PODCAST SUMMARY: Charlie Nelson of Vertilink on the huge potential for Advanced Air Mobility in New Zealand

In the lat­est episode of eVTOL Insights Pod­cast, host Jason Pritchard delves deep into the future of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty in New Zealand with Char­lie Nel­son, who is the Direc­tor, Pres­i­dent, and Exec­u­tive Chair­man of Ver­tilink Infra­struc­ture Group.

Charlie’s exten­sive back­ground as an air­line pilot and flight instruc­tor has shaped his jour­ney towards found­ing Ver­tilink and set­ting ambi­tious goals for New Zealand’s air mobil­i­ty land­scape.

Pro­mot­ing Advanced Mobil­i­ty through Work­shops and Cul­tur­al Exchange
Char­lie dis­cuss­es his involve­ment in var­i­ous work­shops orches­trat­ed by Ver­tilink across New Zealand.

These work­shops aim to edu­cate atten­dees about advanced mobil­i­ty and liv­ing sys­tems think­ing while engag­ing cru­cial stake­hold­ers, includ­ing the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty.

The enthu­si­asm and pos­i­tive feed­back received under­score the sig­nif­i­cance of these edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives, rein­forc­ing Ver­tilink’s com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment and trans­par­ent com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Com­mu­ni­ty, Safe­ty, and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty: Core Val­ues of Ver­tilink
One of the cen­tral top­ics explored in this episode is Vertilink’s core val­ues: safe­ty, social respon­si­bil­i­ty, and sus­tain­able inno­va­tion.

Char­lie empha­sizes that safe­ty remains the bedrock of the avi­a­tion indus­try and guides all deci­sion-mak­ing process­es at Ver­tilink. The company’s ded­i­ca­tion to social respon­si­bil­i­ty ensures that New Zealan­ders’ inter­ests are pri­or­i­tized, espe­cial­ly those of remote and indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties.

AAM’s Poten­tial to Trans­form Lives in Remote Areas
Char­lie pas­sion­ate­ly speaks about the promise that advanced air mobil­i­ty holds for New Zealand, par­tic­u­lar­ly for enhanc­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty in remote areas.

With improved air mobil­i­ty, access to essen­tial ser­vices such as health­care, edu­ca­tion, and employ­ment can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhanced. Addi­tion­al­ly, this inno­va­tion stands to address cli­mate change-relat­ed chal­lenges by pro­vid­ing resilient trans­port solu­tions dur­ing extreme weath­er events.

Inte­grat­ing Sus­tain­able Tech­nol­o­gy in Urban Areas
The con­ver­sa­tion also touch­es on the oppor­tu­ni­ties pre­sent­ed by urban air mobil­i­ty in cities like Auck­land.

With New Zealand’s per capi­ta high usage of heli­copters, there is a sub­stan­tial poten­tial for inte­grat­ing sus­tain­able ver­ti­cal flight tech­nol­o­gy. This could rev­o­lu­tion­ize urban trans­porta­tion, reduce con­ges­tion, and pro­vide an eco-friend­ly alter­na­tive to tra­di­tion­al com­mut­ing meth­ods.

Engag­ing with the Māori Com­mu­ni­ty
Anoth­er cru­cial aspect of the dis­cus­sion revolves around the role of the Māori com­mu­ni­ty in New Zealand.

Char­lie high­lights the com­mu­ni­ty’s deep-root­ed val­ues relat­ed to envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship and land guardian­ship. By incor­po­rat­ing these val­ues into their mis­sion, Ver­tilink ensures that the air mobil­i­ty sys­tem will ben­e­fit Māori com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly those in remote regions, by improv­ing access to their trib­al lands.

Look­ing Ahead: Future Devel­op­ments and Indus­try Engage­ment
Char­lie shares excit­ing updates about upcom­ing devel­op­ments in the AAM sec­tor and announces Vertilink’s par­tic­i­pa­tion at ICAO’s AAM sym­po­sium in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da.

He invites lis­ten­ers to con­nect and stay informed through the Ver­tilink web­site and LinkedIn, hint­ing at the many inno­v­a­tive projects on the hori­zon.

Farewells and Well Wish­es
The episode con­cludes with friend­ly farewells, leav­ing lis­ten­ers with a sense of opti­mism and antic­i­pa­tion for the future of advanced air mobil­i­ty in New Zealand.

Charlie’s insights and pas­sion clear­ly out­line Vertilink’s vision of enrich­ing New Zealand lives eco­nom­i­cal­ly, social­ly, and eco­log­i­cal­ly through sus­tain­able inno­va­tion in avi­a­tion.

Stay tuned for more episodes of “eVTOL Insights” as we con­tin­ue to explore ground­break­ing devel­op­ments in the eVTOL air­craft and urban air mobil­i­ty mar­kets.