Dennis Frank (Denny) Atkinson born in Nelson, 8 September 1933, died Nelson, 11 June 2024.
Denny started his working life as a bakers apprentice in Nelson and shortly after the completion of his apprenticeship he became self-employed baking in a busy retail/wholesale bakery business, skills which lasted all his life.
During the mid-1950’s the Government introduced a subsidy to help increase pilot numbers. As a result of this incentive Denny was a keen starter to learn to fly. His first flight was in May 1955 flying in the Nelson Aero Club’s Tiger Moth ZK-AYE. Denny soloed the following month and was issued with his private pilot’s licence on the 9th November that year. After accumulating enough hours he attended the Wanganui Pilot School gaining his commercial licence in July 1957.
Back in Nelson, Denny met up with Peter Rowley of Auster Air Services who had recently purchased Aerial Sowing (Cant’y) Ltd. The operating licence for this company covered Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast. Peter Rowley employed Denny as a top dressing pilot in August 1957, sending him to Timaru for training with Silas Bremford and also with Peter Rowley. On the 12th of September 1957 he ferried Tiger Moth ZK-AON to Nelson and commenced his top dressing career as pilot/manager Nelson based, the next day. While working for Peter Rowley there were two more name changes, firstly the (Cant’y) was dropped off the name and then later it became Rowley Aviation Ltd, Peter remained CEO and Managing Director through all these changes.
Only once did an aeroplane Denny was flying get bent during his time topdressing, the only one was when flying a Piper Cub; he had an engine failure and during the forced landing, the aeroplane hit rough ground ending upside down and doing considerable damage to the airframe.
During Denny’s career in the ag aviation ‘game’ he flew many aircraft types and as the work load increased so did the aircraft types and hopper capacities. Starting with a Tiger Moth, then an Auster followed by a Piper Cub, a Cessna 180, Piper Pawnee, Cessna Ag Wagon, Piper Brave and FU 24 Fletchers, both a 950 and a 954. Out of all the types Denny flew in Nelson he commented that the Cessna 180 was the most comfortable to fly in but the Brave had the best flight performance. The undercarriage of the Brave couldn’t stand up to the rough airstrips and subsequently was replaced by a 400 Fletcher with a better type of undercarriage for Nelson strips.
Up to the end of 1963 Denny had had 3 loader drivers, two of whom went onto become agricultural pilots. When the late Colin Bint was going off to Wanganui to do his commercial and agricultural rating, Denny employed Terry Nuttall who stayed as his driver until the morning of the 22nd August 1992, when Denny turned up to the aerodrome leant on the fence said to Terry “I feel bloody crook and I’m going home.” By that afternoon he was in ICU at Nelson Hospital and Denny’s flying career was over.
During the almost three decades that Terry drove the loader there were many exciting times and of course a few rather hair-raising ones as well. In the 60’s, 70’s, & 80’s agricultural aviation was great fun; no radios, no spider tracks, no GPS, and no cellphones, no health and safety or WorkSafe. Once we left for work in the morning, nobody except the client of the day knew where we were. If we got blown out we could do whatever the mood decided. When a vehicle came up onto the strip it was a welcome sight, usually bringing a bite to eat or someone who would love to go for a ride in the plane and of course they generally got their ride or rides whether the plane was loaded or empty.
In 1986, a year when the farming industry was struggling to survive, the Labour Government in power at that time appeared to farmers not to care about their plight, so a farmer’s march onto parliament was organised. Peter Rowley and other likeminded gentlemen decided to support the farmers march with a fly over with agricultural aeroplanes. On the morning of the march, eight aeroplanes, led by Denny Atkinson with Peter Rowley seated alongside of him, followed by planes flown by Hallet Griffen, Barry Cowley, Mike Cronin, Robert Thurston, Tom Perrie and Dave Wareham. Each and every plane before taking off was inspected by the police to make sure that there wasn’t a load of sheep dung in the hoppers bound for the roof of Parliament House. The planes all circled around and around and around again above the marching thousands, each circuit I believe getting a little lower.
Following the very successful support of the farmers march, criminal charges were laid against seven of the pilots. A collective trial by jury was held in Wellington over two days and at the completion of the trial the jury brought in a not guilty verdict for all seven. Denny said after it was all over “how scary it was being locked in a cell during the lunch break.” He also said that if Peter came up with another scheme like that “he could fly the damn aeroplane himself.”
During Denny’s agricultural flying career there were many incidents that are memorable. On two different occasions Denny provided a flying ambulance service; flying an Agwagon, he picked up Neville Somerville off the beach at McLarens Bay. On the last load of the job, at McLarens Bay, the Pawnee Neville was flying had an engine failure, crashing and catching fire. Neville suffered broken bones, cuts and bruising to much of his body and he had been taken down to the McLaren Bay homestead. Denny, who happened to be working nearby, saw smoke and flew into investigate, landed on the strip to find out the details, he then decided he could get on and off the beach by the homestead. He landed on the beach, somehow managed to get Neville into the cockpit alongside of him, took-off, taking Neville to the Nelson aerodrome, then into an ambulance and off to hospital. It would’ve been a tight squeeze in the cockpit that day.
Another time Denny took a doctor and flew to French Pass after a farmer had been gored by a wild pig. That time in a Fletcher making it easier to lay the farmer out rear of the hopper. Incidentally the farmer survived to live on for many more years.
When were working at Cape Foulwind, Westport on the Landcorp farm at the time Denny was flying a Cessna Agwagon. After the loader had dropped the load into the plane and started to pull away there was an almighty bang bugger, a broken axle. “I’ll wriggle my way out from under the bucket,” Denny said “sow the load & come back and help pull the axle out.” However as he tried wriggling the plane out from under the bucket of the loader, the sock on the bucket caught in the horn of the rudder, bending the top of the rudder over at right angles. After several strong words Denny jumped out grabbed a hack saw, cut the top section of the rudder off just above the top hinge then flew away with the load.
Meanwhile it was found out that the axle wasn’t broken, the bang had come from the gear box as it had jumped out of gear. A few more words were uttered but then work started again and carried on over the next three days, with a very short rudder. When a new rudder arrived at Westport it was fitted posthaste. When asked, Denny did say it was “more difficult turning inside the tall chimney at the cement work, however work must go on.”
The tales could go on and on but that was really what Denny was like, no matter the issue if we could work around it let’s just get on with the job and fix it properly at a later date.
Denny was a good guy to work with but was sadly cut short of many more years of agricultural flying. His 35 years of service to the Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast farmers/foresters/pest boards averaged something over 700 hours a year.
After Denny’s medical was revoked by CAA he went on to be more involved with mussel farming, which without a doubt was far harder work than flying an agricultural aeroplane. He along a business partner built an aluminium mussel support boat with which Denny then operated in the Marlborough Sounds. For many years he serviced his and the partnership’s mussel farms as well as other farms in the sounds, working in all weathers and conditions. He couldn’t head home when it was raining or blowing half a gale, the seeding of spat or reseeding of mussel lines just had to be completed no matter what the conditions.
Our thoughts are with Denny’s family at this sad time.
Published with permission from Denny’s family.