Flying Site Rules – Seddon Range Trentham

Reviewed April 2023

This is WMAC ’s premier site, catering for all outdoor model classes except slope soaring. It is held by arrangement with the New Zealand Army. The Army currently uses it only for occasional demolition exercises and occasional training exercises involving both live and nonlive firing, but the National Rifle Association and Wellington Rifle Association use it regularly for weekend shooting.

Consequently, several of the rules and operating procedures that follow have been written to meet these other users’ specific safety and security concerns. These are in bold type. Failure to observe them to the letter could lead, among other things, to our no longer
having access to Seddon Range. At the very least, any such failure will be treated as a breach of Club discipline and dealt with accordingly
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GENERAL

  1. No WMAC member or group of members may use Seddon Range without having first collected the key to the gate and radio from the Trentham Camp Guardhouse.
  2. The last member to leave Seddon Range must:
    (a) Put away the frequency board.

    (b) Lock the clubhouse.

    (c) Turn on the electric fence.

    (d) Lock the gate at the entrance to the range.

    (e) Return the key box and radio to the Trentham Camp Guardhouse. (Don’t put the radio in
    the key box it damages the expensive antenna).

    (f) Erase the name and cell phone number of the member who collected the key and radio
    from the whiteboard inside the guardhouse.

    (g) Change the signboard outside the Camp Guardhouse from ‘In Use’ to ‘Not In Use’. Note
    that if other users are on the field e.g. shooters or Army personnel, then do not change the
    signboard status.
  3. Entry to the Range is absolutely forbidden when demolition exercises are taking place.
  4. Shooters shall have first priority in Seddon Range use at all times.
  5. Modelers shall not retrieve a downed model from the ground within an active shooting template without the express permission of the Range Officer in charge.
  6. No model shall be flown over an active firing line and all models must be kept a minimum distance of 200 yards behind an active firing line.
  7. Modelers shall not enter Rimutaka Prison ground to retrieve a downed model without first telephoning Corrections on 04 529 0800 and obtaining permission to do so.
  8. The gate at the entrance to Seddon Range must be kept closed at all times when there are livestock on it.
  9. Vehicles must not be driven or parked on the rifle range mounds. They must be parked only in the areas designated. (These may vary from time to time, depending on flying activities and weather/ground conditions.)
  10. Only financial members of WMAC, their guests, and financial members of other clubs affiliated to Model Flying New Zealand (MFNZ) may fly at the Trentham site. Proof of Club membership must be produced, when requested by Army personnel, or by a WMAC member. Visiting fliers wishing to fly unsupervised must produce a Wings badge or proficiency certificate on request.
  11. All new fliers are expected to become financial members of WMAC after no more than three visits flying at the site.
  12. All fliers, regardless of flying discipline, must be prepared to accept direction from the Club Captain or any Committee Member when it is felt that some action is required for the benefit of the majority. Any flier aggrieved by such action should make a written submission to the Committee within 7 days.
  13. When different model classes cannot be operated concurrently with safety, the fliers concerned shall negotiate agreed periods during which each flying activity will have exclusive use of the relevant flying area(s).
  14. No internal combustion engines shall be started before 9.00 am. Engines 0.10 cu in and larger must never be used without an effective muffler.
  15. Should a flier operate a model outside of that models designated flying discipline area that collides with a model being flown within its designated flying discipline area, then the club expects that the flier responsible for the collision to fully compensate the owner of the affected model for any damage or loss resulting from that collision.

FLYING

  1. General:
    (a) Any type of model may be flown anywhere within the WMAC Flying Boundary when a WMAC member is the sole occupant – see map below.
    (b) When more than one person is flying the rules set out in 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 3 (below) shall apply. Other arrangements for simultaneous flying, however, may be made by negotiation between the fliers concerned.
    (c) Where there are conflicting demands, officially scheduled contest activities shall have priority access to airspace as designated by the Committee for that particular flying activity.
    However, contest fliers are not permitted to overfly other designated flying discipline areas that are ‘in use’. NOTE: that a designated flying discipline area is considered to be ‘in use’ when fliers are present in that designated flying discipline area, regardless of whether those fliers have models in the air at that time.
    (d) If the helicopter general flying area is in use, then the control line circle cannot be used.

    (e) If the helicopter general flying area is in use, then members will need to take extra care when using the road between the 800 and 900 yard mounds.
  2. Absolutely no overflying of Rimutaka Prison grounds beyond the razor wire fence marker poles marking the nofly boundary on the prison farm.
  3. Absolutely no overflying of Trentham Army Camp.
  4. Fixed Wing R/C internal combustion and electric powered models shall normally be flown from the mown strip in the paddock on the west side of the access road fence where:
    (a) Takeoff and landing shall be in only one direction. That direction shall be agreed among the fliers at the site and may need to be varied from time to time if the wind direction changes.
    (b) Before moving out to the strip fliers must carefully check to ensure that no models are approaching.
    (c) All fliers shall stand in the designated pilots’ areas, adjacent to the mown taxiway from the pits to the strip. Each must be within clear hearing distance of the others, i.e. not more than about 2 metres apart.
    (d) No more than six power models shall be in the air at any time.
    (e) Low “beat ups” over the runway while other models are in the air are forbidden.
  5. Fixed Wing Free Flight, R/C Glider, R/C Vintage, R/C Park Flyer and Multi Rotor models shall be flown within the boundary of the Seddon Range where:
    (a) Free Flight models should not be launched from positions where they are likely to land in the R/C powerflying, car parking areas or the grounds of Rimutaka Prison.
    (b) R/C Glider, R/C Vintage, and R/C Park Flyer and Multi Rotor model launching and landing areas shall be located in the immediate vicinity of the 600 yd shooting mound and in such positions that there is no possibility of any vehicle in the parking area(s) being hit by a model, should there be a loss of control at launch.
    (c) R/C Glider, R/C Vintage , R/C Park Flyer and Multi Rotor flying shall avoid the area designated in clause 6 (below) when helicopter flying is taking place.

  6. R/C Helicopters shall be flown from the general helicopter flying area located between the 800 and 900 yard mounds. Helicopter flying activities shall be kept at least 25 metres away from the areas where cars are parked.

RADIO CONTROL OPERATION

  1. All R/C fliers, for all frequencies on the peg board, must correctly use the official MFNZ radio control frequency pegboard system. R/C fliers using 2.4GHz equipment do not need to use the pegboard.
  2. Use of Synthesized Frequency Equipment. You must have a separate transmitter flag, marked with the channel for every frequency that you are prepared to use when you change frequencies. You must take extra care when using the frequency control system. Frequency pegs are not to be removed from the site.
  3. Where two or more R/C fliers are sharing a given frequency, none may use it for more than:
    (i) 15 minutes fixed wing power models;
    (ii) 20 minutes all other R/C models; or
    (iii) a period agreed between them.
  4. Any R/C flier causing a shoot down is personally responsible for fully compensating the owner of the affected model.
  5. The unsupervised flying of any R/C model aircraft at the Trentham site is forbidden unless the flier has passed the MFNZ proficiency test appropriate to that aircraft type.
  6. Any R/C flier out of practice must enlist the assistance of an experienced flier until renewed competence is demonstrated.
  7. Those fliers who have not passed the MFNZ Wings Badge test shall have their new R/C models, and those that have been repaired after a crash, checked by an experienced flier/builder before they are flown.

WMAC Trentham RC flying area.

Click for full size map.

Link to Trentham Field Gallery.

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Link to Flying Areas Map
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