High Honor for Werner Koelliker

Werner Koelliker, President of the Model Aircraft Commission and Vice President of the AeCS, was honored to receive the Paul Tissandier Diploma at the FAI General Conference in Tokyo.

There are very few model aircraft pilots in Switzerland who have been awarded this prestigious honor—the Paul Tissandier Diploma—by the FAI General Assembly upon the recommendation of the national Aero Club. To my knowledge, there are four: Professor Fritsch, Hans Diana, Arnold Degen, and now Werner Koelliker.

Kö, who has chaired the AeCS Model Flying Commission for more than eight years, also serves on the Executive Committee in this capacity, where he tirelessly and with the utmost dedication advocates for the interests of model aviators. Kö’s assumption of the MFK chairmanship coincided with a period of significant change for us model aviators: Arnold Degen’s retirement and the associated expansion and integration of the technical commissions, and above all

the new model aviation organization with the affiliation of the model aviation regions as full-fledged sections of the AeCS. Previously, the model aviation regions had been recognized in our central bylaws only in the technical and sporting domains. While some model aviators had joined the AeCS through the existing sections, others, for various reasons, were unable to find their way to “their” sections and thus had no right to vote or stand for election in their umbrella organization, the AeCS. The new model aviation organization brought a degree of standardization to this confusion and established direct participation—and thus equal rights—for model aviators vis-à-vis the other aviation sports disciplines.

This new model aviation organization had

This caused concern among some section presidents, which must have placed high demands on the persuasive skills of our representative, Werner Koelliker. The delegates’ assembly had, in fact, rejected the entire proposal on the first attempt, and a new effort had to be made a year later. That was no easy task. Since the opposition could offer few transparent arguments, the battle raged all the more fiercely on an emotional level, and even this chronicler and writer was bestowed by prominent figures with the honorary title of “gravedigger of the Aero-Club.” This episode, which I now view with a certain sense of humor, serves as a reminder that much of what we take for granted today in our AeCS was hard-won through Werner Koelliker’s tireless efforts. He also largely succeeded in bridging the gap—which had at times been quite wide—between actual pilots (especially the “gentlemen” among them) and those who were “merely” model aviators, without causing the model aviators to become completely detached from the AeCS.

Giez.

The FAI General Conference (the highest international governing body for sport aviation) is the FAI's assembly of delegates. It is held in a different country each year.