History of the Deerhinters

There was a time when New Zealand had a variety of reputations in the ‘helicopter world’. One was for having more helicopters per capita than anywhere else in the world, (in 2000 just under 500 helicopters in the country and a population of just over 3.7 million). Secondly, they used to hold the record for having crashed more civilian helicopters than anywhere else in the world. And finally, they were known for the use of expired parts.

However, all these things, I was told (sometimes by Australians but also by New Zealanders themselves) were due to their former ‘can do’ attitude which has now changed. Moreover, many New Zealand pilots pointed out that considering the terrain and the type of flying they do, the crashes were very few, and that the really poor crash record was in the past, not the present....