Octogenarian flies high with helicopter lessons
<p>John "Flyboy" Sandilands served with the air force and has been in Egypt, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Thailand and Borneo but now the 89-year-old New Zealander is learning to fly a helicopter in Motueka.</p>
<p>"I still need a challenge," he said. "I still need to keep my brain working. I've still got a lot to learn.</p>
<p>"I'm not quite in a museum yet."</p>
<p>Each week, Sandilands drives his Volvo C30 – with the licence plate FL1 BøY – from his home in Blenheim on the "Monte Carlo" run across the Whangamoas to his lesson with TNT Helicopters in Motueka. It was his fifth lesson on Tuesday and he's keeping up to speed.</p>
<p>"He's doing very well," said TNT Helicopters chief executive and chief flying instructor Ross Troughton. "He's very techno-savvy. He doesn't recognise his age at all."</p>
<p>Troughton, who has been an instructor since 1991, said Sandilands was the oldest trainee he'd had.</p>
<p>"He's the oldest pupil anybody's ever had."</p>
<p>While it was unlikely Sandilands would pass a medical and be able to fly solo, he was capable of mastering the machine.</p>
<p>Sandilands is matter-of-fact about the venture. Flying helicopters was simply "a thing that I want to do and do it properly".</p>
<p>"After that, I'll think of something else."</p>
<p>Sandilands found the Motueka company after searching "helicopter training" online. There were other instructors in the North Island but he didn't fancy "going up by boat" for every lesson, he said.</p>
<p>"So I hit on TNT."</p>
<p>Sandilands is no stranger to aviation. He started training to fly fixed-wing aircraft at Omaka airfield near Blenheim in 2005 and "got my ticket" in 2007, aged 81.</p>
<p>He realised now that "the controls on a helicopter are quite different" but he wanted to master it.</p>
<p>"It takes tremendous concentration."</p>
<p>The determined octogenarian got his first taste of flying on March 28, 1941 – his 15th birthday. Sandilands was member of the Air Defence Cadet Corps in his native Scotland and got airborne during a visit to a Royal Air Force station at Drem, east of Edinburgh.</p>
<p>"I remember being strapped in," he said. "Then, all of a sudden, I realised we were flying. It was a great sensation."</p>
<p>That same feeling remains today.</p>
<p>"It's the sensation of looking down ... that freedom to move around without having to keep inside the white lines."</p>
<p>Sandilands, who is also a watchmaker, joined the RAF at 16 in 1942, after altering his handwritten birth certificate.</p>
<p>"You had to be 17¼; I made myself 17½."</p>
<p>He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as an aircraft technician, working on navigation systems, automatic-pilot and bomb site computers.</p>
<p>After the war, he was sent to Norway "taking VIPs around to help and get Norway going again".</p>
<p>Sandilands also served in Egypt and what is now Zimbabwe. He has also been in Singapore, Thailand and Borneo.</p>
<p>"I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere."</p>
<p>Sandilands arrived in New Zealand in 1950 after signing up with the RNZAF. He was sent to Ohakea where he met his future wife, Betty, who worked as an accounting clerk. The couple had a daughter, Barbara. He stayed in the RNZAF for 22 years and later worked for Inland Revenue.</p>
<p>The family moved to Blenheim in 1980.</p>
<p>Sandilands, now a widower, is a volunteer guide at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre and a member of the Marlborough Aero Club.</p>
<p>He keeps active and doesn't let his age hold him back.</p>
<p>"The only thing [about age] that would bother me would be the physical activity but I've still got enough of that," Sandilands said. "Mind wise, I'm fine. I'm just me."</p>
<p><em>Written by Cherie Sivignon. First appeared on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank">Stuff.co.nz.</a></strong></span></em></p>
