SAFA Skysailor Magazine

12 SKY SAILOR December-January-February | SUMMER 2025 At various points in the process, the development of the document/authority/ license will have a different priority for each party. Keeping focused on commu- nications, and document version control enables quick recovery from any stalls or missteps that may occur. I know it is corny, but keep looking out for the win-win situations and when you find them, be clear in your articulation of these. Accept a less than perfect agreement as long as it contains within itself the option to adapt the practical delivery of the license and adopt an alternate operational approach. The real take home message No matter how much we want to be seen as special, we are not. If we accept this, and work out ways to articulate our normalcy in the metrics that are important to the people we are speaking with, we can find a path forward. For example, 280,000 people visit the Freycinet National Park each year, the operational staff are concerned about path erosion and track maintenance. The park sees rock climbers, walkers, fishers, scuba divers and boaters. The THPA was concerned that ‘they’ would never let us fly there and some members voiced the opinion that the pilots who had flown there in the past were risking things (in other parks) for the rest of us. Flying in Freycinet, from Mount Amos to land on the beach, is an advanced and technically difficult flight, the launch is unprepared, the weather can be fickle, the beach is realistically the nearest landing and is a necky glide with no lift and no bomb-outs. Park’s attitude when asked specifically about this site was revealing. Now that we have an agreement in place to fly from Reserved Land, why not? We were just another user group and a very The art of not being special