Ice Aviation—the Tip of an Iceberg

When talking about New Plymouth-based Ice Aviation, the iceberg analogy is an impossible one to resist—particularly as Ice Aviation is named largely in honour of the grand frozen expanses and icy seas of Antarctica. In exactly the same way that 90% of an iceberg remains hidden beneath the surface, Ice Aviation’s single (immaculate) hangar, sole (equally immaculate) Robinson R22 and sole full-time instructor are only the visible tip of a much greater whole. The huge combination of experience, knowledge and skill of the company’s owner, Jim Finlayson, forms the unseen foundation and heart of Ice Aviation—and is what makes it a very special company.

Accordingly, one cannot even begin to describe Ice Aviation without first describing the background of its owner, Jim Finlayson, MBE.

Originally from Hamilton, Jim Finlayson graduated from Whangarei Boys’ High School before moving to the lower South Island in the 1970s. It was while living in that beautiful part of the country—working as a guide in Milford in the summer and a skifield instructor in winter—that Jim first developed a fascination with aviation. The numerous helicopters that operated in the Fiordland area at the time captivated Jim and, after a first flight in a helicopter with none other than Bill Black, Jim knew there really was no other option for him but to join the ranks of the rotary-winged.

Quite sensibly, Jim elected to have the New Zealand public pay for his flying training and he joined the RNZAF in 1982. After graduating, he flew fast jets for two years—initially Strikemasters for a year, followed by a year on Skyhawks.

While some young men might have seen this as the pinnacle of a military aviation career, Jim saw things differently and, in 1986, he transferred to helicopters. Leaving the high-speed sophistication and thrills of a Skyhawk cockpit behind, he moved to the far opposite end of the aviation spectrum to train in the antiquated (it was antiquated even way back in 1986) piston-engined Bell Sioux before progressing to the UH-1H Iroquois.

The one-time mountain guide and ski instructor had achieved his goal of becoming a helicopter pilot—with the added bonus of also having enjoyed two years of military fast jet experience.

Readers will be pleased to know that the tax dollars they spent on teaching Jim Finlayson to fly were actually a valuable investment—one he has since repaid many times over by his 21 years of distinguished service. By choice, Jim spent most of those years flying Iroquois, including a lot of time based at Wigram, from where he flew countless search and rescue (SAR) missions around the country.

These days, civilian operators carry out the bulk of New Zealand’s SAR flying. However, during the time Jim flew Iroquois, it was predominantly an RNZAF responsibility. As a result, Jim accumulated a great deal of valuable SAR experience, much of it in the rugged mountainous terrain and capricious weather of New Zealand’s South Island.

In addition to the SAR work on land, Jim and his RNZAF colleagues flew countless SAR missions at sea—often far out to sea, and frequently in dreadful weather. Having flown their single-engined Iroquois far from land in archetypal “’twas a dark and stormy night” conditions—howling winds, pouring rain, limited visibility and freezing cold—they then had the additional challenges inherent in winching victims from between the forests of deadly masts that crowd the decks of ships.

It doesn’t take much imagination to realise just how stressful it must be to hover over a wildly pitching deck, 30 miles from land, in the near dark, having to match the rise and fall of a stormy swell while simultaneously avoiding thrashing ships’ masts while one of your colleagues—or an injured victim—dangles from a slender winch cable beneath you.

And this is how military personnel around the world repay their taxpayer-funded “free flying lessons”. When other people’s lives are at stake, military crews put their own lives on the line—relying on their training and discipline to get the job done safely.

Although he flew Iroquois operationally for most of his RNZAF service, Jim also spent time as an instructor—both on the fixed-wing CT4 Airtrainers, and the Sioux and Iroquois helicopters. He also undertook the usual assortment of desk jobs and staff courses, but always returned to his first love…flying helicopters.

During his RNZAF service, Jim undertook several overseas deployments, including three tours to Antarctica, where he flew Iroquois on scientific support missions for the New Zealand Antarctic programme. It was the fascination of the icy continent he developed during those three tours that eventually gave rise to the name Ice Aviation.

In addition to his overseas flying deployments, Jim also spent a year on the ground at the height of hostilities in Bosnia and Croatia, where he earned himself an MBE. Like many service personnel, Jim is reluctant to blow his own trumpet, but as far as Pacific Wings was able to establish, the MBE had something to do with an uncomfortably dangerous activity involving extracting injured people from a mine-damaged vehicle in a minefield. Having no aeroplanes, helicopters or air-launched weapons to rely on at such a time must have been somewhat unnerving for an air force pilot.

Jim describes the rest of his year in Bosnia and Croatia as “noisy” (shells and explosions) and “character building” (avoiding bullets), and says it involved a great deal of luck in avoiding serious harm.

Time for a change

Eventually, in 2003, after a number of command and staff appointments, with no likelihood of a return to flying helicopters in the Air Force, Jim made the decision to leave the Air Force and began accumulating civilian flying qualifications. He already had his commercial licences for both helicopters and aeroplanes, but wanted to become an instructor in both. Beginning with aeroplanes, this one-time A4 Skyhawk pilot and Air Force instructor had to “learn” to fly a Cessna 172 and accumulate the hours necessary to meet the legal requirements for civilian instructor qualifications.

Jim soon achieved his civilian (fixed-wing) instructor rating flying C-172s with the Wellington Aero Club at Wellington and Paraparaumu.

His next goal was a helicopter instructor rating. In the same way that he had “started again” in fixed-wing aircraft, Jim began afresh in helicopters and traded his erstwhile 4-ton, 1,400-shp turbine Iroquois for a tiny 630-kg, 125-hp piston-engined Robinson R22. He soon mastered the Robbie and quickly achieved a helicopter instructor rating.

Far from perceiving the return to basics in both aeroplanes and helicopters as backwards steps, Jim embraced every learning opportunity they presented. As much as he had always admired the mighty Iroquois and loved the time he spent flying it, he immediately enjoyed flying the miniature R22, which he describes as a great little helicopter in its intended role.

When he had left the Air Force, Jim remained on the books as an “active reserve”. Having left the permanent Air Force in order to continue flying, Jim was called back to RNZAF service—in a flying role—based at Ohakea for several months; ironic, indeed, that it was only after he had left the Air Force that he was able to keep flying for the Air Force!

By the time he had finally completed his Air Force flying, Jim also had all the civilian qualifications he needed. More importantly, thanks to his Air Force experience, he had a logbook full of valuable flying hours—the majority of which were in challenging circumstances and in the most extreme environments around the world, from steamy tropical jungles to the endless frozen expanses of Antarctica.

With his combination of military SAR experience and his civil qualifications, Jim had no difficulty securing a job flying a BK117 in Tasmania. The work involved a combination of police and SAR work under a combined police/ambulance contract. The company also operated a Squirrel, an R44 and an R22, and Jim was able to instruct in all three types as well as flying the BK117.

Jim enjoyed an interesting and enjoyable year in Tasmania, which he describes as a spectacular and wild place, much of it like the southwest of New Zealand’s South Island.

Jim’s next job was in the Solomon Islands flying Bell 212s for Heavylift on a contract that took over from the recently departed Iroquois of the RNZAF’s No. 3 Sqn.

After the Solomons, it was on to Indonesia, briefly, where he flew Bell 412s for Helicopters New Zealand (HNZ) conducting longlining operations in the jungle. From Indonesia, it was on to Myanmar and a contract supporting offshore oil and gas exploration there.

Having moved back to New Zealand with his wife and established themselves in his wife’s hometown of New Plymouth, Jim flew Bell 212s and 412s for HNZ in New Zealand during his six-week breaks (the Myanmar contract involved six weeks on and six weeks off).

It was also during his six-weekly visits home that Jim decided to establish a business teaching people to fly in New Zealand. With a leased R22, he set up shop and began flight training. After a year, the business was working well enough for Jim to justify purchasing his own R22.

In a fortunate coincidence, not long after Jim bought his own R22, a nice modern hangar became available at New Plymouth Airport, allowing Ice Aviation to house its own helicopter in its own hangar.

At the time, Jim identified that there was really nobody else providing helicopter training in Taranaki; people wanting to learn to fly helicopters went to either Wanganui or Hamilton. Others had previously offered helicopter training in New Plymouth, according to Jim, but without any great success. However, since Jim began operating, another operator—based at Urenui—has also begun doing a bit of training.

Jim was in now in the fortunate position of owning both his helicopter and hangar, and he had no other full-time staff to pay. With Jim’s own costs at a minimum, his students are the beneficiaries, as Ice Aviation was (and remains) able to make flight training as affordable as realistically possible. As a result, Jim had plenty of flight training bookings whenever he was back in New Zealand.

Nevertheless, despite a steady training schedule, Jim kept up his contract flying in order to build an even stronger foundation for Ice Aviation.

After his work in Myanmar ended, Jim moved to Darwin, where he began flying EC135s for HNZ (Australia). The work involved operating two EC135s as part of an Australian Aerospace contract for the Australian Defence Department (ADF). Because Australia’s new Tiger helicopters were delayed, Australian Aerospace supplied the two EC135s (and associated engineering support) to assist ADF pilots to transition from the elderly Kiowa (Bell 206) to the Tiger.

Over the course of the contract, the EC135s were kept incredibly busy. Over a period of two years, the two machines accumulated more than 3,600 flying hours, of which Jim flew nearly 1,000 hours—mainly instructing. He is highly complimentary of the EC135, which he describes as “absolutely fantastic to fly!”

According to Jim, everything about the EC135s works very well. He said it really was a perfect machine for the ADF contract, having around 75% commonality with the Tiger’s systems and operating procedures. He describes the EC135 as the perfect machine to set new Tiger pilots up for advanced multi-engine, glass cockpit IFR flying. “While I loved flying the Huey, and I still love the Bell 212 and 412, the EC135 is brilliant; it’s just a magical helicopter!”

At the end of the ADF contract, Jim returned home to New Plymouth, but has commuted back and forth to Australia for HNZ Australia for a number of short-term contracts flying EC135s and EC145s. Most recently, these have involved flying EC145s from Karratha in Western Australia conducting marine pilot transfers to and from ore ships.

Whenever Jim is back in New Plymouth, his R22 is always busy training a number of regular students. Nevertheless, Jim says despite its relatively regular work, the single R22 doesn’t make enough money to be economic as a sole income source. Eventually, he would like to expand but he has no desire to over-extend himself. He says his greatest motivation for the business is his passion for aviation and the desire to put something back into the industry that he has got so much out of.

It was pleasing to hear such an experienced pilot talk about retaining his passion for the basics of flight. He says a few of his colleagues who fly turbine multi-engine IFR helicopters question his sanity and ask him why he flies an R22 if he doesn’t have to. “I always love going flying in the R22,” he says. “I enjoy flying the EC135 and 145 and Bell 412 these days, but flying the R22 is really good fun; I love it.”

It is particularly pleasing to see people like Jim dedicated to providing quality training in an industry commonly dominated by inexperienced novices. The situation of having newly-qualified instructors teaching barely less qualified students to fly has long been recognised—and accepted—as unavoidable in the aviation industry, and it affects fixed-wing and helicopter training equally.

Career aviators like Jim Finlayson and a few others like him are outstandingly valuable exceptions to aviation’s unfortunate conundrum of having “new kids teaching slightly less new kids” to fly. Their irreplaceable experience makes them worth their weight in diamond-crusted gold bars to the industry.

There is no better way to learn the basics than from someone with a wealth of real-world experience behind them. From a student’s perspective, it is extremely reassuring to learn from unflappable veterans who really understand what is going on, have great affinity for their aircraft and who have “been there, done that”. In particular, it is reassuring to be flying with someone who you know wants to be there teaching you and isn’t just along for the ride to accumulate the flying hours needed for a “real job”.

Ideally, as his business expands, Jim would love to take a new instructor under his wing (blade?) and pass on his hard-won knowledge and experience.

Jim’s military background is evident from his strict adherence to procedures. Self-discipline and professionalism in a single-pilot cockpit are the qualities that keep pilots alive. Jim not only practises the same high standards that were instilled in him during his 21 years’ RNZAF service, but also, since leaving the Air Force, he has continued his flight training and education to the extent that he now holds some qualifications that are not even available in New Zealand.

Today, Jim holds the following New Zealand licences and ratings: an A-category helicopter instructor rating, ATPL (helicopter), CPL (aeroplane), instrument rating and B-category instructor rating (aeroplane), a single-pilot multi-engine instrument rating (aeroplane) and a new Zealand Flight Examiner rating—meaning he can test and approve licences in New Zealand. In addition, he holds all of the equivalent licences and ratings in Australia—and he also holds two Masters degrees: an MBA in business administration and a Master of Philosophy.

With his joint Australian/New Zealand flying qualifications, Jim can test and approve pilots from either country in either country. This is a particularly valuable asset for Ice Aviation, which can offer Australian pilots the opportunity to fly an R22 for A$450 (including GST) an hour. For Australian pilots, this price is significantly lower than they would pay at home and Jim expects quite a few Aussies will take advantage of the opportunity to fly in New Zealand.

Jim believes New Zealand’s unique training environment—particularly in places like Taranaki—is even more valuable for Australian pilots than the low cost of helicopter hire. Australian pilots training on the East Coast of Australia can get a licence almost without ever seeing a cloud or making a genuine “weather decision”, so New Zealand offers valuable learning opportunities for them.

As well as his “regular” qualifications, Jim also holds an internationally approved CRM (crew resource management) instructor’s rating—something that doesn’t even exist in New Zealand. Jim feels so strongly about the importance of CRM in all levels of flying that he has travelled to the UK twice at his own expense in order to gain a CRM instructor’s qualification.

He feels New Zealand and Australia are behind the times in this regard. While New Zealand has gone down the path of threat and error management (TEM) and now includes it as a component of flight testing, he says TEM is merely a part of CRM training, which is mandatory in many other countries for even the most basic licences.

While airlines like Air New Zealand have their own in-house CRM instructors, there is no formal CRM instructors’ qualification available under either the New Zealand or Australian rules.

His CRM training was not the only time Jim travelled internationally at his own expense to further his aviation education. When he first started Ice Aviation, Jim elected to go to California to undertake the Robinson safety course at the Robinson factory instead of doing it in New Zealand. He has no criticism of the Robinson course in New Zealand, but says the extra expense of doing it at the factory was worthwhile. At the factory, course participants get to see examples of damaged helicopters and components, and understand the background to them. He said he found it valuable to learn from the worldwide central “source” of Robinson helicopter knowledge and that he picked up lots of important little things he would not have done otherwise.

Now, when he talks to pilots contemplating buying their own Robinson helicopters, Jim strongly recommends they do the same thing. Considering the price of new helicopters, he considers the relatively small additional expense to be an investment rather than a cost.

Yet another big private training expense for Jim was when he first began flying EC135s. Keen to learn as much as possible about the new helicopter before flying it in the real world, he travelled to the UK in order to get comprehensive training on a top-end EC135 simulator.

Simulation is an aspect of flight training about which Jim is particularly passionate. He struggles to comprehend the New Zealand regulator’s attitude to simulation and its reluctance to embrace it. While overseas civil aviation authorities recognise the value of high quality simulators for training and increased safety, New Zealand still requires a great deal of—potentially dangerous—training to be done in real aircraft. Internationally, pilots are able to qualify for “zero flight time” type ratings in airline operations. The same level of simulation is available for all flying—including helicopters. However, New Zealand insists on forcing pilots to “bash the circuit” ad nauseum, burning up precious aviation fuel, pumping unnecessary carbon emissions into the air, and risking aircraft and aircrews in practising non-normal procedures.

In addition to eliminating all of those negatives, simulation offers pilots the opportunity to practise things they could never practice in real aircraft and to experience catastrophic failures that could cost hundreds of thousands (even millions) of dollars if they were to occur in a real aircraft. For example, a pilot training in an EC135 simulator, can “see” “feel” and “hear” what it is like to cook both engines (US$350,000 each in the real world) or to fail both engines in flight and fly the aircraft all the way to a landing—neither of which one would practise in a real aircraft.

So for now, if New Zealand helicopter companies want their pilots to gain all the benefits of simulators, they must spend millions of dollars in sending them overseas. When the pilots return, the companies still have to spend more money wearing out aircraft and burning fuel, and risking airframes and aircrews practising drills in flight.

Ideally, simulation is a field in which Jim would like Ice Aviation to be involved; he sees enormous value even for basic VFR flying in a simulator. For now, though, the single R22 certainly doesn’t justify a $16 million full-motion simulator for advanced multi-engine turbine helicopters—especially in the current regulatory environment.

Going beyond what most people expect of a flight-training organisation, Jim wants to build a local “community” and a sense of comradeship in Taranaki of like-minded passionate aviators who are keen to expand their aviation education and maintain their flying fitness.

During my visit to Ice Aviation, I flew with Graham, a local pilot in Taranaki who now owns and flies an R44 privately. Jim conducts Graham’s BFRs and often flies with him and offers advice on things like maintenance and cross-country flying. It was immediately obvious that Graham had absorbed much of Jim’s fastidious professionalism and discipline. From the outset, flying with Graham in his immaculately maintained R44 was a joy because his attention to detail and adherence to procedures were immediately apparent.

After the flight, I asked Graham what he felt he had gained from flying with Jim. I was gratified to hear that he talked mainly about attitude, self-discipline and safety. Although he mentioned good flying skills, it was obvious he understood these were a natural consequence of the attitude and discipline. In particular, Graham said he valued Jim’s ongoing friendship and the opportunity to get together regularly to talk flying and keep learning.

This desire to keep learning and training is a big part of what makes Jim Finlayson tick and is what lies at the heart of the Ice Aviation “iceberg”. Having spoken to a couple of Jim’s students, it is also a big part of the appeal of flying with Jim. Despite his extensive experience, his students say he has a wonderfully reassuring manner without making them feel intimidated by his flying background.

Jim is adamant that all pilots should continually strive to improve their skills, regardless of what level they are at—an attitude that comes from his Air Force background, where every flight in a pilot’s career is viewed as a learning exercise that is debriefed in detail to extract any possible ‘lesson’ from it. “Never settle for doing the same things every day, thinking that that is what ‘experience’ is all about.”

Students learning to fly at Ice Aviation can expect a uniquely personalised experience in an environment where they will continually be encouraged to be the best they can. They will not do their learning online or by correspondence, or be part of any huge “courses”. Ground school courses are conducted either one-on-one or in a facilitated personalised small group setting amongst similarly keen students.

Jim gets lots of enquiries every day from people who think they might want to fly helicopters. He doesn’t want there to be any unpleasant economic surprises in store for them later on and says that anyone who gives a fixed price “estimate” based on the minimum legal time requirements for a PPL is misleading people.

When they ask Jim what it will cost, he never tries to “soften the blow” by talking legal minimum flight times, and he makes sure to mention all the add-ons like expensive exams, medicals and flight tests. He will tell you to budget on at least 60–70 hours flying for a PPL and possibly more.

Jim does not believe in students taking massive loans for helicopter training. He says that in his experience—both in New Zealand and Australia—the people who are able and prepared to pay for their training without borrowing are more motivated and are the most likely to be committed and see things through.

So don’t be fooled by what appears to be an apparently “small” operation. Ice Aviation isn’t just one hangar and a single R22. The invisible bulk and heart of this company is the intangible culmination of 30 years’ experience of flying in jungles, over frozen mountains, glaciers, dark and stormy seas, in hundreds of different cockpits with hundreds of different students; and sitting in hundreds of different classrooms with hundreds of different instructors and teachers.

At Ice Aviation, just like the tip of an Antarctic iceberg, what you see is not what you get—it is only a tiny percentage.