12 January 2016

Happy 10th Birthday Golden Bay Air



This from the Golden Bay Air Facebook page...

Today marks the 10th anniversary of our first flight from Takaka to Wellington. On 12 January 2006 we started for a few months in summer with four flights a week, using instructors from the Wellington Aero Club and one aircraft - ZK-ZIG.

Piper PA28 Saratoga with Capital Air titles at Wellington on 16 April 2009

On that first flight the pilot (Chief Instructor Dan Howe) arrived in Takaka at 5.20 pm in deteriorating weather conditions and immediatly announced he wasn't returning (much to the shock of our waiting three passengers - one was Richard's mum!) Dan slept on our lounge floor for the next two nights while we waited for the weather to clear and we shuttled our passengers back and forth to flights from Nelson!

Now we have 3 aircraft, 4 pilots, an instrument approach into Takaka, and year round reliable flights with up to 4 flights a day. We also offering scenic flights, Heaphy track packages, shuttles and rental cars. We're so busy we don't have time for a celebration right now, but watch this space...

The Piper PA34 Seneca on approach to Wellington on 27 October 2014

Thanks to all our amazing pilots over the years, and a very special thanks to everyone who has supported our service over the last decade. It has been a privilege to be part of such a wonderfully diverse, creative and caring community in beautiful Golden Bay. We are certainly looking forward to the years to come!

For my profile on Golden Bay Air see:

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. What sort of comment is this? Golden Bay Air has a good safety record as far as I am aware.

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  3. You don't get much better than Golden Bay Air's safety record!

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  4. Highly mistaken indeed! Think you meant Sunair

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  5. Hmmm, can't say I ever flew in IMC when flying VFR in one of the singles when I was there but hey ho someone on the ground or in a different bit of airspace is always an expert and has a different view of the actual conditions present......

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  7. No, couldn't be further from the truth. Just someone who doesn't like to see malicious and very likely unfounded rumours published in the public domain. Are you trying to damage their reputation and business? What purpose will that serve? Do you want them shut down and their employees put out of work?? Would aviation in New Zealand be better served if there were no small companies trying to make a go of it? Think of all the flow on effect from you damaging the reputation of this business... I am in no way affiliated with them but from what I understand they are a good operator and deserve to keep doing well. If you have genuine concerns then an anonymous post on a good blog is not the right thing to do. If you found a fly in your macdonalds I bet you would complain on facebook rather than telling the restaurant! If you're an ex employee who couldn't cut it then suck it up, learn and move on

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  8. I have removed a number of posts from this blog... I like what was written in the previous comment. This is not the forum to bag any airline or individual especially annonymously. I have only flown GBA once... it was low cloud in Wellington and over the Strait and I thought it would be the Seneca flying but it was the Saratoga. We easily maintained VFR the whole way, the low cloud largely confined to around the airport and entrance to Tory Channel. My impression was these pilots know Cook Strait and Wellington weather. The fact that they have been flying Cook Strait for 10 years without an incident testifies to this.

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  9. Agreed, there are a few operators in NZ that have a deserved bad reputation, but GBA are not one of them. They have worked hard to get where they are, and I will not hear any bad things about them! GO GOLDEN BAY AIR! :)

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