TOPDRESSING BY AIR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27246, 13 January 1954, Page 3

TOPDRESSING BY AIR

LICENCES SOUGHT FOR BIG AIRCRAFT

A Douglas DC-3 and a Bristol Freighter, the two largest types of aircraft used in commercial aviation within New Zeeland, will be used for aerial topdressing work in the North Island if two applications to be heard by the Air Services Licensing Authority this month are approved. The hearing is set down for January 28 in Wellington. James Aviation, Ltd., of Hamilton, has applied for the addition of one DC-3 to the licence covering its fleet (two Havilland Beaver?, seven DH 82 Tiger Moths, one Percival Proctor, one Waco U.0.C., and three Austers). The company plans to use the DC-3 for aerial topdressing throughout the Auckland province, south of Auckland city, but including the Coromandel Peninsula, and in Taranaki.

Also included in the company's plans for the DC-3 is the right to operate with it on a trial basis anywhere in New Zealand under the direction of the Soil Conservation Council.

Other rights applied for include the right to operate the aircraft anywhere in New Zealand for aerial work apart from topdressing and for charter to other topdressing and aerial work operators. Industrial Flying, Ltd., of Wellington, hopes to use a Bristol Freighter for aerial topdressing and other aerial work anywhere in New Zealand.

Several efforts have been made by Federated Farmers to have Freighters used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force brought into service for aerial topdressing. It was calculated that a large-scale topdressing operation on the east coast of the North Island would cost about £2 10s an acre if large aircraft were used. It was then proposed to use money from the meat pool to finance maintenance and operating costs.