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Tony Michelle’s career in agricultural aviation
Helping out chopper crews engaged in live deer recovery operations in the high country in the 1980s was enough to hook Tony Michelle on the dream of becoming a helicopter pilot. He pursued his ambition, founded his own helicopter company and is today an influential voice in agricultural aviation.
Afuture on the land looked likely for Tony Michelle in his younger years. His first job, fresh out of Lincoln College, involved mustering stock on Glenaray Station in Southland. It was a sensible choice for a country boy who had grown up on his parents’ farm in Central Otago. Born to be a shepherd, one might say.
Except that Tony was already looking skyward by then and, after taking lessons to get a private pilot’s licence, had started flying a 90-horsepower Piper Cub. Through that, he then got to know Southland helicopter pilot Peter Garden, who owned his own helicopter company and suggested Tony consider switching from fixed-wing to helicopters.
Tony did not need much persuading. While working on stations in North Canterbury, he had got involved with live deer capture operations. Seeing helicopters flying in and out doing challenging yet thrilling work had ignited his sense of adventure. ‘After work, I’d jump in the back and go out while they did their thing and help out where I could,’ Tony recalls. ‘It was a good buzz for an 18-year-old and exciting to be a part of it all.’
Peter wound up mentoring Tony, and today they run a business together – Island Aerial Solutions – that supplies expertise and resources to island pest eradication operations. With Peter’s encouragement, Tony enrolled at Nelson Aviation College to get the theory papers needed for a commercial licence. He then worked towards getting a private
pilot’s licence for helicopters. ‘I came down and worked for Peter for two years as ground crew and used to ferry helicopters around with him to build up hours. With dual controls, I’d get flying time in the helicopter between jobs and I’d also help out the ground crew.
‘Then in 1989 when I founded my own business, Amuri Helicopters, I worked under his licence and his mentoring for the first two or three years of operation before I got my own certification.’
Launching Amuri Helicopters, out of Rotherham, turned out to be a smart move as there was a real gap in the area back then for an aerial agricultural operator.
Tony still vividly remembers what it was like to fly solo for the first time, after having completed 12 hours of flight instruction. ‘It’s a huge rush when you complete that first series of flights on your own. Compared to flying a fixed-wing aircraft, being in a helicopter is like sitting on a bucking horse. Helicopters are inherently unstable – like the people who fly them! It’s a challenge but something you look forward to.’
He says the culture has changed enormously since he started out. It used to be an industry where rules were for the breaking. During the deer recovery era, Tony regularly attended funerals of colleagues and friends who had pushed it too far. Thankfully, that is now a rarity. Tony says older pilots who lived through that era are today highly skilled professionals. Hard lessons learned in the past ultimately paved the way to a much more safety-conscious aviation environment.
Over the years, Tony has seen his company evolve and grow. Amuri Helicopters began as a small agricultural operator but now offers a wide range of corporate services too. For example, Amuri Helicopters works with Land Information New Zealand on controlling aquatic invasive weeds like lagarosiphon in lakes and waterways, including Lake Wanaka and Lake Dunstan. As well, its team is working with Mercury Energy to tackle invasive hornwort in various lakes in the Waikato. ‘In addition to serving our valued farmer clients, one of our main strengths is in aquatic weed control; we fly the length of New Zealand doing that. We are also regularly involved in wilding pine control operations. The latest Budget has allocated $ 100 million for extensive wilding conifer control, which represents quite a big boost for companies like ours.’
Compared to flying a fixedwing aircraft, being in a helicopter is like sitting on a bucking horse.
Over the past decade or more, Tony has put more and more of his time into covering compliance requirements but still enjoys working as fill-in pilot. As well, he has branched off into other ventures such as off-shore pest eradication work that he personally finds immensely rewarding. He is very grateful for the dedication and professionalism of his staff that allows him to travel to some of the world’s most remote places to do this valuable work. ‘My first experience of working on an offshore island was at Codfish Island in 1998 with Peter Garden. That was a real success and the island is now a predator-free bird sanctuary and the focus of kākāpō recovery efforts.’
In 2013, Tony and Peter ventured to South Georgia, a remote island in the southern Atlantic Ocean, and were based there for four months as part of a major rodent eradication effort. Flying in often challenging conditions to drop poison bait over a very large area sounds arduous, but was nevertheless one of those truly special experiences for Tony. ‘We had three helicopters but had to wait for weeks before the conditions were good enough for us to fly. We were parked up in an old whaling station. There were 27 people on the team and living conditions were pretty rudimentary… Flying was difficult as the winds were very violent and unpredictable but it is the most wonderful part of the world in terms of wildlife and also the rich history associated with [Sir Ernest] Shackleton and the whaling era.’
Tony was also chief pilot on a successful project to eradicate mice from the Antipodes Islands that saw him based there with a small team for 75 days in 2016. Those islands were declared rodent free, as were atolls in French Polynesia where he did similar work in 2015. ‘It is amazing to see how quickly wildlife populations improve once predators and competition for food sources are taken out of the ecosystem… This type of work needs a very experienced team and good pilots who are used to having a bucket swinging around under them and are used to flying in rugged terrain and inclement weather conditions. You have to be very focused on the outcome: you can’t afford to leave one square metre of island untreated because if there’s a pregnant rodent left then the whole project will fail.’
Tony gets a lot of satisfaction, too, out of chairing the New Zealand Agricultural Aviation Association and has sat on the committee for more than 20 years. Much of that satisfaction stems from having been a part of the drive to change aviation culture within New Zealand, encompassing both pilots and operators. He has seen safety statistics for both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft improve dramatically.
For young people thinking about becoming helicopter pilots today, Tony recommends starting with ground crew roles as a way to learn more about what’s involved rather than
Tony has branched off into other ventures such as off-shore pest eradication work that he personally finds immensely rewarding.
going straight to a flight school. ‘Agricultural aviation, in particular, is a specialised role that involves a lot of ongoing professional development and it can be a pretty lonely job with unfriendly hours.’
Tony well knows how tough the job can be on family life, but the work ethic must have rubbed off on his three adult daughters – Rebecca, Kelly and Jamie – as they are all now forging ahead successfully with their own career plans.
Pre-COVID-19, there was a shortage of agricultural pilots in New Zealand but Tony says an influx of experienced expat pilots has changed that, so it could be harder for young people trying to enter the industry over the next few years. However, Tony says prospects are good for our agricultural aviation industry overall. ‘It’s going to be our primary industries that will help get us out of this latest recession.’