I had been planning to visit Tim and Anna Hutchinson and their Alpine Helicopters’ Methven operation for several months. When I arrived at Double Hill Station on a dismal rainy afternoon for our long-planned meeting, Tim and Anna weren’t there. This impressed me greatly. No…really! Let me explain. Having all ...
Double Hill Station and Alpine Helicopters
With both aviation and farming in Tim Hutchinson’s blood, he and his wife, Anna, aim to provide the very best “New Zealand experience” for visitors by making the most of their Double Hill Station property—and their helicopter. As Rob Neil discovered, they have something pretty special to offer…on the ground and ...
RESCUE HELICOPTER PILOT
EMS/SAR Instrument Rated
Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust
Expressions of interest are invited for the above position.
Applicants need to have a minimum of: 2000 hours (1500 helicopter) / 1500 PIC NZCPL(H) Unrestricted night and instrument ratings Able to live within 5 minutes of the base at ...By Donald Harward
Preflight is invariably a noisy time—even though preflights usually take place in the very early morning. The world around me is already well into the day’s activities by the time I start to peer through my still sleepy eyes at the myriad of parts that comprise my flying machine.
However, one morning, amid all the ...
The Aviation Industry Association (AIA) issued a press release recently, following the helicopter rescue of around 120 trampers in the Fiordland area. “Once again,” said the Association’s CEO, Irene King, “the aviation industry is at the forefront of saving peoples lives. I am sure that those trampers were extremely pleased to see that we could quickly come to their ...
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the European Commission and various other sources have suggested that the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland that grounded aircraft throughout much of Europe might cost European airlines anywhere between €1.5 and 2.5 billon (US$2–3.3 million). This estimate relates to all sectors of the aviation industry, including airlines, airports, tour operators and ground handlers—all ...
Images by Peter Cooper
When Peter Cooper wrote recently (December 2009) about the Kiwi connection with West Coast Air in British Columbia, he also photographed scores of other floatplanes flown by numerous different operators there. In light of several comments from readers about Peter’s photographs—and because we couldn’t use nearly enough of his magnificent images in the previous ...
Nicknames—aviators sure have some good ones. We aviators aren’t all that smart and we tend towards simple, easy names. There are the standard ones like “Meat” and “Hammer” and “Big-” …anything; then there are the other ones. That is where the stories lie—in the particular circumstances that conspired to create the situations that justified them. Whether ...
By Rob Neil
As the world’s oil prices continue to climb, nowhere is the impact more keenly felt than in aviation. Any increase in the price of oil has an immediate effect on the world’s airlines, but the follow-on effects of the continuing increases extend far beyond airline ticket counters and boardrooms; the modern world relies on aviation ...
