KEEN FLYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 103, 3 May 1941, Page 7

KEEN FLYERS.

NEW ZEALAND MEN.i € THRILLS IN CANADA. 1 | € PREMIER HEPBURN'S VISITS.!! I; LONDON (Canada), April 15.1 New Zealand's magnificent contribution of young, keen, intrepid bird-j men is swelling the flood of ekyli fighters now flowing in increasing 1 numbers from the finishing schools j of the British Commonwealth Air , Training Scheme. A representative • of the "Auckland Star" visited typical flights to-day in training at a : Bombing and Gunnery School. ■ Probably before airmail can carry these photos to Auckland they will have graduated, and placed themselves on final call for service at any battle station to which they may be assigned. They are an earnest lot, according to their senior officers, paying strict attention to the business of preparing themselves for duty hut, while half a world away from home, they find a good deal of enjoyment as each day brings new adventures. In Ftival Countryside. Their new school is south-west of London, in a beautnul rural countryside on the north shore of Lake Erie, one of the famed Canadian "Great Lakes." This inland fresh water sea is 250 miles long, with Detroit at its westerly end, and Niagara Falls and Buffalo at the east. Less than 90 miles south, straight across the lake, is Cleveland. Ohio, and sometimes, so the flyers claim, they have contrived to have! a glimpse of all three. Great altitudes and planes takingj training flights at better than 200j

miles an hour, make such short work of these flights that a Britisher from

anothar nearby Western Ontario; 'airport slid across the lake by error! in the night and sat down in Ohio. The Americans, however, cut red tape and the way back was about as easy. The New Zealanders near here have found themselves training under a pilot staff made up almost jentirely of Americans, pilots from j Miami, Florida, ' Hollywood, California, the Cotton States of the Old I South, the cattle ranches of Texas, jand cities of the industrial north. The command of course is British 1 land just about exclusively Canadian. ( j Spring Comes With Easter. * i Winter pretty well vanished with ] I the first of March, and Easter week i brought crystal clear skies and per- j feet flying weather. The New Zea-jj landers have learned with Canadians; ( to love the balmy south-west windj ( : that flows up a thousand miles from,-, the -'Gulf of Mexico; they know theji first robin back from the south is a!j cause of celebration, and many haveh been in the maple woods on nearbyi. ' farms, watching the processes of tree]; [ tapping, and the manufacture of sap , . i.nto maple syrup and sugar, famed' , Canadian delicacies. This country-. ' side is settled for upwards of 125 ; 'years with English, Irish and Scotch,, t stock living in the rural parts by, . mixed farming, and stock raising.!: -As they skirt the lake they see a "dozen little fishing villages, harbourr ing many tugs that make a rich haul Fof whitefish, herring, and pickerel. ' A 30-second flight from their hangars they pass a group of stone] buildings completed as the war broke! out at a cost of 13,000.000 dollars and ' intended as an Ontario Government "mental hospital. Ic was turned over; 5 to the R.C.A.F. by Premier Mitchell, SF. Hepburn and now houses 5000 1 men in a Technical Training Centre 1 schooling mechanics and ground per--1 sonnel. A stone's throw beyond the 3 hospital property they fly over] •• Premier Hepburn's own home, Ban-j '• nockburn Farms. None in the! s jcountry is mpre interested in the! B jNew Zealanders than the Premier, 1 ! who on occasional visits likes to! *jtalk of his own visit to their' jjhomeland. 1