PRESIDENTS CHATTER

JANUARY 2006

Firstly I would like to wish everyone both a Happy New Year and a year of safe flying. This, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, is the quiet time of the year as far as flying and IFFR goes. The ideal time for maintenance and a bit of repainting! It also the time to look forward to the events already planned for 2006. The highlight will, of course be the post-Convention Fly Around in Scandinavia. This tightly planned event will take in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway in only seven days. I say tightly planned but with the long daylight in this part of the world in June - something of the order of 18 hours - there should plenty time to avoid weather, which is anything less than perfect. Full details are on this website and registration forms will be available shortly.

For those not going on the Fly Around there will be the usual IFFR events at the Convention – the Board meeting, the AGM and the Annual Banquet. The Banquet will take place, as in previous years, on the opening Sunday of the Convention. Those attending the opening ceremony will have to request the first seating as the second one is timed for 1900-2000 – I have contacted RI to see if special arrangements can be made for IFFR members – but unfortunately they have to declined to help. The advice is to register for the Convention as soon as possible and if there is a clash negotiate a change at the time of on-site registration.

European Vice-President Feroz Wadia is planning a particularly adventurous fight in mid year. He intends to participate in a journey organized by a group called 14 Degrees East.  The trip starts in Salzburg on the 14th July 2006 routing down to Cape Town and returning to Salzburg on 26th August. The total trip covers 15000 miles and 23 countries. It also offers the opportunity to fly just 4 nights to Luxor, Egypt, or 14nights from Salzburg to Zanzibar, Tanzania and so on. He plans to do the full 44 nights in his Bonanza. To participate the aircraft only needs to have a 100-knot TAS cruise and a range of 700 miles. Feroz asks if anyone would like to join him or take his or her own aircraft? He can be contacted at ferozwadia@hotmail.com Full details are available on the organizers website at  www.14east.org It would be great to have at least two IFFR aircraft on the trip.

Well that’s all for now – have as many safe landings as you have takeoffs!

Angus Clark

World President 2004-2006