The 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.

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.

‘Till the day I die I will never forget the thrill of my first sight of a mighty stag alone in the mountains.’ - Dr Dave.

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 co-founder of the Healthy Bastards Bush Pilot Champs, a precision landing, short take-off and landing competition held annually at Omaka Airfield in Blenheim.