PILOT BOOK REVIEWS

Conflict in New Zealand pilot autobiographies

They did not name each other in their autobiographies, but these two pilots may have been on career collision courses, and yet their stories are vastly different on critical facts.

Bernie Haskell is the author of Flying on the Edge published in 2014 by Altitude Publishing. Barry Cardno’s book Let Fly was published in 2009 by Longacre Press, an award winning publisher that is part of Random House.

Flying on the Edge is an entertaining read with many stories true and/or tall. Readers can decide which. Haskell portrays himself as an adventurous risk-taker and aerial entrepreneur. He retired from New Zealand’s agricultural aviation industry in 1996, leaving a trail of broken aircraft and a company that had run out of financial runway. Haskell spins some great yarns about his exploits as an aircraft-assisted fisherman in remote places, as a daring wheels-on-the-water pilot with other breath-taking antics. He excels himself as a critic of numerous nameless characters who fell foul of him in his quest for flying and business greatness. One such character is named simply as Wally, a trainee pilot who, it was claimed, did it his way. Wally crashed one of Haskell’s expensive aircraft. This could be where there may be a connection between Flying on the Edge and Let Fly. Readers of the two books can decide if there was a connection, and if so, who was the wally.

Let Fly is the story of a young man who, from his earliest years, had wanted nothing more than to fly. He achieved his dream as a teenager but tragically his commercial flying career slammed to a halt at the age of 21 on a North Island hill-country farm. The Fletcher topdressing aircraft was wrecked and Barry Cardno had a fight for his life, life in a wheel-chair, and a long battle with authorities to be cleared as medically fit to fly again. Like Haskell, who used the name Wally to describe an employee, Cardno referred to his employer as The Boss. Once again readers can decide if Cardno and Wally are the same person, and if Haskell and The Boss are also the same person. While confined to a wheel-chair, Cardno went on to become a journalist and his book has a professional touch to it that one would expect from a professional writer. Let Fly is also a very human story. Cardno is a positive thinker who is keen to please and strives for perfection in all that he does, in spite of major setbacks.

Crucial to the claims of Wally and The Boss, is the technique for repositioning an agricultural aircraft for a return spreading run. Cardno says that previous instructors had trained him to adopt the dumbbell turn technique, which at the end of a run would involve pulling the nose up into a 45 degree climbing turn followed by a 270 degree turn in the opposite direction and a final 45 degree descending turn to line up for the next run. This turning technique allowed for keeping a safe flying speed at a safe height. However, Cardno claimed that The Boss insisted on pulling up into a vertical climb followed by a wing-over at low speed and a steep descent in the opposite to save time. Cardno had other issues with The Boss too including short-cuts on aircraft maintenance, manipulating trainee flying hours, and insisting on time-saving but dangerous flying practices. In the space of 18 months, Haskell by his own admission in Flying on the Edge, lost five aircraft in accidents. Cardno says in Let Fly that another trainee pilot employed by The Boss was killed in an accident just before his own crash.

Cardno, who was 21 at the time of his accident, says that he was keen to impress The Boss, even though he had doubts about some of the things that The Boss wanted him to do. He wanted more than anything to be successful in the industry. There were no witnesses to the Cardno crash and Cardno could not remember it after he recovered from a two-week coma. From an examination of the wreckage, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission’s inspector concluded that the aircraft had struck the ground in a wings-level steep nose-down attitude and that the pilot had probably reverted to an unsafe practice from earlier in his training. Cardno says he was probably doing exactly what The Boss had instructed him to do.

Flying on the Edge is an entertaining read from a showman pilot who later became a shoe-string business operator until accidents put him out of business. Meanwhile, Let Fly is the story of a young man whose dreams may appear to have been shattered by inadequate training and an irresponsible employer. From his wheel-chair, Cardno leads a full life with employment, driving a car, and even flying again as a private pilot.

Reading the two books certainly draws some parallels between Haskell and Cardno, and The Boss and Wally. Is Haskell the Boss in Cardno’s book, and is Wally really Cardno in Haskell’s book? You decide. And while you are deciding the question of who should be believed, should also be addressed. Wally or The Boss?