19th May 2016 Media Release – WOW Flying Scholarships

Wanaka: The Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust has announced it will establish and fund new Flying Scholarships and give financial support to local community groups.

While the final audited results from the airshow won’t be known until the end of the Trust’s financial year in September, Trust Chairman, John Gilks says they’re expecting to exceed their budgeted surplus.

“Some of the surplus will be set aside to cover operating costs between now and the next airshow and to top up a Contingency Fund. In addition to these allocations we will, for the first time, make contributions to our new Flying Scholarships and to deserving groups in our community.”

“We set up the Contingency Fund last year as a way of self-insuring the organisation against a major catastrophe such as the airshow being washed out. This fund has been ring-fenced so it can only be used in such circumstances,” says John.

Meanwhile, Warbirds Over Wanaka is excited about the new Flying Scholarships it hopes to launch mid-year. John says the main aim of these is to help get people, who are already pilots, experience in flying Warbird aircraft. “As we approach our 30th anniversary it’s important we do something positive to ensure there will be pilots able to fly these amazing machines for the next 30 years.”

This year’s airshow is being rated a big success, not just financially. Attendance was up by almost 1,000 visitors on 2014 at more than 49,000 people over the three days. Around 15% of visitors were from overseas.

“There were so many highlights it’s hard to single them out. However, we were thrilled with the Friday event on the lakefront featuring the Catalina and other aircraft landing on the lake. The Buchon Me-109 from the UK was another huge hit. The world-first Yak-52 9-ship loop and the Wall of Fire grabbed a lot of attention while having four Air Forces, including the USAF, display at Wanaka was another first.”

Warbirds Over Wanaka is also proud of the fact that it celebrates the contribution aviation has, and continues, to make locally. “This year we had a massed helicopter display plus we had a short takeoff and landing competition to showcase the skills of local pilots.”

Overall it was just a fantastic weekend and proved once again that Warbirds Over Wanaka remains the premier event in this region in terms of participation, attendance and its impact on the regional economy, says John.

ENDS

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