Throttling up for an aviation career
Hazel Kerr has won the Rex Lucas Memorial Flying Scholarship. Photo: Sarah Milligan.
Collingwood student Hazel Kerr is well on her way to gaining her private pilot’s license. She recently won the Rex Lucas Memorial Flying Scholarship, which is open to secondary school students from the Nelson and Buller regions, awarded annually, and valued at over $2,000.
The scholarship provides all the training necessary for Hazel to reach the point when she can fly solo in a light aircraft.
Shortly after the end of the school year, Hazel received a phone call from her father telling her of her win.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I have always wanted to fly. When I was young I spent a lot of time flying with a family friend who had a small plane. In the future I would like to have a career in some sort of commercial aviation.”
During this year’s award ceremony at the Nelson Aero Club, Mr Richard Rainey, a trustee of the Rex Lucas Trust, explained that the scholarship was established in 1977 in memory of a former Air Force instructor. Mr Lucas was particularly interested in the welfare and sporting abilities of students in local schools. Following his death, his trustees felt that a flying scholarship was an ideal memorial to the man who was, at the age of 17, the first schoolboy to obtain a private pilot’s license in New Zealand.
The aims of scholarship are to not only get the recipient to the stage where they can fly solo, but also to promote self-discipline and self-confidence. Mr Rainey said that even if students never went on to do any more flying, they will hopefully have gained many other personal skills during their training.
Applicants had to write a passage explaining why they want to learn to fly and were then taken for a short test flight before a selection panel chose the successful candidate. A member of the selection panel, flying instructor David Marriott, said that the standard of entrants this year was extremely high.
“Hazel was chosen as the winner because the panel was impressed by her attitude and felt that she was the candidate who would benefit the most from the scholarship.”
Sarah Milligan
