Guest: Ian Quinn

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 13th of July 2025

Published: 14th of July 2025

Duration: 1 hour 19 minutes, 55 seconds

In this episode Dave Homewood chats with Ian Quinn, aka ‘chinapilot’ on the Wings Over New Zealand Forum – https://rnzaf.proboards.com

Ian started his aviation career volunteering as a schoolboy at the Wellington Aero Club in the 1960s. He then went on to a long career in commercial aviation, including flying skiplane Cessnas with Mount Cook Airlines, flying in Australia, New Britain, Bougainville, Fiji, NAC, Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific.

He lives in Hong Kong, where this interview was conducted from via Zoom, and since retiring from Cathay he has worked for the Hong Kong air accidents authority. Ian talks all about the interesting roles he has had in aviation, the places he has lived and the people he has met along the way.

The music is Wild Flower by Joachim Karud.

Photos from Ian Quinn’s collection. All are copyright Ian Quinn.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian in the captain’s seat of a Cathay Pacific Lockheed Tristar in 1994.</figcaption></figure>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: 17-year-old Ian Quinn with a Tiger Moth at Omaka Aerodrome, Blenheim, while he was working as a refueller for SAFE Air </figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: ZK-COH, one of the ski-equipped Cessna 185E tourist flight planes that Ian flew while working for Mount Cook Airlines.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian and Cessna 185A ZK-CBS on Tasman Glacier, New Zealand, in 1968.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian at the Inus Plantation, Bougainville, PNG, in 1971.</figcaption></figure>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian flying over Tarawa, in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands, 1975.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian with a Britten Norman Islander, at, Mitiaro [approximately 150NM NNE of Rarotonga], Cook Islands, 1979.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: An Air New Zealand Fokker F-27 Friendship, as flown by Ian in the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. The photo was taken in 1981.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: The Cathay Pacific Lockheed Tristar as flown by Ian in the 1980s.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: The Cathay Pacific Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian with his son, also a pilot. </figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian with his daughter who is also a pilot.</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Above: Ian in the cockpit of a Cathay Pacific Boeing 747.</figcaption></figure>