Country Calendar - Dave Saxton

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1993

This 1993 episode from the classic all-things rural series profiles Dave Saxton, a West Coast helicopter pilot, farmer and pioneer of aerial deer recovery. Saxton calls Haast and its mountainous surrounds "the last frontier" of New Zealand. Reporter Julian O'Brien and his crew capture the risk inherent in flying choppers when they survive a crash landing, with pilot Colin Tuck at the helm. No one is hurt, but the chopper is mangled. Fourteen years after this episode screened, Saxton and his chopper pilot son Morgan were convicted for stealing greenstone belonging to Ngāi Tahu in South Westland.

As the saying goes, there are old chopper pilots and bold chopper pilots but there are no old, bold chopper pilots ...
– Reporter Julian O'Brien recalls a popular Westland saying