Brian Waugh

Brian Kynaston Waugh (1922–1984) was a notable New Zealand aircraft engineer, military and commercial aviator, airline operator, meteorologist. He was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England in 1922.

Early years
Brian Kynaston Waugh was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, on 26 September 1922. He was the second of two sons of Helen Elizabeth Caudle and her husband, Walter Waugh, an electrical engineer. He developed an early fascination with aviation after his father became a foreman on the construction of an RAF station in Shropshire.

Second World War
In August 1938, he joined the RAF’s aircraft apprentice training scheme, and in 1941 he was posted to South Africa. While there, he transferred to pilot training, gaining his wings on 24 September 1943. In the latter part of the war, he served with No.75 (NZ) Squadron on Avro Lancasters. Night raids to Germany included Bremen, the Leuna Oil Refinery at Merseburg, the Howaldt Works, and the inner dockyard at Kiel where the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was capsized. Continuing Lancaster flying, he dropped food to the starving Dutch at The Hague in Operation Manna, ferried Belgian refugees home, repatriated Allied Prisoners of War, and flew long scenic (Baedeker) flights over Germany, Belgium and Denmark. At the end of hostilities, Waugh continued in RAF service with transport squadrons in England, Europe, and in South East Asia, based in Singapore. He left the RAF after 10 years’ service in 1948.

Post-war Flying
He gained his civil pilot licence, instrument rating and engineering licence in categories A (airframes), C (engines) and X (compasses), including type ratings for de Havilland DH89 Rapide aircraft and their Gipsy engines. He then flew for post-war small British airlines. In 1954 Waugh immigrated to New Zealand to fly DH89s for South Island Airways on pioneering scheduled routes. After service with Trans Island Airways, he was appointed in 1959 Chief Pilot and Chief Engineer for West Coast Airways at Hokitika, flying the historic South Westland Air Service, New Zealand’s first licensed scheduled air service. He became well-known on the West Coast with air ambulance work, particularly before the Haast highways was opened in 1965. On 15 April 1967, he was seriously injured in the forced landing of DH89 ZK-AKT in Queenstown’s Shotover River, due to engine failure. He subsequently retired from flying and served in the Meteorological Department at Hokitika and Gisborne. In the 1980s he wrote his aviation autobiography which was published in 1991: ‘Turbulent Years – A Commercial Pilots’ Story’. The book gives his insights into New Zealand provincial flying in the 1950s and 1960s.