Pilot pioneer in his district

ALOFT: John Harding and his Cessna 185 on the airstrip next to his Taihape home. He had taken his wife Leigh up for a flight before the Chronicle arrived yesterday.PHOTO/STUART MUNRO 301214WCSMHARDING2

He's flown more than 34,000 hours, most of that across Rangitikei and Waimarino districts, and there is hardly an airstrip John Kellick Harding hasn't landed on.

Now the unassuming 79-year-old, a member of a family synonymous with New Zealand's agricultural aviation industry, can add a Queen's Service Medal to his illustrious career.

He took his first solo flight in Wanganui as a 17-year-old in 1952 and began his career as a topdressing pilot four years later.

His job started in a Tiger Moth, the plane which launched the country's aerial fertilising industry and for a company his father Wally had started, Wanganui Aero Work.

Mr Harding said he was "humbled" to receive the recognition for doing something he loved.

"I'm not a man for publicity but I'm thrilled nonetheless," he said.

And while he's no longer flying commercially he has his own Cessna 185 that he regularly flies from the airstrip next to his Taihape home.

He's not exactly sure who put his name forward but thinks local farmers who he worked for may have been involved.

He moved to Taihape in 1962 initially to train a pilot, planning to stay for about two months but he never left.

"Other companies got work through this area but none of them lived here. Quietly we won the farmers over and gave them a good and reliable service. But they were all great to work for."

His time was largely spent flying in the Central Plateau area and Taihape in particular. While some regard it as difficult terrain, he reckons it isn't. "Other places are trickier," he says.

From 1970 he was owner-operator of Rangitikei Air Service working out of Taihape until that was sold to Ravensdown Fertiliser Co-Op.

In an industry fraught with high accident and death rates, Mr Harding has survived more than five decades in the business, seeing "a lot of fellas fall by the wayside over the years".

Those 34,000 hours of flying have seen him at the control of 29 different fixed wing aircraft and five types of helicopters. He didn't retire from professional flying until two years ago.

For many years he was a member of the Wanganui Aero Work display team - along with his brother Richmond - which flew Cresco planes with such precision they were in demand at air shows around the country.

Throughout his career Mr Harding strove for safer aircraft, loaders and airstrips. Like those that taught him, he was a strict task master when it came to training new pilots.

His dedication provided newcomers with the inspiration to learn how to approach a difficult and sometimes dangerous job with full concentration.