Tauranga flight school a boon to region

The day I met Steve Rowe, his trainee pilots were grounded. Not by him but by the weather.
It was another of the wet and wild days that Tauranga has become used to lately. It was a chance for the student pilots at Bay Flight Aviation, based at the airport, to catch up on theory in the classrooms.
Bay Flight really is flying high. The city's main flight-training operator has increased its number of students by more than half since Palmerston North-based Mr Rowe bought the business from Phil Hooker in July last year.
In nine months, Mr Rowe has grown student numbers from 40 to more than 60 - he has plans to reach 100 by the end of next year - and Bay Flight is making a strong contribution to the local economy.
Nearly half of the student pilots are from overseas and they pay up to $90,000 in tuition fees for 15 months, plus another $24,000 in accommodation, food and hospitality, adding about $3 million a year to the Tauranga economy.
"The spin-off for the region is providing more employment for pilots and staff, and attracting overseas money," said Mr Rowe. "We are putting in a big investment to create a training centre of excellence for pilot training."
The future looks bright. Based on forecasts, Asian airlines will require another 20,000 pilots within nine years and the commercial airline fleet will double in the next 15 years, after doubling over the previous 15 years.
China is presently building 500 new airports and Air China is destined to be the biggest airline in the world. Bay Flight has already trained a couple of Chinese pilots and more will follow.
Since taking over, the laid-back Mr Rowe - a former possum trapper - has invested more than $1.5 million in the business.
He has expanded it into an adjacent airport hangar so he can store more of his aircraft indoors, is building two new classrooms and has added a $140,000 United States-made Redbird flight simulator, which arrived last week.
Instead of installing reconditioned engines, Mr Rowe has bought new engines from the US to upgrade his 11-strong fleet.
In January Bay Flight also took possession of a $700,000 four-seater, twin-engine Tecnam from Italy, complete with a glass cockpit and the latest digital instrumentation.
The Tecnam replaces the older Seneca twin-engine and "it keeps the noise footprint down", says Mr Rowe. More importantly, the Tecnam and the simulator provide students with up-to-date multi-engine instrument-rating training.
Overseas students at Bay Flight are from Asian and Middle East countries such as Taiwan, Oman, Bahrain, Dubai, Iran and India. Other trainees come from the Bay and other parts of New Zealand.
"The overseas guys easily fit into the Kiwi ethos," said Mr Rowe. "They come from good backgrounds and have great sense of humour. A lot of them don't drink but they will still go to the parties and dances.
"We provide an experience by organising sporting activities and fishing trips for them.
"You have to look after your students and international education is hugely important to the [local] economy.
"Flight training overall brings in $400 million a year in New Zealand."
In their first year at the school the students complete their private pilot licence (PPL) with 50 hours' minimum flying and then their commercial pilot licence (CPL), chalking up 200 hours of flying.
In their second year they complete advanced multi-engine instrument rating (MEIR) courses and take cross-country flights to Gisborne, Napier, New Plymouth, Paraparaumu and even to the South Island.
Many of the students will become instructors at Bay Flight to keep their flying hours up.
"You won't get a good job with an airline unless you have 1000 hours," said Mr Rowe. "We train to a high standard so the students go on and have a career."
Most of them aspire to be airline pilots both here in New Zealand and overseas. Some will go into the agricultural and tourism sectors or become full-time instructors.
At present Bay Flight employs up to 20 people, most of them instructors, and it has a fleet of 11 aircraft including the Tecnam, a four-seater Piper Warrior and Cessna 172, and single-engine Cessna 152s.
The chief executive is Laurence Barnett and Dale James, from CTC in Hamilton, joined the firm last month as chief flying instructor.
Before then, Phil Hooker - who established Bay Flight in 1996 - filled the chief flying instructor's role.
Mr Rowe and his wife, Sandra, bought Bay Flight after seeing it advertised.
"I had just sold a business and I wanted something that had the potential to grow. I had a look at Bay Flight and the next thing I owned it.
"I was interested in aviation but I hadn't been involved with a flying school before," said Mr Rowe, who has had a commercial helicopter licence for 20 years.
He drives from Palmerston North each week, leaving home at 4.30am on Monday, and spends two days in Tauranga to ensure that the Bay Flight business keeps growing.
Mr Rowe has had a varied career. He was a possum trapper for two years, catching 200 possums over four nights in the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges.
The skins in those days were in strong demand. "You could make three times the annual salary in six months," he said.
Mr Rowe worked for 15 years in the freezing works, first in the fellmongery department of Affco and then was supervisor of the coolstore at the new Affco Manawatu plant in Feilding.
He gained a Diploma in Meat Technology from Massey University and he bought one of the biggest taverns and night clubs in Palmerston North.
He owned the Jones Bar and the old Westpac building near The Square for 4 years, and sold them last year.
"We had 12 pool tables, 18 gaming machines and would have 500 to 600 people inside while another 300 queued outside, both ways, to get in," Mr Rowe said.
He also became a property investor and owns student flats in well-known Ada St in Palmerston North.
He's also had to buy a property in Tauranga to house his trainee pilots. "There isn't enough student accommodation here - that's a major problem.
"If you want to expand tertiary education then you need the cheaper accommodation to keep the young people here," he said.
"If you don't, it could kill the town."