New Zealand's newest helicopter company, Mid West Helicopters in Whanganui, grew from adversity.
Dean Lithgow has flown full circle, bringing with him a work culture from a bygone era.
Lithgow is founding director and chief pilot for Mid West Helicopters, New Zealand's newest helicopter company.
Based at Whanganui Airport, Mid West Helicopters was formed from two familiar and established industry names - Hill Country Helicopters and Aerowork (owned in latter years by fertiliser giant Ravensdown) merged and rebranded with an energetic and enthusiastic team its core. Mid West provides all types of helicopter services to the central and lower North Island.
Lithgow, of course, like several of his colleagues, began their helicopter careers with Aerowork, then owned by the Harding family. He learned his craft from one of the best pilot trainers in New Zealand, Ian Wakeling and flew alongside a legend of the game in Charlie Anderson. Both those stars of the trade are still heavily involved today with the newly formed Mid West Helicopters.
Hill Country Helicopters was also a family owned operation, with the late Peter Robb at the helm. Unfortunately, Robb was killed in an air crash while topdressing on a Whanganui farm in 2014.
Ravensdown still has a strong presence in the region after retaining its fixed-wing operation based at Whanganui Airport.
"It all started for me in late 2016 and early 2017 when we formed Mid West Helicopters NZ after we bought Hill Country off Peter's family," Lithgow said.
"The new company was formed by five passionate pilots with rural backgrounds - myself, Steve Ashcroft, Peter Larsen, Owen Harvey and the late Dave McLaughlin. Over the next year we worked tirelessly on compliance and safety systems to be applauded by CAA for having one of the best safety implementation plans they had seen.
"This in today's world comes with considerable costs but we wanted to do everything correctly to ensure that our clients were getting the best. Dave and I travelled to Wellington to be presented our certificates for agricultural and air transport operations, it was to be New Zealand's newest helicopter company.
"On April 1, 2018, we were official and it wasn't a joke either. This is the same anniversary as the New Zealand Air Force. Over the next six months we began rebranding aircraft, vehicles and our hangar. Eight helicopters are now being operated around the lower western North Island with satellite depots in Raetihi, Taihape and the Waitotara Valley."
This was all a massive undertaking.
Setting up a maintenance facility with three expert and valuable engineers ensured Mid West reduced aircraft downtime and there are plans to expand this area of the business to cater for the growing number of fixed-wing aircraft in the Whanganui region.
"A machine shop behind our hangar is doing some outstanding work, building equipment for us all and doing general repairs on equipment," Lithgow said.
"In January the building was completed after a few delays. We were excited to finally have our own home but must thank Ravensdown for allowing us to stay in their premises over that period. In May this year we got the tragic news that Dave McLaughlin, our CEO and friend of 30 years, had passed away (heart attack)."
Lithgow had worked alongside McLaughlin as a helicopter pilot during their Aerowork days and he yearned for a return to those halcyon days of a family environment.
"We worked through a process over the following weeks while grieving and reflecting to ensure the company continued to operate. Shannon Carr, who many will know as Peter Robb's daughter, became our CEO, something she's doing exceptionally well at and has the full support of an incredible team that also includes Charlie Anderson's daughter Jacinda Broadhead working in administration.
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"We must thank CAA through this period as they were absolutely brilliant to deal with ensuring we continued to operate. Chris Smith took over the safety management role and is doing a tremendous job with that.
"With Jacinda in administration, along with Shannon and Chris, we have an office that is friendly and welcoming to all our valued clients. We have created a real family atmosphere with a work ethic from a bygone era.
"The culture we have developed and the great calibre of staff we have around us makes it an absolute pleasure to come to this building on a daily basis. We took on a new pilot, Jamie Bonis, a few months ago and have Leon Parkes flying for us as well. Our aim is to grow and ensure we have the capacity and capabilities to get through those challenging times so work can ideally be completed in a timely manner.
"This season has been the worst I can recall since 1994 and all our pilots want to be out there flying and satisfying our customers but it's impossible when the weather isn't right."
The history on the Whanganui airfield is enviable.
"Charlie Anderson started with Aerowork in 1978, Peter Robb bought Hill Country Helicopters in 1986 off Chris Green, and Ian Wakeling was working with Aerowork and starting a training organisation in 1985. Ian trained me, Peter and Owen taking us through to our commercial licenses.
"Me, Dave and Owen all worked with Charlie as ground crew and Dave and I were put through our gruelling agricultural ratings. Now we have Shannon and Jacinda working together after their father's were in opposition companies for all those years something,
I'm sure Peter Robb would be smiling at and I know Charlie is pretty proud of.
"The Mid West team is keen to carry on the legacy of all those that have just been mentioned and are going to continue Ian's helicopter training business and have just purchased a smaller training aircraft. This will enable us to ideally future-proof the industry and create something unique in the area. We have an amazing group of people working for us from the office to engineers, pilots to ground crew and all the support staff.
"We could not have achieved this without our loyal and valued clients, we cannot thank them enough for supporting our team and we hope as we get more established that we will certainly be able to offer an even better service to the area. We enjoy and believe it is important to support local community events and get behind dog trials, fundraisers and a number of other rural initiatives - it's our way of saying thanks," Lithgow said.
'They stole the whole get-up except the tie, which I buried with my dad.'