He was 85.
Sir Tim was the founder of the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow, which has showcased vintage and modern aircraft for more than 25 years.
He was also a major figure in the establishment of New Zealand’s venison industry, still the major shareholder of Wānaka-based Alpine Group at the time of his death, and a former director of more than two dozen companies.
His wife, Prue Lady Wallis, last evening said Sir Tim was "a special bloke" to a lot of people, but especially to his family.
"He was a tough cookie.
"He loved his family and his sons.
"He died peacefully at home with both sons and me there, with his favourite helicopter parked by the window."
Lady Wallis said today was the anniversary of the death of their son Nick.
"We thought he would hold out for that, but no, he wanted to give himself his own day."
Sir Tim’s friend and Warbirds pilot John Lamont said his legacy would continue.
"I first met Tim back in 1988 when they ran the first Warbirds Over Wanaka.
"He was a massive inspiration because he was so passionate about warbird aircraft and operating them.
"A group of us was very fortunate to get involved with that."
"It was a marvellous era."
Author and friend Neville Peat documented Sir Tim’s life in his book Hurricane Tim in 2005 and said writing the life story of a man like Sir Tim called for some innovative ways to express his dynamism and the full force of his personality.
"Wherever I went for information, I found people only too willing to give me their ‘spin’ on Tim."
"This often took the form of anecdotes that spanned the gamut of human experience.
"Drama, humour, fear, shock and amazement were common themes."
Warbirds Over Wanaka general manager Ed Taylor in a statement said he had some fond memories of catching up with Sir Tim over the past 12 years.
"Sir Tim was a regular out at his airport office and I loved nothing more than having chats with him which almost always were about the airshow.
"He loved nothing more than talking about aircraft and the airshow."
Mr Taylor said Sir Tim was held in the highest regard in the world of warbird airshows.
"I might be talking to a relatively young warbird display pilot in the [United States] or Europe and they would ask after Sir Tim.
"They all knew him by name."
Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust chairman John Gilks said Sir Tim had left an amazing legacy.
"Today, the airshow attracts more than 50,000 people over three days and pumps $42 million into the regional economy."
Back in the early days, Sir Tim’s main reasons for staging the airshow were to share his collection of World War2 fighters with the general public, but also to help attract visitors to Wānaka, which was then a sleepy little town, Mr Gilks said.
"He achieved all of that and a lot more.
"He was a real business entrepreneur and his legacy in this region goes way beyond the airshow."
The title of Sir Tim’s biography, Hurricane Tim, came from a comment by Lady Wallis that living with Sir Tim was "like living with a hurricane roaring around on all sides".
"Sometimes it feels like the boys and I are the eye of the hurricane."
It also, of course, referenced Sir Tim’s love of WW2 aircraft, such as the Hawker Hurricane that played a vital part in the Battle of Britain.
In 1988, he founded the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow, bringing to the Upper Clutha vintage aircraft most people had only read about or seen in movies.
Fourteen thousand people rolled up to Wānaka Airport to watch displays of aircraft, including many owned by Sir Tim,
Profits went to the Wānaka swimming pool and towards the following airshow in 1990 when Sir Tim’s Spitfire XVI was the star of the show.
The attendance doubled to 28,000.
Sir Tim was a pioneer in the use of helicopters, at first to transport deer carcasses out of the mountains, and later recover live deer for the fledgling deer farming industry.
Sir Tim was born in Christchurch in 1938, growing up there — as a boarder at Christ’s College — and also on the West Coast, where his parents owned sawmills.
After high school, Sir Tim started out on a medical career, but soon ended up working in one of his father’s sawmills.
Much of his spare time was spent hunting deer, selling the venison for a shilling a pound, and also the tails and velvet.
The timber industry brought him to Luggate, which was the destination for the kahikatea logs he and his brother George felled around Haast.
Soon enough, the logging trucks were also carrying deer carcasses.
Returns from venison enabled Sir Tim to set up Luggate Game Packers and build up a fleet of helicopters.
In 1974, he married Prue Hazledine, whom he had met in London while she was working in the film industry.
At Wānaka Airport he grew the internationally recognised Alpine Fighter Collection consisting of such aircraft as a Corsair, Kittyhawk, de Havilland Fox Moth, Harvard, Mustang, Hurricane and two Spitfires — one of which he crashed in 1989.
A second Spitfire crash, in 1996, left Sir Tim in a wheelchair.
Sir Tim was knighted in 1994 — after initially declining — for his services to the deer industry and the founding of the airshow.
Two of Sir Tim’s four sons, Matt and Nick, died in helicopter crashes.
He is survived by Lady Wallis and sons Jonathan and Toby.
His funeral will be held next week.
An obituary will follow.
