My Account
Thirty years as a topdressing pilot has given David Starr a different perspective on the Warkworth area. The most dramatic change he has seen is the loss of big pastoral farms to forestry and lifestyle blocks, leading to a dwindling of aerial topdressing in the area. Having stopped flying seven years ago due to reduced demand and health problems, he keeps in touch with the industry by serving on its national association and getting back to where he started – driving a topdressing loader . . .
I was born in Papakura in 1940 and brought up on a small farm, right next to the site of Ardmore Aerodrome, which started in 1943. I left school at 15 and worked for my father on the dairy farm for six years.
Then I started a bit of part-time loader driving for Air Land NZ Ltd, which was a combination of several firms – James Aviation, Field Air, Rural Aviation and Air Contracts – doing aerial topdressing with a DC3. In 1962 I went fulltime loader driving and at the end of that year, James Aviation pulled out of Air Land NZ and their pilot and I went with them. We operated from Wanganui in the south to Kaitaia in the north. We were based at Ardmore but were away from home for anything up to six months of the year. We had a Fiat 500 that we would put in the back of the plane so we had a car to get around in. After I left they found they could get a mini in as well, which was a lot more comfortable.
Mary and I were married in 1968 in Sheffield, England, where Mary’s mum and dad were living at the time. We had met at a birthday party at the Auckland Aero Club. She had been in New Zealand for three months and came to the party with a friend who had met someone who was learning to fly. We only knew each other for nine days and went out three times before we got engaged. We’ll celebrate our 40th anniversary next year. Mary had already arranged to work in Dunedin Hospital’s NICU for six months and she decided to go ahead and see if things were still the same between us when she came back – and they were. Then she went back to England and I followed a few months later.
In 1969 I trained as an agricultural pilot in Rotorua with Bob Scott, James Aviation’s training pilot. When I started loader driving I had never been in a plane and the DC3 was my first. I got the bug and started having lessons at Ardmore. I got my private licence in ‘64 and my commercial licence in ‘67. I had to have my commercial licence before I did my training with James Aviation.
When I qualified, I was transferred to Warkworth. James Aviation originally had branches from Taupo north, then they bought out companies in the Hawke’s Bay and the South Island. It was the biggest topdressing company in New Zealand at that stage.
When I arrived there were five topdressing aircraft based at Kaipara Flats Airfield – James had two, Thames Aerial Topdressing had two and Barr Brothers had one. Today there are none. Forestry took a lot of the land out here and a lot of the rest is in lifestyle blocks; there just aren’t the big farms any more. Up around Waiwhiu there were some big farms – Bruce McCarthy and Alan Waddington had two of them – then there was Fran Dibble’s through the Dome Valley, and Redwoods. They were all planted in forestry.
I was flying a Fletchers 300hp when I first came here and in about 1974 changed to 400hp. In ‘83 James decided to sell everything and offered all the units to the pilots, so I bought my plane and carried on until 2000.
I got out on my terms – if I’d left it six months later I would have had to get out because I would have failed my medical. I sold to Super Air in Hamilton, which is owned by Ballance AgriNutrients. Since then I’ve been doing a bit of part-time loader driving and organising around the area. That’s part of the reason I haven’t missed the flying so much, because I’m still involved. There are too many other things to do anyway.
I’ve never actually injured myself in an aeroplane. I had my first accident on Trevor Dill’s airstrip in the Kaipara Hills six months after I started. I knocked the under-carriage off on landing and it was probably the best thing that could have happened because in similar circumstances I’ve always thought back to that – it was a good wake-up call.
The next one was in 1982 through engine failure working off Windy Ridge. I put her down in a paddock at Pukapuka and unfortunately I wasn’t as good as I thought and I crashed into a fallen tree. A week later I fell off a stepladder in my garage and cracked my ribs.
My other accident was working on Charlie Smith’s airstrip at Wharehine and I shouldn’t have even been there because it was too slippery. I was trying to spread urea for James Colville and the plane slid off the side of the strip and I put the wings through a fence.
I tried not to go out in bad weather. All the time I was working here there was only once I couldn’t get home on the first try. I was coming back from Millbrook Station from the east, and landed on David Fraser’s at Takatu and stayed there for a while.
From time to time I’d see marijuana crops but would never report them. A pilot down south had his helicopter set on fire because growers mistakenly thought he was the one who had told the police about them. I once asked a pilot who did weed spraying whether he would ever spray a marijuana crop and he said “No, I’ve got a wife and family at home”.
On the Aviation Industry Association side of things, the agricultural division is now known as the NZAAA and I’ve been a member since 1985. I have served on the committee, did two years as chairman and am still there as pilot representative. I enjoy it because it keeps me in touch with the industry. Safety is the main concern but we’re also dealing with bureaucrats and people who object to what you’re doing. There are more complaints now about fertiliser than spray, mainly because of the dust, and we’re trying to get the fertiliser companies to do something about it.
I joined the Masonic Lodge in 1977 and have been through all the offices, including Master on two occasions. Other people I knew were Masons and I liked what they did, helping each other and trying to contribute funds to help other people in need. A lot of people say it’s a secret society, but it’s a society with secrets, not the other way round. Years ago it wasn’t wise to tell people you were in the Masons but that’s totally changed and I’m proud to be part of it.
Our daughter Robyn went to Walsh Memorial Flying School at Matamata, which is run by Scouts and Guides, but when she started work she said she couldn’t afford to keep flying. Our son Andrew has quite an interest in planes, but no desire to fly.
