MAAA Wingspan

16 17 The New South Wales Free Flight Society (NSWFFS) has generously gifted Delta Dart kits to an aeromodelling enthusiast, who is teaching the local kids the art of the sport, in a remote town of Western Australia. Ray Harvey and his wife run a store in the remote indigenous community of Tjuntjuntjara, located 550km east of Kalgoorlie. As a long termaeromodeller, Ray decided to share his love of the sport with students at the town’s local school. He started building and flying aeromodels at the age of six with his dad and has competed in Patten, Pylon, and Aerobatics over the years. With items such as balsa wood, tissue, rubber, and Delta Darts plans donated by NSWFFS, Ray can share the skills he has learned with the students through regular classes. “I have had a few lessons building the Delta Darts with them. They are very enthusiastic and love it when we get to fly the Darts because they’ve never witnessed anything like it,” Ray said. “The look on their faces is priceless.” The students aged between seven and 12 years have taken to the sport well and are always excited to learnmore about aeromodelling. aeromodelling takes off in remote town of wa “It can be difficult to get the kids to school, so this is a great thing for them to look forward to, plus it’s something they would never get to see otherwise.” Students get the chance to work together as a teamand create amodel airplane, with good behaviour that week determining who will get themore hands-on role building themodel with Ray. Ray and his wife have been travelling and working across the country in remote communities for two and a half years, whichmeans it was more difficult to find resources for aeromodelling until the NSWFFS helped out. “I would love to be fully involved but it’s just too hard being so remote, but it really is something inmy blood that I will never forget, and who knows, maybe someday it will be the same for some of these kids.” President of NSWFFS, Terry Bond said he was always happy to help fellow aeromodellers if it means they are spreading the word about the sport. “Ray is doing a great thing for aeromodelling by passing the skills onto the kids and it’s an opportunity for them to do something they haven’t done before,” Terry said. Ray will be leaving a number of aeromodelling materials for the school to continue taking part in the sport and he hopes they will continue it on after he leaves in February. PICTURED: Ray Harvey in his aeromodelling days and local indigenous kids learning about aeromodelling in the remote town of Tjuntjuntjara, WA.