Thank you for your email! What a surprise to have been selected as one of the recipients of this years awards! It’s a huge privilege to have been selected.

I love my life in warbirds and it is a huge privilege to be involved. Warbirds has been a passion of mine since I was quite young, I do not come from an aviation family, instead grew up on a dairy farm, I now run a beekeeping business producing Manuka honey as my day job to help support my passion project which is adventure aviation in Warbirds which I run along since my Fiancé Lucy who is also a pilot and flies an AT-802 Fuel Boss in Indonesia.

We operate our business Legend Aviation Ltd out of Hood Aerodrome in Masterton which is in the lower North Island of New Zealand, we have two Tiger Moths and a North American T6C which we offer adventure flights in, we are slowly expanding our fleet and ultimately would love to operate a 2 seat fighter for rides but that’s a dream at the moment.

As well as flying warbirds and classic aircraft I also enjoy working on them, our Harvard was purchased in 2020 as a project having last flown in 1958 with the RNZAF, it was a three year restoration which I worked alongside the certifying engineers during the whole process, also one of our Tiger Moths received a big birthday after being sitting in a barn for 24 years on a farm strip. both aircraft are now stars of our fleet and I love keeping my hand in and working on the aircraft under supervision of our local licenses engineer, I think it’s hugely important to have an intimate mechanical knowledge of these old airplanes when your fly them. Waiting in the wings we have another lovely exRNZAF T6C that we hope to return to the air in due course.

I have been very fortunate to be able to fly a large variety of aircraft from WW1 including Sopwith Pup and Nieuport XI both with 80hp Le Rhone rotary engines through to some of the WW2 fighters such as The Spitfire and Kittyhawk and most recently the Goodyear FG-1D Corsair.

I love flying these aircraft and sharing them with people through airshows which i have been doing since I was 19 years old when I received my display authorization in my De Havilland Chipmunk and also the adventure flights. It’s a huge privilege to be trusted to fly these aircraft and even more so to be the custodian of them as well, putting a smile on someone’s face who never thought they would be able to experience these aircraft and is something very special and gives me the most enjoyment it gives a real connection to the history and keeping it alive.

I enjoy traveling during our New Zealand winter and helping out at restoration shops around the world learning new skills and expanding my knowledge of how things are done else where so we can make our operation even safer and more resilient here in New Zealand.

Unfortunately at this stage I don’t have a plan to attend Oshkosh this year though I would desperately love to. Sadly it’s out of my budget this year. I have attended in 2017 and 2019 and am very keen to attend again. I will try to find a solution but a not hopeful. It’s a long expensive mission from NZ especially at short notice.

Once again thank you for choosing me as one of the 20 recipients it’s a huge privilege.