Thirty two year-old Scotty Dunkerley flies out of Aerospread's base in Napier.
The people who nominated him for the award said they "couldn't think of anyone more deserving of a NZAAA award. Scotty has the potential to have a long, distinguished career as a AG pilot in New Zealand. He has the support and encouragement from his friends, family and workmates. He has the determination, passion and attitude to excel in our industry".
Dunkerley is a third generation pilot; his father was a flight instructor at an aero club in Australia, before the family moved to NZ when Scotty was 13. His grandfather was a pilot for SAFE Air where he flew Argosy and Bristol Freighters - the latter sometimes referred to as 50,000 rivets flying in formation. These aircraft at one stage serviced the Chatham Islands.
Dunkerley's dream of becoming an ag pilot began when he was at high school in Feilding, where he could see and hear topdressing aircraft taking off and landing at the local airfield. This, combined with his love of agriculture, saw him at age 16 quit school and take up a job in forestry. The purpose was funding his private pilot's licence - the first step to a commercial licence and a career in agricultural aviation.
He then brought a share in a Cessna 180 and flew this all over the country getting his hours up and pursuing his other passion - hunting. While in Motueka, Dunkerley gained his commercial license in 2014 while working on farms as a shepherd, fencing, shearing and doing anything possible to self-fund his study as a pilot. He also worked for a tourist operation in Northland and had a job flying hunters in and out of hunting blocks all over the country.
However, his break into the ag aviation industry came when he was offered a job as a loader driver with Griffin Ag.
"I did that for two years and it would seem that Hallet Griffin had a quiet word with the owner of Aerospread, Bruce Petersen, and said maybe he should offer me a seat as pilot," Dunkerley told Rural News. "I worked for him for about a year as a loader driver which is a prerequisite before becoming a pilot."
From there began the long and precise training programme - managed by Bruce Petersen, who is a qualified ag instructor. For the next 150 hours, Dunkerley had to have Petersen squeezed alongside him in the cockpit of the Cresco as he completed his dual instruction. Petersen is no small man and much play has been made of how it would have been pretty cosy for both in that 1,000 hour training period. "After the 1,000 hours of dual, you have a flight test and once you pass this you get your grade 2 certificate," Dunkerley explains. "But you have to do another 1,000 hours of 'supervision' with the instructor at the airstrip monitoring your performance. Only then, and after passing a further test, are you qualified to fly alone and unsupervised."
Living The Dream
Dunkerley says he's pretty gobsmacked at receiving the award.
He acknowledges the support of his friends and colleagues and especially his wife Lindsay - whom he says he couldn't have got where he is without her.
Dunkerley says he told Lindsay, long before they were married, that he wanted to be a topdressing pilot and that meant early morning starts, going anywhere the job took him and possibly missing birthday parties.
Today he is living the dream.
"Not every day is the same and it's just being in the rural scene," he told Rural News.
"Flying is demanding and requires concentration - especially take-offs and landings on some of the short airstrips. With take-offs it's about getting the weight right and getting airborne and landing is also challenging with the wind behind you on an uphill strip."
But for Dunkerley, the winning of the emerging ag pilot of the year is the start of more things to come. He loves flying the 750hp Cresco, which he describes as a beautiful, nimble aircraft.
He talks about the hundreds of airstrips he flies from, the challenges of this and how the night before he looks at the map of the farm he's going to and works out the most efficient way to spread the fertiliser.
Finally, as his career develops, he hopes that in time to gain the experience and possibly become an ag instructor.
