Thank you very much for choosing to use HeliOps Southland Ltd for your aerial agricultural needs.
In the interests of ongoing well-being for all, this page sets out how we can best help keep our working relationship successful and safe.
General
If your land is run under different account names or in different locations, please identify them individually when booking work done across them – even if it will be done as a single job on the same day. This helps us ensure that we have the correct billing information recorded from the very start.
Coming onto your property
Please ensure any required hazard and location maps are made available to our office staff 48 hours prior to our arrival. Should this not be possible, there must be a printed and clearly labelled map at an accessible location en-route to our work site, or an appropriately briefed person who can provide a verbal run-down of all hazards.
If you have sign-in requirements as part of your own QA processes, please make sure that these are identified at the time of booking. Sometimes our ground staff arrive on site first, but at other times our pilot will land first – so both need to be aware of your requirements.
Working on your property
We follow your rules on your farm, until we have set up our own controlled work-site. Then, we require you to comply with our rules as pertain to safety around helicopters. You will be given instructions by either the pilot or ground staff if you need to be within 100 metres of our controlled site.
If the pilot has indicated that the weather is causing concern as to the success of the operation, but you still want to go ahead with the job, you may be asked to read and sign an Understanding of Risk form.
Our staff are not insured to use your machinery or vehicles, and may not have had experience on that particular model. If you ask them to use it, it is at your own risk, and they are permitted to say no if they are not comfortable doing so.
Top Dressing
Our hopper loaders work best with trucks and fert trailers, in terms of minimising wastage and maximising time available. We prefer these options for jobs of more than 2 tonne.
If we are loading from a bunker that is not adjacent to the spread area, the additional travel and time requirements may incur a charge.
If a job is 2 tonne or less, bags may be suitable, but 400 kg bags are preferred. Unfortunately we cannot safely work with 1 tonne bags, as our gear is not calibrated for them.
For bag jobs, you will need to provide a tractor with forks to lift the bag, and a person to drive/control it the whole time it is being used. Chains are not suitable for lifting bags, due to safety reasons. The contents will be emptied into our hopper loader for granule filtration, before being put in our spreader bucket.
Should the location in which you wish us to be based not be flat or dry enough to work safely, we may need to relocate the work area. You will be asked to help us find a better solution.
Spray work – Agrichem or liquid fert
We will require access to an appropriate & clean water source in order to give you the level of service you deserve. If the location you wish us to be based does not allow for this, we will need to relocate our work area. You will be asked to help us find a better solution.
If we are using chemicals provided by you, we need them to be in original containers, clearly identifiable and in an easy-to-access location beside or en-route to our work site. All of your containers (empty or otherwise) will be returned to that same location when we leave.