Flying Doctor

From the author of Healthy Bastards, the man known as the 'Flying Doctor' is back, this time with his misadventures, escapades and high jinks from a life of medicine, aviation and hunting. For the first time, Dave Baldwin, known throughout the backcountry as the Flying Doctor, shares his tales from life lived at full-throttle. From his early years struggling with dyslexia to graduating from med school, from learning to fly and joining the New Zealand Air Force to becoming a cardiologist at Palmerston North Hospital and setting up a general practice in Bulls, Dave s early life was certainly a life less ordinary. Later on he started the Not So Royal Flying Doctor Service , a service for the rural aviation community based at remote airstrips and farms in the backcountry, which has paved the way for a life combining his two passions: high-country flying and hunting. Well-known for his eccentric personality, playful antics and colourful turn of phrase, Dave s story is highly entertaining and truly unique. Yet it s not without tragedy, having lost his best mate and son Marc in a terrible incident in the same place they d shared so many cherished father-son moments. Dave is also the founder of the Healthy Bastards Bush Pilot Champs, a precision landing, short take-off and landing competition held annually at Omaka Airfield in Blenheim.