By Richard Bradley
After the AGM in Hawera I was appointed as an interim Trustee to replace the founding Chairman Sid McCauley, who stood down after the Trust’s very intensive set up period.
It has been a very steep learning curve over the last six months and I have to thank the present chair, Mandy Deans, for helping enormously. I have been a strong supporter of the concept of the Trust ever since it was first proposed by Life member Brian Hore, possibly over ten years ago. I look forward to advancing the cause during my term.
We had our first face-to-face meeting since my joining at the blown-out Darfield fly-in. We were kindly hosted by the Darfield branch of Farmlands in their meeting room. Over two days we covered all aspects of the direction the Trust wishes to head. The strategic plan will be available on https://thinkaviation.nz website before too long.
The two inaugural scholarship winners were finalised (see page 3), in which we acknowledge the help of Des Lines, who assisted with the final judging due to declared conflicts of interest. Congratulations again to the successful applicants; we look forward to following your developing careers.
[Image: The AOPA NZ Trust CPL Scholarship went to Karen Dalldorf of Christchurch.]
The judging showed that some of the applicants could benefit greatly from advice with their applications and interviews. Even choosing a person to give a reference can influence the standing of an application. Some applicants were already taking part in a mentoring programme run by a group in Canterbury, and the advantage this gave them was obvious to the judges. Consequently, we offered the winners a mentoring opportunity aimed at assisting with future applications for education, scholarships or even employment and general career advice, which both have accepted.
We are currently designing a survey to go out to all who showed interest in the scholarships but didn’t apply, all who did apply, and to all the flying training organisations and aero clubs sent information about the scholarships to give to their members. We will learn from this and improve our 2026 offerings.
As a result of interest in our offering of mentors to the successful applicants, the Trust has developed a mentoring programme. We are putting together a list of AOPA NZ members who would be willing to take part in mentoring young people. Face to face meetings, while not a requirement, would help build relationships, and availability for calls or Zooms would be highly beneficial. We anticipate mentor and mentee being in the same geographical area where possible, with potentially a couple of get-togethers and a few calls over a period of years to help steer nominated young people on the right track. If you are interested and available, please register your interest at office@trust.aopa.nz or directly with myself.
The workload of the Trust in its formative stages has been and continues to be huge – too much for a volunteer trustee and so an executive officer has just been appointed. Dan Clearwater, who lives in Wanaka, will deal with the day-to-day running of the Trust but will also research where the Trust can best direct its efforts to do the most good, helping young people decide on their education and careers. Dan has a background in aviation and will add considerable horsepower to the Trust.
We see the Trust’s purview as relating to education and careers in all aspects of aviation, ie, anything that is man-made and flies, including but not limited to pilots, air traffic control, engineers, avionics, drones and space activity.
The Trust was given a grant by AOPA NZ to get started, but there is of course an ongoing need for funding much greater than the founding body can be expected to provide. We will be seeking further funding in the not-too-distant future, so please consider whether you can contribute to this very worthwhile cause. A secure donation pathway is currently being established and we will let you know when this is operational.
See you at Greymouth, 27 Feb 2026, for an update.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2025 edition (2025 v4) of Approach Magazine, the dedicated magazine of AOPA NZ, which is published quarterly.
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