A Life Less Ordinary - Flying

Bill Reid tells of his high velocity airborne life riding choppers, planes and horses | STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM CUFF
As a four year old, Bill Reid remembers flying with his helicopter pilot father, John, who worked from London in the early 1950s on some of the first scheduled passenger routes.

“It was pretty cool having a father who flew helicopters. But we actually thought it was cooler that he’d been a WWII fighter pilot.”

Returning home to Nelson for his father to set up Helicopters New Zealand, nine-year-old Bill became a hangar rat, sweeping up after the technicians and wiping away spilled oil.

“I got a job at the aero club, working one day in return for half an hour’s free flying.” He was just 10 and at the controls of a Piper Cub, but had discovered three-day eventing by his mid teens.

Working his passage to Europe on a cargo ship at 19, he spent a year at a London polo club where Prince Phillip was a player.
Four years later, he just missed the opportunity to compete against Princess Anne at the Olympic Games.

Bill’s desire to fly was reignited by a visit to the Paris Air Show and he returned to New Zealand. While working at a car factory and his father’s company to pay for his commercial pilot’s licence, he carried on eventing.

“I was picked for the team for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, but a helicopter accident when I was loading for fire-fighting smashed my ankle so I couldn’t go.”

Fixed-wing flying for his father’s business enabled him to get his helicopter licence, but John wouldn’t employ his newly-qualified son, demanding at least 2,000 hours’ air time. So the young man headed off on a succession of jobs around the country.

In 1978, he returned to Nelson and fell headfirst for the love of his life, Robyn.

After just six months of courting (occasionally in his Tiger Moth biplane), the couple were married and headed to Hong Kong, the UK and Papua New Guinea to further Bill’s experience.

When John decided to downsize Helicopters New Zealand, Bill and Robyn – with baby Toby just a few weeks old – took out a huge loan to buy one of the helicopters and a licence to catch live deer.

It was well timed as the price of a hind trebled to $3,000 in the space of a few months. “We could go out some mornings and catch 10 deer before breakfast!”

So began Nelson Helicopters. From 1983 until 2002, Robyn and Bill were key players in the region’s helicopter charter industry, and squeezed fire-fighting and rescue missions into their hectic schedule. Film and television work added to their CV.

The Lord of the Rings location guidebook credits the Reids for bringing the Nelson area to the production company’s attention. They were first to suggest the Mount Owen location, and then Bill flew Peter Jackson to Mount Olympus. “He just fell in love with it,” says Bill, who was rewarded with his name in the film’s end credits.

Toby, now 27, and his wife Rachael are continuing the family tradition as pilots. Bill and Robyn’s daughter, Amelia – 24 and a now Shortland Street actress – is more interested in helicopters if they contain movie stars, according to Robyn.

Within a few months of selling their business, they shipped an old WWII bomber – an Avro Anson – back from Australia.

The last eight years have seen Bill back in the hangar, restoring the aircraft alongside a band of volunteers. Incredibly, he’s still sweeping up after some of the same engineers as he did almost 50 years ago.