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Turbulent Years: A Commercial Pilot’s Story provides an insight into the workings of early regional airlines in New Zealand. A blend of autobiography and historical reference, it is the story of Brian Waugh’s flying career, in Great Britain and then in New Zealand. It is also about the Dominie, the Beech 18 and the Lockheed 10. Flying for many years for three small airlines – South Island Airways, Trans Island Airways and West Coast Airways – Waugh found out why their names were seen only as peeling paint on hangar walls. He spells out the problems that have dogged many a struggling airline: lack of capital; wrong choice of aircraft; sticking to schedules rather than charters; political interference; restrictions by statutory bodies; and the over-riding ability of Big Brother, the National Airlines Corporation, to dominate any route. In its broad sweep as relevant today as in the early years of New Zealand commercial and charter aviation, this book is a thoroughly entertaining memoir of Brian Waugh’s life and the planes he flew, and the story of one of New Zealand’s most enduring aviation mysteries.