| 33 Ensuring the crew are safe and happy Richard Loader When David Flight passed away in February this year following a long illness, his son Hapeta stepped into the breach as Managing Director of Turangi based family owned and operated logging contractor Flight Logging. “It was big leap to step into that role, and I definitely feel the responsibility that Dad had prepared me for,” says Hapeta. “He had all faith and trust in me to do it, and I have accepted that. When Dad passed away, I stepped back from the machines, and into this role letting my foreman run logging operations on a day-to-day basis. My job now is making sure the crew are safe and happy. I’m out on site every morning for meetings, and make sure they don’t need anything - it’s about caring for people.” Hapeta is not alone though. A true family business, he is supported by his sister Rau who has come off the machines and taken the mantle of Health and Safety Officer, while Hapeta’s son Trilyn is the crew’s Quality Control officer and also represents the next Flight generation. David’s brother Gordon is also a long-term crew member, as owner/operator of the harvester. “My wife Ashely also plays a huge part looking after all the administration and paperwork,” says Hepta. “Really the whole team is family as far as I am concerned. We are one big family looking after each other and that’s a large reason for our success over the last forty years. That translates to the quality of our work.” Flight Logging’s journey commenced in the ‘80s when David established it initially as a production thinning crew. In 1995 the company evolved to full time clear fell logging, contracting to NZ Forest Managers. “Back in those days it was all manual work with men on chainsaws. It was in 2008 that we became a fully mechanised logging operation, with one processor, one harvester, a skidder and three excavators. I was obviously born into the industry and the business, and I just love the outdoors. I became involved in the business as soon as I could walk, going out to help Dad. I used to work in the crew during holidays and then when I left school as a 16-year-old in 1996 I started full time with Dad training me.” Now a crew of ten, and operating a harvester, two processors, a skidder and four excavators, RURAL SERVICES » Flight Logging Ltd PROUDLY SUPPORTING AND BEEN SUPPORTED FLIGHT LOGGING LTD 027 260 2659 | luc@nzhds.co.nz | nzhds.co.nz MECHANICAL NZ H E AV Y D I E S E L S E R V I C E S Proud to be associatedwith Flight Logging Ltd 021 0285 4529 joanneandgordon@gmail.com Flight Logging still contracts exclusively to NZ Forest Managers. “Our relationship with NZ Forest Managers goes back over four decades, so we’re very much part of their family too. In the winter time we’re logging in Lake Taupo forest, and in the summer we normally log over at Lake Rotoaira forest. We’ve just finished a big clean-up of the windblow following last year’s cyclone. Over the last fourteen months, NZ Forest Managers went from having seven – eight local crews logging the forests to forty crews involved in that clean-up operation. Now a crew of ten, and operating a harvester, two processors, a skidder and four excavators, Flight Logging still contracts exclusively to NZ Forest Managers. They harvested 3.5 million tonnes of logs over the last 12 months. It was a big salvage operation of the trees on the ground. We were just one small part of that. Most crews have gone now and we are back to the local crews undertaking normal logging operations.”
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