Thread: East Kaweka Helicopters closing down

Originally Posted by Woody

It's grim but I wish Chris and his team all the very best for the future. They made a good mark.

Exactly. And set a bench mark for service. Good heartland NZ stuff.

That’s real sad news for them and the hunting community

Sorry to see him go, hope the whole concession doesn't end up in one lot of grubby hands. The loss of Air Charter was bad, hope someone from outside can step in and create a business, but it would be hard under the current climate though.

I never had the privilege of flying with him and only spoke on the phone a handful of times. Only ever heard and saw glowing reviews. Extremely sad to hear.

Bugggggger what a great loss.All the best for the future Chris and a very big thank you for those great years was a pleasure to fly with you

Never flown with helisika, but looking at their website, it appears there smallest machine is a hughes 500. Do they not have a R44 such as Chris Crosse did, which is cheaper to charter???

Originally Posted by matagouri

Never flown with helisika, but looking at their website, it appears there smallest machine is a hughes 500. Do they not have a R44 such as Chris Crosse did, which is cheaper to charter???

They used to have a 44 and 66 but that was a few years back

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Chris used to say, that he had to fly the 44 non stop, just to pay for the upkeep of his 500.


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I spoke with Helisika on Thursday, they don't fly R44's any more, they did have one of the first R66 in NZ however it crashed and the pilot was sadly lost. They now use a Hughes 500E and a Squirrel BA for most of their work. This covers party size of 3 & 4 people well. The 500 is allowed to carry a load of 400 kg including passengers and gear, the squirrel can easily fit four to five passenger's in and has an allowable all up load of 580 kgs and the pilot.

FF'N COVID, and FF'N Government Ministers - who have been TOLD many times that LOTS of small businesses would close of they stuck with their OTT and harsh COVID responses. They don't give a shit.

This is the second small business important to me to close in the last 5 days!

I wish Chris and his Team EVERY best regard for their future. I wish Jacinda and her Labour cronies out of Office ASAP.

I wonder if Chris is giving up flying or going to fly elsewhere? Bit of a shame as he has a good reputation.

Terrible news, he's flown me in for a Roar, will be greatly missed.....

Bloody gutting alright - There will be other options coming through but EKH will be hard to top for service & price.
Flown with Chris heaps of times & will miss dealing with him.

I've just cancelled my trip to the Mangaturutu Hut, flying out 27/04/2022 and returning 01/05/2022. Haven't had much luck with alternative operators, so the spot is available if anyone can make it work.

Helisika prices into the northern Kaweka areas are actually pretty good, but the further south you go the less affordable they get (compared to EKH) hopefully Midwest will start flying from Taihape & will be more affordable in the southern Kawekas.