| 73 Seven years with the Air Force useful Cheviot Air Ag hopper loading plane. Virginia Wright Jim Somerville, owner and pilot for Cheviot Ag-Air Ltd since he took over from his father Neville in 2010, is a firm believer in the benefit of keeping things local. He grew up around the top-dressing business and enjoys putting to good use the aeronautical engineering apprenticeship and pilot’s license he earned while serving seven years with the Air Force. Flying the Fletcher plane they bought in 1993 and had rebuilt a few years ago he’s clocked up 20,000 hours as he services farms north of the Hurunui through to Marlborough, and west as far as Lewis Pass. The team is completed with two loaders who also live within easy driving distance of home base which means they have the local knowledge of potential hazards which comes with living in the same patch. With the changing weather patterns they’re experiencing to have that truly local knowledge underpinning decisions about when it’s safe to do a drop is invaluable. “Living locally you know that just up the road they got four inches of rain on the weekend, whereas down in Cheviot they might only get an RURAL SERVICES » Cheviot Ag Air CARRIERS OF LIVESTOCK, GENERAL FREIGHT, BULK & FERTILISER CHEVIOT TRANSPORT 2017 LTD 99 Ward Rd, Cheviot 7310 P: 03 319 8644 A/H: 0276 776 787 inch of rain, so you know which strip is the drier one to go to first and to avoid the one that we never used to have to worry about because it’s really wet and soft,” says Jim. Jim names two things as being critical to the efficient and safe running of Cheviot Ag-Air: the GPS technology that brings with it the means of precision delivery of fertiliser from the air, with on-board guidance systems meaning pilots can start a run within inches of the one before, even if they’ve had to knock off three weeks earlier due to a weather event; and the Safety Management Scheme which the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) now require companies to have. “If there’s something wrong like there’s a hole in the super (superphosphate) bin, or the loading area needs another load of shingle, it’s recorded and there’s a paper trail right through to when it’s fixed. That’s improved the culture with staff and farmers because everyone has input and they can see the results as things improve,” says Jim. With information shared at the monthly meeting with Safety Manager Pip Foster, Jim and the loader drivers, then passed on to the farmers as required, it makes life easier for the farmers to stay on top of maintenance. Instead of having to go and check everything themselves it’s up to Cheviot Ag-Air to tell them if Either the loader driver gets there early enough or the pilot does it. They’re all around North Canterbury at the moment, my loader driver found two mobs on the road on his way to work the other day.” Whether it’s a greasy wet track that needs more shingle or a vehicle that needs attention the boss (Jim) has to take notice when he’s told about it and while it may be a safety system recently required by CAA he’s pleased to do the work given the noticeable improvement in staff morale that comes with it. there’s something wrong with their strip or their bin. If there’s an incident out on the strip it gets recorded in the log with the strip identified so that it can be mitigated against in future. They are regularly audited by CAA to make sure they’ve taken preventative action to ensure it doesn’t happen again. “We have a lot of issues with wild game on the strips, and we make sure now that we’ve done a thorough inspection of the strip before landing to check for deer. (AIRCRAFT ENGINEERS AIRCRAFT SALES) Non-destructive testing Aircraft refurbishing - major rebuilds All general servicing all types - aircraft appraisals Annual Reviews of Airworthiness Cheviot Ag Air Ltd RICHARD PEARSE AIRPORT Timaru, New Zealand - PO Box 89, Geraldine Phone: (03) 688 2189 • Mobile: 021 324 539 (Bruce) or 021 226 3463 (Neil) • Email: bruce@avtek.co.nz AVIATION TEKNOLOGY LIMITED
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