MFNZ - Model Flying New Zealand

Welcome to Model Flying New Zealand (MFNZ)

Model Flying New Zealand promotes and manages model aircraft flying in New Zealand. We run national competitions, help modellers to complete overseas, support fun fly-ins and rallies, develop safety guidelines, produce a magazine (four times a year) called Model Flying World, supply insurance for members, encourage clubs and liaise with Government bodies, the Civil Aviation Authority, Radio Frequency Services and other organisation. In short, we do our best to see that you can fly your model in as safe environment as possible and enjoy this fun sport.

* New Zealand Wins the F5J World Champs!!

* 2nd in the junior class at the F3A World Champs!!

Recently 3 teams from New Zealand have competed in World Championships in RC Aerobatics (F3A), RC Soaring (F5J) and Free Flight. You can follow progress on each of the disciplines here:

Free Flight - 12-19 August 2023 France - updates Extracted from Facebook
RC Soaring - 13-19 August 2023 Bulgaria - updates Facebook
RC Aerobatics - 19-26th August 2023 Queensland, Aussie - updates Facebook

Note - if you are not a member of Facebook, all is not lost. Facebook has eased up in trying to make you sign up. If you follow the Facebook links above and are not a member, the login page will appear but the Facebook group will display behind it. You should be able to have a reasonable experience when you dismiss the login page.

As you are likely aware Model Flying New Zealand documentation for many aspects of our hobby are changing or have changed. We have recently received approval from the Civil Aviation Authority on our new 102 Operations Manual, this document (among other updated and rewritten ones) has changed many of the procedures and processes we use to do what we do! Some things haven’t changed but are better documented – such as operating within 4km of an aerodrome, and accident reporting.

So… what is a 102? Why does it matter to me? I don’t fly BVLOS 28kg jets at night!
The standard Civil Aviation Rules that model aircraft operate to is the CAR101 rule set, which are a prescriptive set of rules – Do’s and Do Not’s. CAR102 is a much more progressive rule set that allows those prescriptive rules to be varied, provided the 102 certificate holder can demonstrate to the CAA that the risks have been suitably mitigated. The 102 holders exposition (or suite of manuals) document these variations and mitigations to manage the risk. Our Exposition consists primarily of our CAR102 Operations Manual and our Wings Program and Large Model Code of Practice, but arguably consists of all MFNZ documentation.

The CAA assess our exposition, interview the Prime Person (MFNZ President) and if they are suitably convinced the operation is safe then issue a CAR102 Certificate and Operations Specifications (Ops Specs). The 102 certificate is a nice thing to put on the fridge, the Ops Specs is much more useful as it says what the organization can do under the 102, as well as who is responsible for what.
So.. How does all this affect you? The answer is simple –

Click here to view the full document...

MFNZ 76th Nationals 2024 Announcement:
Dates for next year's MFNZ Nationals are confirmed; starts on 1st Jan 2024 and prizegiving will be Friday 5th 2024.