FLYING AS PASTIME.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18924, 12 February 1927, Page 10

FLYING AS PASTIME.

BECOMING POPULAR IN SYDNEY. (rno.M our own coiWEsr-OXDEXT.) SYDNEY, February 3. . In Sydney at trie present time at least twenty people arc known officially to be waiting to buy aeroplanes for business and pleasure flights, thanks largely to the stimulus which the Aero Club bus given to llymg in New South Wales. There must be something iu it when one of Sydney's most prominent figures in tlic motor business, Mr S. L. Tyler, openly asserts that travelling by air is far more comfortable than riding in a motor-car. Lie is not speaking without his book, for what he dues not know' about motoring is not worth knowing, while the aeroplane which ho now uses alike for pleasure and business is the third machine which lie has owned. Hia recent trip with a party by air to the Federal capital has now been eclipsed by a flight from Sydney to Melbourne which, in actual flying time, occupied seven hours. The macliinc lie has just bought, and which is designed solely for touring, has a cruising speed of eighty miles an hour and a maximum speed of 100 miles an hour. It has accommodation for three passengers. Tho journey is an illustration of the advantages of flying when applied to business. Among the pupils of tho Aero Club are a number of motorists, including a prominent woman motorist. Perhaps one of the fascinations of flying for them is the lure of speed, and the knowledge that, in the air, they are not hampered by traffic constables or by other traffic."

The Aero Club's reduction of 40 per cent, in the cost of solo flying offers to prospective pupils the opportunity of flying for less than half the cost of a taxi-enb. The flying costs work out at 7s Gd per quarter hour, which, on the basis of 60 miles an hour, is only sixpence per mile. Tho reduction will tax tlie resources of the club, but if it can pay expenses it will be satisfied. This is all it aims to do. The State Governor (Sir Dudley de Chair) is a patron of the club, lint he lias not so far evinced the enthusiasm for flying manifested by tho Governor-General. As a distinguished seaman, Sir Dudley no doubt feels safer on the water than in the air. The Aero Club, which is one of Svdney's livest organisations, and which has the enthusiastic backing of the Press, brings out monthly a most informative little journal aptlv styled "The Fly Paper."