People We Work
With
Situated near Herbert, North Otago, New Zealand, Central South Island Helicopters offers a wide range of services such as:
We are an Aircare and Growsafe accredited operator and our experienced team is headed by John Oakes.
Central South Island Helicopters Ltd has been operating since 1987 throughout the South Island. We have successfully built the company up over the years providing a quality and efficient service.
We are Aircare accredited operators and are members of the Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand (AIA.)
We are currently running:
Our fixed wing aircraft include:
Central South Island Helicopters is a Spreadmark registered company and complies with the code of practice for the placement of fertiliser in NZ. We have buckets for all of our helicopters which are used for solid fertiliser and seeding operations and also run a B-Train unit for cartage of fertiliser in support of the helicopters.
All of our helicopters are equipped with spray gear that we use for brushweed spraying, liquid fertilizer application and crop spraying, (fungicide, Insecticide, desiccating and weed spraying.)
For scattered gorse, broom, etc we have a hand held spot gun available.
We are able to undertake a range of other services including mustering sheep, cattle and deer as well as farm/block inspections and GPS mapping.
The Cresco and Fletcher are used for spreading fertiliser and seeding on large areas. We have developed a spinner system for the Cresco for high analysis fertiliser, seeding and toxic bait spreading jobs. The spinner gives a very even coverage and has the same swath width as the helicopter buckets making it easy to work both the fixed wing and helicopters together on large scale operations. The Cresco also has fire doors for the hopper which allows it to carry 2000 litres of water for firefighting.
Our Huey has proven to be a useful heavy lift machine with its 1.8 tonne external lifting capacity. We also use the Notars for smaller lifting jobs.
With the Kakanui Mountains to the west and the pacific coastline to the east, our base is in an excellent spot for scenic flights. We have capacity for up to 4 passengers per flight. We also have a landing zone available in Oamaru
We have 3 Dew Drop monsoon buckets with a 600 litre water capacity for the Notars and Jetranger and a Bambi and Dew Drop monsoon buckets for the Iroquois with a 1500 litre water capacity. We also run C-Dax foam injector units in all of the helicopters for applying fire retardant foam.
We are registered with Maritime NZ as aerial search and rescue operators.
We are involved in both land and marine searches alongside the local North Otago Search & Rescue squad.
Galapagos
The Galapagos archipalego was the location of another eradication project we took part in.
9 small to medium sized islands were treated to rid them of thier rat infestations. John Oakes completed the sowing of the islands while Bruna Oakes directed the ground operations.
Macquarie Island
The largest of the pest eradication projects that we have been involved in was on Macquarie Island. This is an Australian sub-antarctic island found around 1500km south east of Tasmania.
We sent 4 pilots and 2 ground support crew to undertake the aerial baiting phase of the project targeting rabbits, rats and mice. The aerial baiting was done over the winter months to reduce impact on the islands migratory birds. This made for challenging weather conditions for the pilots. After 2 winters on the island, the aerial baiting was successfully completed in July 2011. From here, the teams of ground hunters with dogs will track down any remaining pests until the island can be classed as pest free.
Photo by Rory Stansbury
The latest project was the supply of equipment and expertise for the eradication of rats on Fiji's Kadomo and Monuriki Island, the location of the movie Castaway.
We have recently completed a Geophysical Survey over Christchurch city and surrounding areas. The survey was done to understand the subsurface of the area after the large earthquakes that have struck the region.
The survey involves flying lines at a height of 100 to 300 meters. The lines are 400 meters apart running north to south with tie lines every 4 km
The helicopter is equipped with a large stinger which has the sensor at the end of it. This allows it to detect the magnetic variances without interference from the aircraft. There is also gear inside the helicopter to measure and record the magnetic signals from the earth and rock below picked up by the sensor.
We are also undertaking low level geophysical surveying along the West Coast of the South Island.
The view of Christchurch from the surveying helicopter
For more info on the Christchurch Geophysical survey, check out this video by GNS Science
Our Mobile Office set up for the survey team
Stinger attached to the Notar
CEO, Director, Chief Pilot & Maintenance Controller:
John Oakes - CPL Helicopter, CPL Aeroplane
Director, Safety Officer:
Bruna Oakes
Pilots:
Contract Pilots:
Support Crew:
TELEPHONE: + 64 3 439 5656
FAX: + 64 3 439 5921
E-MAIL: info_csihelicopters.co.nz
Central South Island Helicopters is located in the North Otago rural settlement of Herbert. From here we service Canterbury, The Waitaki Valley, The McKenzie Basin, Central Otago, The West Coast, North Otago, Otago and Southland
(CPL Helicopter 11,000 hours+, CPL Aeroplane)
John Oakes has worked in the New Zealand helicopter industry since 1978 and in the early 1980s in Australia. He started pilot training in 1981, working & training in the industry until commencing full time flying in 1988. This was in Agricultural, air transport plus search & rescue roles predominantly in the Otago and Canterbury areas. He has also flown extensively in the regions of Southland and Westland.
John has been quite involved in search and rescue over the past 15 years and has done numerous mountain, sea and river rescues. He has also been involved in a few air ambulance and numerous fire fighting jobs. John has gained a lot of job satisfaction out of the emergency work and is very pleased to have been part of the Tranz Rail Rescue Helicopter Pilot team.
