AIR SERVICES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19724, 14 September 1929, Page 16

AIR SERVICES.

NJS. COMPANY'S PLANS. OPERATIONS TO BEGIN NEXT YEAR. [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, September 13. In the very near future New Zealand is to take its place amongst those countries which have established an air service linking up the main centres one with the other. The first two services will be Gisborne-Hastings-Wellington and Christchurch-Bienheim-Nelson-Wel-lington, which it is anticipated will commence in March next. Other con- ! tingencies have to be met before an Auckland-Dunedin service can be established, but there are more unlikely things than that the time is not far distant when it will be possible to breakfast in Auckland and dine in Dunedin the same day. A regular daily air service is to be established each way between Gisborne and Hastings in March, 1930, subject to a suitable landing ground being provided at Gisborne. The air journey to Wellington will be completed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the nine months of summer weather, so that on three days a week it will be possible to leave Gisborne at 7 o'clock a.m., have breakfast at the Hustings airport, and arrive in Wellington at 10 a.m. The aeroplane will leave Wellington again at 3.30 p.m., arriving at Hastings at 5 p.m. and Gisborne at 6.15 p.m. The single fare between Gisborne and Hastings will be £2 10s, and between Hastings and Wellington £3. Immediately the service is established the company, Dominion Airlines, Limited, which has the matter in hand, proposes to commence regular daily services between Wellington and Christchurch, Blenheim and Nelson. The time-tables will allow passengers to leave Christchurch at 7 a.m., Nelson at 8 a.m., and Blenheim at 8.30 a.m., arriving at Wellington at 9 a.m. In the afternoon machines will leave Wellington at 2.30 p.m., 4 p.m., and 3.30 p.m. for Christchurch, Blenheim, and Nelson respectively, arriving at the terminal points at 4.30 p.m. Single fares will be as follows :~-Christchurch-Wellington, £5; Blenheim-Wellington, £2; NelsonWellington, £2 10s. It is proposed to establish regular air services throughout the Dominion as soon as possible, but it is stated that direct services between Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, and Invercargill cannot be made an economic possibility without mail contracts. It is understood that the company has already made very comprehensive offers to the Government for a mail-carrying contract, pointing out that their suggestions compare very favourably with the terms of similar contracts in other countries. It is also stated that the contracts, if given, would not pay the cost of maintaining the services, but the company has confidence in the amount of passenger traffic which will be available.

The company proposes to use threeengined four-passenger cabin monoplanes ' for the Gisborne-Hastings-Wel-lington service, and the ChristchurchWellington service. Six-seater amphibians will in all probability be used on the Blenheim' and Nelson services; the advantage of this type of aircraft for the Cook Strait crossing being stressed. A dossing at no greater height than 501 feet may, it is maintained, be made in perfect safety for the amphibian can alight at any time on the water.

The details of the practical side of the company's organisation have been the work of Mr E. E. Money, who left the Royal Air Force in June, 1928, after 14 years of continuous flying experience. During the last four years of his service as a flight commander and instructor at the E.A.F. training base at Leuchars in Scotland Mr Money had, in addition to his instructional work, to carry out many long cross-countrv flights from the East of Scotland to Gosport on the Solent an-i to Benfrew on the West Coast of Scotland and Novar, near Invergordon on the Moray Firth. These journeys entailed long passages over mountainous country where for many miles a forced landing could not have been made without damaging the aircraft. The Cairngorm Mountains and the Grampians spread themselves over the whole of the centre of Scotland and cannot be avoided. To carry out one duty, that of photographing from the air the reservoir in the mountains above Kinloch I/even, near Ballachulish, on the West Coast, Mr Money had io spend three weeks. The work actually occupied one hour, but ten journeys were made across the heart of the Grampians in stormy weather before a day arrived on which the clouds parted sufficiently to allow the photographs to be taken. Mr Money states that on the whole flying will be safer in New Zealand than it is in Great Britain. The extra strength and bumpinesa of the winds here are, he says, more than discounted by the extremely high average visibility. Mr Money states that poor visibility far more than a gale is the bugbear of aviators and is, next to stalling an aeroplane near the ground, the most fruitful cause of accidents. "Air pockets," of "which we hear so much in this country, according to Mr Money, are very rarely air pockets at aIL He says they are usually strong downward currents of air, such as are always encountered in hilly country | with large expanses of water. Mr j Money states that with a good reserve of engine power these downward air currents can be successfully negotiated,! but with a comparatively underpowered ! machine like the average light aeroplane with two passengers and a full load of petrol occasions might easily arise when such an aeroplane would fail to maintain its height. Mr Money stated that he had been looking for a really good air pocket all his flying career, and that the best he has so far found was one of approximately 75 feet on the northern face of Ben Nevis in Scotland.

Mr Money has spent the. last Line months in making an exhaustive survey of the possibilities of commercial aviation in New Zealand and is convinced that not only is it a practical possibility, but that services will be maintained on a very high average number of days per year. Various emergency landing grounds will have to be made available on the regular routes, but once that is done the risk of accident to an aeroplane piloted by an experienced pilot will, he considers, be reduced to a negligible minimum. It is stated that so much support has been received that the first two aeroplanes have already been ordered. The directors of the eompany which is to carry out the scheme outlined are:— Sir John P. Luke, C.M.G., of Wellington; Messrs Arnold B. Williams, of Tokomaru Bay; William Bichmond, of Hastings; Ivan Louis Eight, of Dannevirke; James B. Kirk, M.8.E., of Giaborne; Jack Newman, of Messrs Newman Bros., Ltd., of Nelson; and Henry B. Duncan, of Nelson.