The Flying Doctor
It’s eight in the morning on a gloomy Saturday, and Hannah Price is trying to count backwards from ninety, to work out if she’s out of currency or not – CAA rules mandate that private pilots must fly every ninety days to remain current with their licencing obligations. She remarks that she can’t believe she hasn’t flown in that amount of time, but it wasn’t exactly surprising – as a doctor, leisure hours and spare time are precious and scarce commodities. Between a bout of horrendous weather, aircraft maintenance cycles, and a constantly shifting work schedule, the plans for our flight had been a moving target for weeks.
Born in the UK, and having grown up in the West Midlands (Which she describes as kind of like the Palmy of Britain), Hannah discovered her passion for flying after being receiving a scenic helicopter flight as an engagement present. With plans already in place to move to New Zealand, she began flight lessons at Waikato Aviation shortly after arriving and recently attained her private pilots licence.
Though her day job and flying hobby are often competing for time and space, she sees them as highly complementary to each other. In recent years, it has been a growing trend within the health sector to try to emulate the checklist and closed loop communication principles found in aviation. “It’s a crossover skill with medicine, definitely,” she says.
June Constance Howden, image via
The Waikato Aero Club has been a hub for the local pilot community since its founding in 1933. One Hamiltonian and club alum, June Constance Howden, spent World War Two ferrying new and repaired planes to airfields throughout Britain. “That’s what I love about aviation, there’s so much cool history with it, especially for women,” Hannah says.
The aero club has grown into Waikato Aviation, a commercial arm encompasses flight instructor and airline preparation diplomas. “Course numbers are increasing from a couple of years ago. Post-pandemic, people are seeing the aviation industry is starting to move again,” says Steve, an instructor with Waikato Aviation. Hannah is involved with the Waikato Aviation governance group and enjoys being able to represent the opinions and thoughts of private pilots like herself, and is also involved with the New Zealand Association of Women in Aviation.
As we prepare for the day’s short flight, we meet Tony, the operations manager at Waikato Aviation. While Hannah performs the preflight checks on the Cessna 172, Tony points out what appears to be a tinfoil-wrapped spike on the aircraft’s wing. “Don’t be alarmed by that,” he says with a grin, “It’s just a probe that measures methane levels for NIWA.”
Once airborne Hannah completes a number of circuits of Hamilton Airport, with some touch-and-go landings and a simulated engine failure thrown in for good measure. With rain looming on the horizon and brunch plans to imminent for both of us, we call it a day. Hopefully the weather and an unrelenting schedule don’t delay our next flight.
Find out more about Waikato Aviation on their website or via Instagram.
