about modernising our avionics and motors.
Murray Patterson started flying in 1975; he has flown countless hours since then and will, I am sure, be flying for many more years. Murray’s passion is the social activities which he very ably facilitates and arranges. Look forward to Murray leading the way with activities not only in his area but all over the country…
Don Ryder needs no introduction either; he is our longest serving exec member and will be busy pushing the advertising for our mag and assisting with Wellington meetings.
Peter Glaister is our only IFR rated pilot. His experience getting and keeping his IFR rating current will be appreciated by the group looking at this aspect of the rules. ZK-OMT is an institution as she flies into places and through the weather, landing on strips more accustomed to the big wheel brigade.
We have our first meeting on Saturday; we will be spending some time working on the goals and aspirations we all share for AOPA NZ – there are no surprises expected but very much a prioritisation exercise. We are committed to wonderful, safe, social flying events and this will always be a priority for all our executive. We are also committed to continuing the good work we are doing advocating for General Aviation in Wellington. Progress on medicals and aircraft modification rules are never going to happen quickly but we are confident we are making progress.
As always, all of your exec like to hear from local members, if you have an issue or concern please take the time to email or call.
Fly safe….
Steve Brown President AOPA NZ
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