NZAWA Annual Rally - Hawera, Labour Weekend 2022

Banu Pashutanizadeh, one of the stalwarts of the NZAWA, won the Aspeq Commercial Pilot License (CPL) scholarship. She says she is extremely grateful to Aspeq for covering her CPL exam costs. Qualified as an engineer and specialising as an aircraft performance engineer, she is now an SMS data management lead with Air New Zealand and hopes to gain her CPL, which will be the precursor to achieving her instructor rating. She wishes to make all aspects of aviation accessible to the next generation.

Briana Hill says she was humbled to win both the Aspeq Private Pilot License (PPL) exam scholarship and the Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School Aspeq scholarship.  Briana fell in love with aeroplanes when she was ten whilst on holiday in USA, and in 2019 met a couple of NZAWA members at a school careers evening, “which really started the idea that flying could be a career for me” and now aims to obtain her PPL in 2023 before attending flight school for her CPL.

Banu and Briana were awarded the scholarships over Labour Weekend at the annual rally in Hawera; Margaret Wright, NZAWA President, said, “Without wonderful sponsors like Aspeq, our annual rally – which is the focus of our year’s activity – would simply not be able to be held. It is only with the financial support and enthusiasm of organisations like yours that we have been going for 62 years!

This year, there were more young pilots than ever attending the rally – passionate about recreational flying, and many of them determined on an aviation career. It’s such a pleasure as president of the NZAWA to be able to encourage and nurture such dedication. And we couldn’t do it without organisations like yours.”

Thank you to all who applied for the Aspeq 2023 scholarships, and congratulations again to Banu and Briana.