Fly By, Drop In

Air SUV opens up places less travelled.

- Ian De Cotta

The blue glassy waters sandwiched between green-coated cliffs mesmerised John Giddens. His two teenagers, Jasmine and Hallin, let out squeals of excitement. This is, after all, Lord of the Rings country.

From high up in the air, New Zealand’s Milford Sound in mid-autumn of 2012 is bewitching, but a pang of fear bit Lily, his wife. With cliffs on both sides rising as high as 1,700m, even the best of pilots can’t afford a mistake.

The nature of the rugged mountain terrain can create conditions that are challenging and maybe even frightening for an aviator. Even a clear day can spell trouble, in the form of violent turbulence.

In the flight deck, Giddens kept his eyes peeled on the less-than-a-kilometre long airstrip. After 16 years of flying, he owns a steady pair of hands and brought the Daher TBM 900 turboprop to a safe landing.

There are scheduled flights in and out of Milford Sound. Lodges, motels and cruises provide accommodation for tourists. But he was taking his family on a day trip to view the majestic fiords from the air at a pace they preferred.

The turboprop is a flying SUV for the Giddens. “The advantage of piloting your own plane is that you can go to exotic places at will that don’t usually have scheduled flights,” says the Singapore-based Briton whose career involves immersion rather than flight. The former navy diver founded Hallin Marine, a company that operated a fleet of subsea operation boats to service the oil industry.