The “father” of what became the East Coast’s rescue helicopter service will be remembered by the community in a celebration of his life later this month.
Denis Hartley died at Tauranga Hospital on December 21, aged 82.
He was involved with commercial aviation since the late 1950s, had flown helicopters since 1968 and established the Helicopter Rescue Trust (East Cape) in Ruatōria, which still operates today as the Eastland Rescue Helicopter Trust.
Both his inclination towards flying and rescue began at a young age.
A 13-year-old Hartley received a New Zealand bravery award for saving his grandfather from a submerged car, according to his son Wayne.
He started flying Tiger Moth aircraft at age 14 as a member of the Air Training Corps in Rangitīkei and flew his first topdressing job on his 18th birthday as soon as his commercial pilot’s licence arrived in the mail.
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Hartley had a serious plane accident while flying an Airtruck topdressing at Te Mata Peak in 1968. He was protected by his woollen jumper, surviving the fiery wreck but sustaining burns and many broken bones.
He spent almost two years in hospital before flying again.
“They said he’d never walk or use his hands again. I remember he would lie in bed just flexing his fingers to get the tendons in his hands moving so he wouldn’t lose his mobility,” Wayne Hartley said.
“I think it made him more determined and more empathetic towards helping people.”
He began flying helicopters in the early 1970s, doing agricultural work, then live deer captures before moving to Ruatōria in 1978 and starting his helicopter business Heliwing, which eventually expanded into the Gisborne, East Coast and Bay of Plenty regions.
The Helicopter Rescue Trust (East Cape) evolved from his helicopter rescues and air ambulance flights, particularly those performed during Cyclone Bola in 1988.
Hartley was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to aviation and rescue services.
The citation for his honour describes how he rescued people from rooftops, cars and floodwaters, and performed air ambulance flights and relief operations to isolated communities throughout the East Coast region.
“He knew his way blindfolded up there. He knew all the houses, who they were and who was going to be worse off so he knew where to go to get people,” Wayne Hartley said.
“There was nobody telling anyone what to do. He was just doing it by himself with his knowledge.”
Hartley told the Rotorua Daily Post in 2017 that people donated $6300 in 1988 after he spoke on Radio Ngāti Porou about the part helicopters played in the aftermath of Cyclone Bola.
Donations from the community went towards rescue equipment, jaws of life and lighting equipment for the first community-owned air ambulance helicopter in New Zealand.
A history of Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust published in 2014 described how people with connections to the East Coast from far and wide - including Australia and the Chatham Islands - pledged their support, and others walked into the radio station to empty their pockets of change.
“The operation ran as a 50:50 partnership with Denis Hartley’s Heliwing Agricultural Helicopter business. If Denis received a call while out working, he would return to his Ruatōria base, change from his agricultural equipment (spraying, lifting etc) to his aero-medical equipment, and respond to the emergency,” the trust’s history reads.
“Along the way he would get an appropriate crew (doctor or paramedic) from either Ruatōria or the hospital at Te Puia [Hot Springs].”
Former Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust chairman Patrick Willock said Hartley continued to maintain an interest in the Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust, even when he moved to Ōhope in 1996 and the service moved to Gisborne in 2000.
“He was certainly the father of it if you like and we do have some of his old equipment as archives and that sort of thing,” Willock said.
“When we opened our new hangar, he was here for that, he was last in Gisborne for our charity auction back in September, so we’ve seen him quite recently.
Willock recalled that the trust still used the original bank account that was set up for it in Ruatōria when it still had a Westpac branch.
“That serves as a little reminder to us of where the trust started, just acknowledging the fact it started in Ruatōria.”
Hartley established the East Coast Search and Rescue Squad and Tokomaru Bay marine communications and pioneered helicopter live-line human-sling powerline maintenance in New Zealand, a now worldwide procedure he introduced to China and India.
“There was no written process to do it. Dad just had to go and find the information, write the safety and operational procedures, design equipment and then go and do it,” Wayne Hartley said.
He also worked with rescue squads linked to the First Response Fire Brigade in each community from Tolaga Bay through to Ōpōtiki, training them in rescue techniques.
In 1996 he moved to Ōhope and began helicopter powerline operations throughout Asia.
“When we were there [in China], one of the most interesting things is my Dad stayed there for two years and helped them rewrite Chinese civil aviation rules to be able to allow the type of work that we do,” Wayne Hartley said.
Denis Hartley is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jacqueline, with children Dawn-Lee and Mike; Wayne and Melissa; and Lorreen; grandchildren Flynn, Matthew, Katherine, Donna, Jack, Ella, Christian, and Michelle, and six great-grandchildren.
A celebration of Denis’ life will be held at Ōhope hall at 1pm on Sunday, January 26.
His family asked people to consider donating to a local rescue helicopter trust.
