Potential stock issues due to low-flying chopper

The prospect of horses and farm stock being disturbed by low-flying helicopter flights is on Waikato Regional Council’s radar as the University of Canterbury prepares to test river survey technology.

The research requires the helicopter to fly about 150 metres above the Waikato River in several passes.

There will also be some travel over adjacent farmland in order to drop to the height and line required by the survey runs.

Landowners who may be affected are being contacted by the council to let them know and so they can register for notifications for when testing starts, potentially as early as this week.

Those notifications would be “in case they need to move stock or horses”, a regional council Facebook post said yesterday. The flights will be part of a national research project being run by the university. It’s looking at the potential of using helicopter-mounted laser scanning (LiDAR) to automatically capture the bathymetry (shape and levels) of the river.

The helicopter survey areas will be Tūakau, Meremere, Ngāruawāhia and Kaniwhaniwha Stream, near Te Pahu.

The council said the main method currently used for mapping a riverbed is by sonar and a boat, which is labour intensive, time consuming and expensive.

Using a helicopter “aims to increase the effectiveness and ease of riverbed surveys, find less expensive ways to map riverbeds, and achieve a larger scale of capture”.

“River-bed surveys are critical for Waikato Regional Council flood protection planning, flood modelling and navigational safety, which is why we are supporting this national research.”

The council wasn’t able to say by deadline yesterday whether owners of horses or stock lost or hurt due to the flights might be compensated.