The Vision Behind The Joyce Aviation Group

Tim Joyce’s of Nadi’s Aviation Group, got his first involvement in Aviation was when he was eight years old. He jumped off the balcony of his parent’s house holding an open umbrella.

The result was a badly split tongue and bruises.

About Mr Joyce

At the age of 16, he had his first flight in a real aeroplane when he also completing his first parachute jump.

While studying Economics/Law at the University of Sydney, Tim took flying lessons and decided to pursue a career in aviation.

He also joined the Australian Army’s One Command Company where he developed skills in diving, roping and rappelling, climbing, advanced first aid, weapons handling and unarmed combat and attained the coveted Green Beret. During this time, Tim was actively involved with the development of the new Westpac Helicopter Rescue service in Sydney and served as a rescue crewman and professional lifeguard, while saving to pay for his helicopter pilot licence.

Throughout his flying career, Tim has had continuous involvement and a particular interest with Search and Rescue.

He flew for Customs, Police, Air Ambulance Services and Fire Fighting.

As well as training rescue and rappelling crews and being responsible for successful and extremely dangerous rescue missions.

Tim has Air Transport Pilot Licences (ATPL) with Command Instrument Ratings, for both Helicopters and Aeroplanes.

This is a Grade One Flight Instructor (Helicopters) with over 17,000 hours of flying experience, including

• low-level helicopter under-slung operations, aerial filming,
• IFR operations (helicopter & aeroplane), aerobatics,
• long International overwater ferry flights and flight instruction in many countries including PNG, Australia, India, East Timor, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
• Throughout his career Tim has had an enviable safety record and no accidents!
• He is also a Senior Parachuting Instructor and represented Australia at the 1992 World Parachuting Championships in China.

For the most part Tim has been also involved in Aviation management; either as a Chief Pilot, Chief Flying Instructor (Helicopters), Senior Parachuting Instructor for such companies as Heli-Aust Ltd, NSW Forestry Commission, Sydney Heli-Scenic, Pacific Helicopters, Hevi-Lift (PNG) Ltd, Hamilton Island Aviation as well as his Fijian companies.

He has also been engaged as an expert aviation witness on three high profile legal cases.

For many years Tim searched for a place where he could utilise the varied skills he had developed in aviation and management to establish a model aviation operation.

“My philosophy was to look for gaps in the market and find new opportunities, rather than copying what others were already doing and undercutting them to get a market share.”

Hijacked at gunpoint

A pivotal event occurred in 1999 when Tim was hijacked at gunpoint while piloting a small helicopter and forced to land in Sydney’s Silverwater jail to lift out an inmate serving life.

Prison guards opened fire, critically damaging the helicopter and narrowly missing Tim.

Soon after Tim moved his wife and two young daughters on to a yacht and they left Sydney for a sailing adventure that would eventually lead them to Fiji in 2003.

In those days Fiji was sold as a ‘flop & drop’ resort destination and lacked in the way of adventure activities such as skydiving and helicopter scenic flights.

Establishment

After spending most of 2003 researching the establishment of a business in Fiji, he returned to Australia, mortgaged their house, bought an aeroplane and returned to set up Skydive Fiji in early 2004.

Over the past 16 years, Tim has steadily developed aviation activities in Fiji by expanding Skydive Fiji to become one of the most popular tourist attractions and in 2008 setting up Heli-Tours Fiji using the world’s most popular helicopter; the four seat Robinson R-44.

• It is ideally suited for scenic tours and transfers for couples with its exceptional visibility from every seat.
• In 2010, Heli-Tours Fiji introduced a twin engine, six seat AS355 Twin Squirrel helicopter to offer additional safety of twin engines between Fiji’s 333 islands and in particular for medivac and search operations.
• Together with Anthony Blake they have established Lifeflight Fiji, a dedicated comprehensive medical rescue service.

Takeover of Sunflower Aviation Ltd

In 2014, Mr Joyce was asked to take over management of Sunflower Aviation Ltd after the untimely death of owner Captain Don Collingwood.

• Sunflower Aviation included a large hangar at Nadi Airport with engineering facilities, charter aircraft, FBO licenses and facilities to provide services to corporate jet aircraft and the Pacific Flying School.
• To bring Heli-Tours Fiji, Skydive Fiji, Pacific Flying School and Sunflower Aviation together under one management team, Joyce Aviation Group (Fiji) Pte Ltd was formed with its headquarters now at Nadi airport.

Embracing change

Tim is an experienced Grade One helicopter instructor and whilst he had not initially planned on operating a flying school he has embraced the prospect of passing on some of the lessons he has learnt to the next generation of pilots.

Mr Joyce says; “I strongly believe we have both a moral and legal obligation to train our pilots to the highest international standards,.

“This is to not only enable them to get a flying job, but most importantly to equip them with the both the manipulative and decision making skills to operate efficiently and make the right decisions to ensure the safety of themselves and their passengers.”

Safety Management

Tim may be regarded by some as being a daredevil and risk taker because of his interest in most areas of aviation however he is also passionate about safety management and risk assessment.

He says that most people are risk takers but don’t really understand the risks they are taking with their lives– you can see this every day on our roads and even people who disregard their health and risk their lives through poor diet and lack of exercise.

There is nothing more costly for all of us than an accident and the important thing is for all of us to identify risks (or hazards) in our lives, assess those risks, mitigate (reduce) the risks if possible and then accept the risk with a plan of action if the event happens.

This process is called Safety Management and most pilots / people that have been involved in high risk activities for long periods have been practicing this throughout their lives – well before the process was given a formal name. The Joyce Aviation Group has a dedicated Safety Management Systems (SMS) manager who oversights individual safety officers from each different company within the group to identify potential hazards and coordinate regular safety meetings.

Throughout his career, Tim has faced many challenges and survival situations including being hijacked at gunpoint on two occasions, being shot at on a number of occasions whilst carrying out peace keeping missions with the United Nations as a helicopter pilot in East Timor and Bougainville, a number of forced landings and aircraft emergencies both in PNG and Australia.

In all cases however, he was able to land the aircraft safely without further damage.

Challenges

All businesses in Fiji have challenges due to bureaucratic practices which are not in line with current internationally accepted standards and practices.

The Fiji Aviation Legislation based on the original British Rules, is no exception and lags far behind the rest of the world, Tim believes. Approximately 15 years ago Fiji committed to harmonizing with the rest of the Pacific and adopting the New Zealand Regulations and Standards.

Although this was achieved within three to six months by other Pacific nations such as PNG and Vanuatu, it is still in process for Fiji. Tim is currently the CEO/Managing Director four aviation companies in the Joyce Aviation Group:

• Joyce Aviation (Fiji) Ltd (T/A: Heli-Tours Fiji),
• Sunflower Aviation Ltd,
• The Pacific Flying School Ltd
• and Tandem Skydive (Fiji) Ltd.

The group collectively employ over 80 persons.

Regarding the current COVID-19 crisis, he says; “I’ve always been an optimist.  I’ve had a lot of challenges in my life but the most important thing is for us to baton down, work together and survive as a group.

“We’re lucky that at least we have a cash flow from the Pacific Flying School that gives us the opportunity to keep many of our staff engaged – albeit on reduced pay so that we will be in a better position to recover when the situation returns to the ‘new normal’.

In terms of future plans, he says: “We had plans to list on the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPX) this year but because of COVID-19, we’ve had to put that back.

“We’ll keep working towards it, but it’s going to take a lot to recover from the impact of the pandemic so it’s going to be more like 2022.”

Feedback:  maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj