The Warbird Dakota Syndicate (Also known as ‘Fly Dakota-NZ’) will be offering unique opportunities for anyone wanting to attend the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow in comfort and style.

When the DC-3 flies from Ardmore to Wanaka and then onto Queenstown on April the 1st, places will be available for return travel to and from Wanaka and Queenstown.

The price of a return fare (from Ardmore)—which includes entry to the air show on either Saturday or Sunday—is just $850 per person (including GST). The price also includes in-flight meals and refreshments.

The DC-3 will be able to stop at Hamilton, Paraparaumu, Omaka or Christchurch should any passengers wish to join the flight at any of these locations (airfares to be negotiated for these stops, but will be similarly attractive to the Ardmore-Wanaka return fares).

Upon arrival at Wanaka on the 1st of April, the DC-3 will conduct a practice flight there before continuing to Queenstown, where it will be based each night.

The aircraft will travel from Queenstown to Wanaka each day throughout the air show weekend, which will allow passengers to stay in either Wanaka or Queenstown.

During the DC-3’s stay in Wanaka/Queenstown for the show, other Queenstown/Wanaka-based passengers wishing to fly between the two centres each day will be able to do so for just $90 return ($70 one-way).

The DC-3 will depart Queenstown each morning at around 7:30 a.m.—delivering passengers directly to the air show at around the same time as the gates open to the public—and will depart for Queenstown after the show finishes each day.

During the air show, the DC-3 will conduct scenic flights of around 15 minutes duration for $50 per person.

On its return to Ardmore on the 5th of April, the DC-3 will depart Queenstown at around 10:00 a.m. It will stop in Wanaka to uplift any passengers there before making the return journey to Ardmore via any stops necessary to deliver passengers home (to Christchurch, Omaka, Paraparaumu or Hamilton).

Anyone wishing to join the DC-3 journey to Warbirds Over Wanaka—either at Ardmore or any of the locations listed above—should contact Jessica at flydc3@paradise.net.nz or 0274 382 297 for further information.

On the 26th of February, the Minister of Defence, the Hon Dr Wayne Mapp, opened a $1.2 million workshop at RNZAF Woodbourne that will be used by the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technolgy (NMIT) to train not only its own students, but also RNZAF engineering officers who had previously trained overseas.

In his speech, the Minister said that further developments were underway. He also said that “The proposal for an aviation academy formed through a partnership between Air New Zealand and the RNZAF looks to develop a major centre of excellence’ for aviation-related training. Potentially this will also include NMIT. This would serve not only the local needs, but also be attractive for international partners and students.

He added “Marlborough has a proud history in aviation. Today’s opening is another milestone in shaping the future of the industry. From restoring the warbirds of yesterday, through to training the air experts of tomorrow, this region plays a vital part in keeping New Zealand flying.”

RNZAF engineering tradesmen will undertake NMIT’s pre-trade training fundamentals programme, which prepares aircraft maintenance technicians for their advanced trade training.

NMIT already carries out this programme for industry and the institute says it is pleased to be able to offer its expertise to the RNZAF.

In addition, NMIT also won a tender to jointly deliver a Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering—a technical management training programme to RNZAF Engineering Officers. To do this, the NMIT Aviation School demonstrated it could train potential aviation engineering tradesmen to the same standard, if not higher, than had been provided previously in Australia.

Tony Gray, the CEO of NMIT said that by including the RNZAF’s training with NMIT’s current industry training, it cements the institute’s position as “the country’s leading provider of aircraft maintenance engineering pre-employment training.”

The new joint workshops will complement the existing hangar at Woodbourne and enable both NMIT and RNZAF students to obtain specialist training on gas turbines and aircraft structures.

The RNZAF has recently upgraded training technologies and purchased new training aircraft, helicopters and engines to replace aging training aids. The new workshops will accommodate some of this new training equipment. They will also house NMIT’s School of Aviation administration staff and, this year, will see up to 160 students training at the NMIT/RNZAF shared facility.

Tony Gray praised the Air Force for what he described as “its visionary yet prudent and cost saving decision to jointly provide programmes of common interest” and pointed out that, in one instance, this involved returning a previously internationally outsourced training programme home to New Zealand.

Gray also praised the collaboration between the Marlborough District Council and the government and said this initiative would not have been possible without the proactive support of both. He added, “It’s also a massive pat on the back for NMIT staff. They’ve been entrusted with the task of providing fundamental training for a critically important segment of the Air Force.

“Our main focus is and always has been on providing Kiwi trained aviation engineers for New Zealand’s aviation industry. However the agreement with the Air Force will create more opportunities both nationally and internationally.”

Meanwhile, the Chief of the Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott, described the RNZAF’s relationship with NMIT as having “reached new heights”.

“NMIT has been contracted and is now delivering specialist training to the RNZAF’s Engineering Officers at Woodbourne. This brings back to New Zealand training that has historically been delivered overseas. NMIT now also delivers the Aeronautical Fundamentals course, which used to be conducted by the RNZAF and remains a pre-cursor for any student wishing to enter the RNZAF in a technical trade.”

The Aviation Engineering course is the only aviation engineering tertiary course in New Zealand to be offered to civilians on an active military base.

The School of Aviation offers several aircraft maintenance engineering pre-employment training packages to Level 4 National Certificate in Aircraft Maintenance. Half of the course is theory related and the other half involves practical hands-on experience.

Recently, the School of Aviation began an on-line qualification—the Level 6 Diploma in Aeronautical Certification. It is for aircraft maintenance engineers already working in the industry to enable them to work towards gaining their New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority examinations and their aircraft maintenance engineer’s licence.

The School provides RNZAF Engineering Officers with the one-year Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering Management.

By Hugh Mitton.

The new control tower at Christchurch International Airport opened in September last year; a distinctive addition to the city’s northwestern skyline and a major $7 million addition to Airways New Zealand’s infrastructure. Hugh Mitton took a look inside to find out what the “state-of-the-art” is, exactly.

Viewed from the outside, the new tower looks cool and modern. If you step inside, you will notice that the interior is also cool and modern. This is thanks to a not-inconsiderable weight of concrete, steel and tinted glass. For example, there is a 460-tonne base slab of concrete lying below the ground, keeping the rest firmly upright. At the upper—business—end of the tower, a full six tonnes of glass is required for the “cab’s” massive windows and 24 tonnes of steel form the support for its roof.

Not only is the new tower aesthetically beautiful with its ornamental spiral and night lighting, but—importantly—it also provides extra room for controllers and technical equipment, eliminates blind spots, which the old tower suffered from, and hosts an array of “new” electronic equipment (new is in quotes because while the equipment is new to Auckland and Wellington towers, it has been used at Christchurch since 2007).

Anyone who has been in a control tower before or seen a movie like Pushing Tin will know that the traditional way of managing air traffic is with the use of plastic slates, with each aircraft and flight details attached on a paper strip. These are then arranged appropriately on a board and/or handed between respective controllers. What you might not know is that air traffic controlling isn’t nearly as stressful as Hollywood makes it out to be—at least not in New Zealand.

Much like email and written letters, the installation of electronic touch-screens in the main centre towers abolished the need for the paper strips. The new system is a product of the Austrian company Frequentis, which specialises in air traffic management, and public safety and transport systems. The tower at Christchurch has four sets of displays: one for ground, one for tower, one for delivery and one for flight data, but each is capable of doing the others’ jobs. This also means that should one somehow fail (note the use of “somehow” to emphasise their reliability and the improbability of such a failure), the operation in question could shift to another set, the work of which could be done in tandem for the hour it would take to deliver and install a replacement.

Just as was done with older paper strips, the flight data is added to electronic “smart” strips; these include the same details, such as flight number, destination, tracking points, persons on board and squawk code. Just like the plastic slates of old, information can be passed between operators using a drag-and-drop system. Some of it is automatic; for instance, aircraft taxiing for takeoff will appear on both the ground and tower displays. There is another saving in stationery with the digital system: pens. Each touch-screen has a touch-pen which can be used to add or erase markings on the electronic strips—things like clearances or drawing attention to a flight detail.

Radar data is displayed on regular LCD monitors. Another separate single monitor displays the emergency notification system. This is an impressive piece of technology to minimise incident response times and thereby maximise recovery and survival possibilities. Should an aircraft go down, an appropriate symbol (a light aircraft, turboprop or jet aircraft) can be dragged and dropped onto a map of the area at the estimated or last known location. This information is then sent to all appropriate response services simultaneously, including the airport’s new Rosenbauer fire trucks, in the form of a display matching that inside the control tower.

All of New Zealand’s air traffic control data is processed in Christchurch through Airways New Zealand’s flight data and radar data processors. At present, flight additions or changes made at the tower must be sent back to the flight data processor manually, but an upgrade scheduled for this year will create an automatic two-way link. The obvious question is: what if something fails? While cutting-edge technology might as well be black magic to some people, that edge isn’t used for cutting corners. On the tower’s lower floors lie two large uninterruptable power supply units (which will keep local operations going without a hitch for up to three hours) and, of course, a generator.

With all of Airway’s operations covered for the event of a power failure, that just leaves the computer-related element—the one that is often perceived as the most difficult to trust. Perhaps this is because for many, a computer means a personal computer—the kind that usually induces significant frustration at least once in a person’s lifetime. Airways’ computers are different. They are designed to perform fewer tasks and perform them well; they’re virtually impossible to overload. As for the national data network, it is independently routed to be failsafe.

So there it is—the transition to a digital future for air traffic control in New Zealand. The previous tower at Christchurch airport sits alone atop the old domestic terminal, which is scheduled for demolition this year, along with the much-admired viewing deck. With air passenger numbers only increasing, flight is a fast-evolving being. It’s nice to see Airways keeping up on the ground too.

Tower for Tomorrow—Christchurch’s New Control Tower

Christchurch’s tower controllers no longer have to sit in a large cupboard at the top of the stairs using closed circuit TV to see bits of the outside world. A modern—real—tower allows them to do their job much better. Hugh Mitton reports.

What Makes a Good Airline Pilot?

After a widely varied flying career, Brian Hope offers his thoughts—based on a lifetime of experience in the airline industry—on some of the important qualities that make a good airline pilot.

Technical Perspective—Wonderful Winglets

As more and more aircraft appear fitted with winglets of various kinds, Mike Friend, who has had a lot to do with designing and building these clever devices, explains what all the fuss is about.

Tauranga City Air Show

Diane Jeffrey reports on the recent Tauranga City Airshow.

Derek Erskine—Double Survivor (Part 2)

In the last issue, we featured the story of Derek Erskine’s first aviation “survival” story—his WWII fighter pilot days. In part 2, we tell the story of his survival of New Zealand’s early topdressing years in an industry that claimed many lives.

Letters from War—The Journey

Veteran combat helicopter pilot—now a civilian, but still flying in a war zone—Don Harward talks about helicopters and the journey of life.

Commercial fixed wing general aviation operators—those whose aircraft carry nine or fewer passengers—are celebrating a period of five years free of fatal accidents, while it is some nine years since the last fatality involving equivalent commercial helicopter operations.

Irene King, the chief executive of the Aviation Industry Association (AIA), said, “This is a great record but one that we are now coming to expect from our general aviation operators.” She praised operators for having “invested heavily in putting in place the right safety strategies” and said it was about “walking the talk and understanding that being safe is a lot less expensive than an accident.”

King said she considered the record to be “quite remarkable” in view of the diversity of this sector’s operations, in which many perform different operations every day. She pointed out that this necessitated excellent safety planning by operators in assessing risk and understanding how to mitigate it to provide the safest possible environment for crews and passengers.

“The challenge, as always, will be to ensure we keep our businesses performing at that level,” King said. “In recent years, we have seen a much greater alignment between regulatory compliance and safety strategies in this sector of the industry. The knowledge, experiences and practices of larger scheduled operators are now being translated into the general aviation industry.”

The AIA encourages safety in numerous ways, including the recognition of safety performance in the industry through its safety recognition awards. Members of the general public are able to review the safety performance of a number individual companies through the AIA’s website: aia.org.nz.

Late last month, Air New Zealand announced normalised earnings before taxation of $96 million for the six month period ended 31 December 2009 (this represents an increase of $70 million on the same period last year), and normalised earnings after taxation of $64 million.

This was despite an operating revenue that was down 15%, and passenger demand down by 4.6%. However, the airline’s passenger load factor was up three percentage points to 81.6%.

Air New Zealand’s chairman, John Palmer, said that in very challenging conditions this was a good result.

“The fallout from the global financial crisis continued to make operating conditions extremely difficult,” he said. “This has been reflected in lower passenger numbers, cargo volumes and yields, resulting in a 15 percent reduction in revenues. At the same time, fuel prices have returned to more stable levels following unprecedented volatility in the 2009 financial year.

He said that the airline’s ability to deliver a profit during this time was a reflection of “the management team’s focus on closely aligning capacity with demand” and its “ability to deliver innovative solutions to significantly enhance the airline’s competitive position.”

Air New Zealand’s CEO Rob Fyfe said that the result reflects the considerable efforts of more than 10,500 Air New Zealanders and their continued focus on delivering world-class results.

He referred to the recent Air Transport World Airline of the Year Award, which he said recognised those efforts.

“We worked hard to adapt the business to reflect the lower revenue base. As a result, we achieved an 11 percent reduction in non-fuel operating costs, with all operating costs reduced.”

Mr Fyfe insisted that innovation remains a key theme for the year ahead and said the airline had created a culture that “enables Air New Zealanders to have the confidence to think outside the square, and to proactively and creatively pursue solutions.”

Fyfe predicted that the next 12 months would be one of the most defining in the airline’s history and said there is “no question the next year will set the direction and identity of our airline for the next decade.

“Our competitors will be scrambling to catch up as we introduce a world-first long-haul experience, continue to evolve our trans-Tasman and Pacific Island operation and introduce more capacity into our domestic jet operation with the arrival of new A320 aircraft,” he said.

Mr Fyfe said that with improvements close to implementation, Air New Zealand would be able to compete effectively against both budget and full-service airlines.

According to Mr Fyfe, while there had been a stabilisation and recovery of the trading environment, demand and average fares were still significantly lower than in previous periods. He said the challenge remains to improve passenger numbers and yields.

He added that in recent periods, the volatility of fuel prices and foreign exchange rates has overshadowed the natural seasonality of Air New Zealand’s business, but said that he expected a more normal seasonal balance this year with the second half weaker than the first.

At the end of January, Boeing moved the 787 Dreamliner fatigue test airframe to its structural test rig in the northwest corner of the Everett, Washington site. The company says that test set up is expected to begin immediately, with tests commencing midyear.

“Unlike static tests, where loads are applied to the aeroplane structure to simulate both normal operation and extreme flight conditions, fatigue testing is a much longer process that simulates up to three times the number of flight cycles an aeroplane is likely to experience during a lifetime of service,” said Scott Fancher, 787 Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Airplanes. “This testing is instrumental in confirming the longevity of the airplane.”

Subsequently, in late February, a third aircraft joined the 787 Dreamliner flight-test programme. ZA004 (pictured) is the fourth flight-test aircraft to be built, but the programme plan called for it to fly before ZA003 because the data ZA004 is collecting is needed more quickly both for certification and development of the 787-9.

ZA004’s first flight lasted for three hours and-two-minutes, during which it reached an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,144 m) and an airspeed of 255 knots, or about 293 miles (472 km) per hour. As testing of the 787 fleet progresses, the aircraft will fly at its expected in-service maximum altitude of 40,000 feet (12,192 m) and speed of Mach 0.85.

Heather Ross, the chief pilot for ZA004, said after the aircraft’s first test flight, “Airplane No. 4 operated flawlessly today. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but I can’t imagine a better start to the flight test programme for this airplane.”

ZA004 will be used to test aerodynamics, high-speed performance, propulsion performance, flight loads, community noise and extended operations (ETOPS) and other test conditions.

Safe Air in Blenheim, which is an engineering subsidiary of Air New Zealand, is planning to reduce its workforce by up to 100 positions—almost a third of the company’s total workforce.

The staff reduction has become necessary because of extensive delays by Canadian companies in delivering the first of the RNZAF’s upgraded C-130s. Initially, it was intended that the first of the Air Force’s Hercules would be upgraded in Canada and that Safe Air would complete the remaining four aircraft in New Zealand after the first aircraft returned. A second Hercules was eventually sent to Canada in the hope of hastening the upgrade process, but without success.

When the contract (with SPAR Aerospace) for the first upgrade was announced in 2005, Safe Air increased its workforce and invested in equipment and facilities in expectation of its first aircraft arriving in August 2008.

On the 21^st of December 2009, SPAR notified Safe Air of an indefinite postponement to the programme. SPAR Aerospace has recently gone out of business and been taken over by L-3 Communications, which is continuing to work on the two aircraft. The Ministry of Defence deputy secretary for acquisitions Des Ashton said the delays would not add to the original budget for the five aircraft, but he added that it might be another three or four months before the problems with the software were ironed out and the two upgraded aircraft were fully operational.

The delays—which have nothing to do with Safe Air—are all related to software incorporated in the upgrade, which also includes: structural refurbishments, such as the replacement of the centre wing; major avionics modifications, including a new glass flight deck; navigation and communication suites, and night vision.

Air New Zealand has been working with the RNZAF and the government to find ways to minimise the number of job losses. In addition, the Marlborough District Council had been trying for more than a year to help Safe Air find other projects in case the contract fell through according to Marlborough’s mayor, Alistair Sowman.

The Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, has said it is possible that Safe Air might be given other Air Force work: “The Air Force has some ability to bring some standard maintenance on other aircraft forward. And we’ll see if that can at least save some jobs.”

According to Mr Mapp, the government was considering “legal remedies” against L-3 over the delay in delivering the aircraft to Safe Air.

By Donald Harward

A friend of mine, Gerry, said something the other day that stuck in my head. We were getting ready to go flying on Thanksgiving Day and were preflighting the aircraft. He and I have both flown various helicopters and jets during our careers. Looking at the modern lines of our AgustaWestland AW-139, he said, “You know, with airplanes, it’s about the destination; but with helicopters, it’s about the journey.”

Gerry’s words certainly struck a chord and they started me thinking. When flying jets, you are always “parked” on some airway miles above the surface watching while the autopilot flies the aircraft precisely to a point when ATC starts squawking at you to descend. But with helicopters, you remain connected with the earth; it is never all that far away. Sometimes it’s a thousand feet below, while at other times, it’s just a few scant metres beneath the gear.

When I was driving Canadair regional jets around my corner of the globe, I remember listening to another Gerry—one whom I have written about here before. He was relating the circumstances of an “emergency thing” that had happened to him. He said “Yeah; when we turned final to…one-eight right—or two-two right at Chicago…or maybe Cincinnati? Heck; I can’t remember which one. Well, anyway…”

And that’s how it is with jet flying. No one ever remembers where something happened; they only remember the incident itself. Why, you ask? Because every airport is the same. They’re all just big pieces of concrete with bunches of nasty jets and vehicles scurrying around the outside of some big dirty buildings… all the same. In any given week, I might land in the Bahamas, in Canada and all over the US—and it was always all the same. I’d disembark the passengers, do a quick walk around, refuel, get back in my seat, do some paperwork, punch some numbers into a computer…You get the idea. Yes, it might be hot and humid in Nassau, and cold and breezy in Denver, but it is still just the same; trade palm trees for pine trees and throw in some mountains and voila!

With helicopters, you do not go from VOR to VOR, from airway to intersection to airway. No; you go from this bend in the river to that gap in the mountains in the distance, turn left up the valley and look for an airport on its right side near the smaller peak. Along the way, instead of taking that big gap, perhaps you might bend the thing over a little more steeply and take the narrower gap further to the right instead. Heaven forbid that there might be some girls sunbathing beside the river—now we’re talking “automatic low fuel warning!”

Helicopter flying lets you see more of the world and to stay connected to it in a more personal way. I have heard my Harley-Davidson biker friends say the same thing about driving the open road astride 88 inches of Milwaukee muscle compared to driving the same route in a cushy SUV. The Harley—blasting out its distinctive melody to travel—puts you point blank in the middle of it all: in control but still “out there” just a tad. By comparison, the SUV affords you the opportunity to span the distance virtually in REM sleep! Yeah, I get that. To fail to “get it” would tell me I was not experiencing all that life has to offer.

Flying over the world at low level has afforded me some fairly remarkable views—and a million still-vivid memories. Like the day I rushed across the desert at around fifty feet before crossing over the edge of the Grand Canyon. In an instant, the world fell away to more than a mile below me. That exhilarating experience was like being “super alive”, if only for a moment. The canyon walls were ablaze with colour, and I felt like I was a part of it.

Then there was the time when I crossed over the Main River valley in central Germany one foggy morning. The valley below my trusty JetRanger was like white cotton, brilliantly illuminated by a rising sun in a cloudless autumn sky. The feeling of peace and serenity it conveyed was overpowering. And yet it was right there. I actually dipped down a little to skim through the top of it, watching church steeples and towers pass by. The feeling was like one of floating in a calm sea without a care in the world—secure and buoyant, resting on those calm white rivers of mist.

“It’s about the journey and not the destination.” The words just keep running round and round in my head. Doesn’t that sum up life itself? Isn’t it really all about the thousands of little moments in which we really live—really experience things—and not about the big rewards or vacation home or dream car? Indeed it is, and for some reason, in my mind, the two have become connected in a real sense—the two, being helicopter flying and the journey.

My journey through life has seen me in the front seats of a multitude of flying machines for many thousands of hours—over decades—over most of the planet’s continents in times of war and in peace. It has somehow changed the way I look at things. I don’t see the sides of a mountain; I see the scattered rubble on its peak, and its sides sloping down and away. I don’t see a bend in the river; I see a living thing coming from a distant ridgeline and passing forty miles away into the sea—a hapless snake meandering its way across the landscape. I wonder: does the place we helicopter pilots inhabit in our work somehow modify the way we think? Who knows? The answers are the stuff of psychology and philosophy. Nevertheless, when I think of my “calling”—for what else would any real pilot call it? —I see a direct correlation between each journey and the experience of human life itself.

I remember a Thanksgiving Day journey far from home that took me to several outlying US bases during the course of eight sorties. We carried men and supplies, mail, boxes of every size, tools and all sorts of things. As we skimmed along ridgelines and flew high across valleys, my mind drifted to my home back in Kentucky. There, many thousands of miles away from this hostile place, I knew my family would soon gather over a grand walnut and mahogany table in a seldom-used dining room in my home to share a meal together. I pictured my boys talking loudly and playing with their mashed potatoes and gravy, and the girls being the perfect ladies they are so much of the time. I could picture my wife at the head of the table watching over them with a loving smile born of so many shared experiences with all of them. I could almost hear them laughing and talking—chatting happily about nothing in particular—and I knew they would be thinking of me. My family has endured many Thanksgivings without me at the table, so it has become somewhat “normal” for my wife to lead the event—something I liken to “herding cats”. But in my mind’s eye, I could see them all as clearly as if I were seated at the other end of the table—the end where I would normally be doing a mediocre job of carving a great turkey. I would be looking outward at eyes full of anticipation of the great meal we were about to share. The boys would be feigning starvation, and the girls would be a wearing a mixed bag of smiles and a look that says, “Are you ever going to get that thing cut apart?”

Such is the journey of life; it’s found in a million moments just like that. But for soldiers, those moments are mostly solitary in nature. My family can’t be here with me; nor would I want them to be. Heather often asks me to describe things about the war but when I try to, I realise I actually can’t. You see, my journey is so different from “normal” domestic life that I struggle to describe and explain things that cannot easily be described in words.

My journey connects me to this place and, at the same time, separates me from those who matter the most; what an odd contradiction it all is. The journey that acquaints me with the colour of the rocks and the knowledge of where that next valley leads also keeps me on a course that separates me from another journey—that of my family and loved ones. What a strange existence I have come to call “normal”.

Despite being separated from my family—again—this Thanksgiving Day journey was good to me; very good indeed. If I cannot be with the ones I love, then let me be with others who really matter—our nation’s selfless warriors. I had that opportunity this Thanksgiving Day and took it. The timing of our mission just happened to put us in the vicinity of a good-sized US camp at around noon, so we swung in there for Thanksgiving dinner. We parked our three aircraft alongside the fuel pits where giant bags of jet fuel lay protected behind berms of dirt and rock. As the throttles were closed and the rotors slowed to a stop, about a dozen eager air crewmen stumbled out of their aircraft—not used to standing on the uneven rocks of the helicopter landing area. We had already been sitting in our cockpits for more than five hours this day, so it was a very welcome break.

A short walk took us to a line leading into the dining facility. As the line grew shorter, the smell of freshly cooked turkey and ham grew ever stronger. Inside was a cacophony of sound from hundreds of happy soldiers, airmen and marines, as well as soldiers from other nations. The sight inside was one to remember. The cooks had done a fantastic job on both the setup and the actual food. There were life sized bread statues, cake-shaped “horns of plenty”, fruits, desserts, drinks and sides of everything imaginable arrayed from wall to wall!

A few days earlier, I had actually delivered six hundred pounds of frozen turkey to this very outpost; now it was my turn to enjoy the fruits of that labour. We all sat down at a long table and began to savour the rich traditional American food. The Romanians were picking through it but enjoying it just the same. We were joined by an Air Force captain wearing a flight suit identifying him as an MH-60 Pave Hawk pilot, while a soldier from the 82^nd Airborne Division sat across from me with several pieces of pie, all smothered in Baskin-Robins ice cream. We all laughed and joked and thanked the Lord for such an amazing meal—relishing the tranquillity of a little piece of America confined within the deadly hills of central Afghanistan. We all knew it might turn out much differently later in the day, but for a short time, it was indeed heaven on earth.

I could hardly eat two bites without thinking of home. I drifted again. Now as my mind’s eye stared past my wife’s blonde hair to the fire in the hearth, the distinctive smell of hickory logs snapping and popping in the fireplace mixed with that of the meal, making me feel like it was a hundred years earlier in a log cabin. Above the brass pots on the hearth, I could see a framed photograph of all of us taken a couple of years earlier. Below me at my feet, Jack, our husky, sat impatiently waiting for me to sneak him a morsel or two when no one was looking.

These thoughts came with such realism and intensity that I could almost touch them. All too soon, our meal was over and it was time to walk back to our birds. Time again to crank those powerful engines, make the blades disappear in a whirl above our heads and turn some more jet gas into noise!

As we left the base, we turned north up into a narrow alpine valley that followed a stream and we passed several villages of mud and stone huts. Above us, the peaks were already covered in white after their first dusting of the impending winter’s snow. Our next destination was a lonely outpost occupied by Special Forces soldiers where we had dropped off a couple Army chaplains earlier that morning. Having shared blessings and a meal with the troops stationed there, they were now awaiting pickup by our aircraft. As I looked at my watch, I realised our timing was perfect—it was 1430 and we had ten minutes to run to our scheduled pickup time of 1440!

That particular valley was very picturesque. Situated some seven thousand feet above sea level, with ridges well over ten thousand feet high on either side, it had a sandy sage colour. The rocks looked tortured, as does much of the terrain here, running from black to chocolate in colour. There were no real roads, just animal trails—and a path I would have loved to negotiate with my four-wheel drive. The stream in the centre of the valley was crystal clear and moving with some speed between clear pools dotted amidst the rocky rapids. For all its beauty, it was not a safe place. Recently, our soldiers had met the Taliban there in a bloody clash. Such is the way of this place; naked beauty overlaid by a deadly war of high technology and tenth century idealism.

With a northerly wind swirling all around lower in the valley, we had made our approach from the south in the morning. Taking the principles of tactical surprise and diversity into consideration, we peeled out of the formation in a diving right turn and quickly disappeared behind a ridge. Lead and I would land, while “Three” went high and circled to look for anything that that might surprise us.

My thought was to mix it up and approach from the east, turning into the wind only in the last couple of hundred metres. Lead flew up the left side of the valley away from the village and made a straight in approach. I came in at ninety degrees to him and turned onto final to land about a hundred metres to his right on the hard rocky soil of the LZ (landing zone). The dust cloud built quickly but passed well behind the other aircraft. We kept the rotors turning at one hundred percent—giving us the ability to “didi-mau”—just in case someone decided to drop a mortar shell on us.

A Toyota Hilux and a heavily armoured Hummer drove up with our passengers. A gruff-looking bearded soldier got out of the truck and walked to the front of the Hummer. He was wearing ACU (Army Combat Uniform) pants combined with local garb and had a cigar stuffed in the side of his mouth; SF guys start looking pretty wild when left in remote places for too long! He shook hands with the two chaplains then turned to look at us. Seeing us return his look directly, he gave us a salute with two fingers—more of a wave, actually—before turning and walking away. It was the language of soldiers; a casual acknowledgement between fellow warriors. He had probably seen our approach and knew that we “knew”. With our passengers safely aboard, we took off while Chalk Three covered our departure from above.

In short order, we were back in the cruise mode on our way home on our final leg of the day. “Turkelepsy” was beginning to take effect on all of us. There was no silly chatter on the radio and none within our cockpit either. People were tired; with bellies full, we were ready for a nap, not nap of the earth flying!

I swung into a tight echelon right to check out a panel on Lead’s aircraft that looked to be open. It wasn’t, so I dived away to the right and then corrected sharply back to the left. Pat looked over at me for a moment after the jink as if I had interrupted his rest, then turned back to look out the left side of the bird.

I was just beginning to drift back to that table in Kentucky when I noticed a plume of rising smoke to the left of Lead. I was studying it—realising there was nothing there to burn—when I saw the second explosion; this time, it registered in my conscious mind.

“Lead! Explosions left. Break right!”

“Roger that. In sight,” he responded, breaking right, away from the area of rising rocks and debris. None of us knew who, why or what the explosions were all about. Perhaps someone was just pissed off at some rocks; we didn’t care—I didn’t care. It was Thanksgiving and no one was going to take that away from me.

My mind drifted slowly back to Kentucky—back to that safe place where another part of my journey waited quietly and patiently.

New Zealand’s national carrier has been selected as the “Airline of the year” for 2010 by Air Transport World (ATW) magazine at its 36^th Annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards. In a press release announcing the winners, ATW stated that Air New Zealand was “being honoured for its superb commitment to safety and operational excellence, typified by the use of performance based navigation cockpit technology at weather and terrain challenged destinations, and for its superb and groundbreaking customer service that combines high-tech, passenger-friendly IT systems with high-touch and caring staff.”

The ATW editors also considered financial performance in selecting a winner and described Air New Zealand’s financial performance and fiscal management as “sterling” in what is recognised as one of the most turbulent periods in aviation history. They also said they were “strongly impressed with the airline’s leadership role in addressing environmental challenges facing the industry, including conducting the world’s first sustainable biofuel flight.”

The recognition represented by this award is a real feather in the cap of Air New Zealand and its management, which should be able to gain some marketing leverage from the resultant positive publicity.

Air Transport World is a US-based monthly magazine that covers the global airline industry, and its 45-year history means the award carries both prestige and credibility.