REPORTERS TAKEN FOR FLIGHT IN HELICOPTER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 9

REPORTERS TAKEN FOR FLIGHT IN HELICOPTER

yp n y persons have seen Christhuich from the window of a commer•al airliner slipping beneath at 120 an hour, but only a few have the opportunity .of getting a firstSnd look at their city virtually stand- ■ still above it at heights of from to 600 ft. This opportunity was yesterday to representatives of £,rjstchurch newspapers and.the New Mland Broadcasting Service, who ..re carried on flights over the city suburbs by the Bristol Sycamore Sicipter from H.M.A.S. Sydney. TTiere was undoubtedly a novelty in s-jnr in the first helicopter to be in Ohristchurch. The sensation Ttbat of travelling in a. motor-car Jijth a deafening engine. The £35,000 helicopter even had a motor-car rearSion mirror for the pilot. Yesterday, the helicopter’s airspeed Indicator, on its shuddering panel of is dials, showed up to 60 knots, but ioeed over the ground seemed to be "ncti slower. Passengers saw so much in a leisurely 10-minute jaunt over the atv that when the machine touched down in Hagley Park before returning tn the ship they had the feeling qf having been airborne for much longer. The pilot of the helicopter, Lieutenant Sbamus O’Farrell, has been with the Fleet Air Arm for the last five rears. He was trained at Point Cook hv the Royal Australian Air Force and ,4nt to the United Kingdom to learn deck landings with the Royal Navy. He flew Sea Furies with the Royal Australian Navy in Korea and last year transferred to helicopters. Although they looked simple to fly

helicopters were really most difficult for pilots converting from fixed wing aircraft, and many experienced men ■ - < l^ r V e , s ,° dl saPPointed with their irutial lack of progress in learning fly * spe rotary wing machine that they felt like throwing their hands in. Lieutenant O’Farrell said. A pilot needed to be .much more careful and sensitive m a helicopter and many found that when they returned to uxed wing planes they were the better pilots because of it. Relaxation was impossible and a man had to be on his toes ah the time. Even the actions of getting in and out of the machine had to be done consciously, otherwise a man might get a sharp and sudden blow on the ear from a blade of the mam rotor and he would probably not recover.

The open spaces of Christchurch impressed Lieutenant O’Farrell. “I have never seen a better place to and th at’s not kidding,” he said. If anything happened in the air I could put down practically anywhere without any danger. It seems to be rural closer to the city that I have ever seen before, and it is very noticeable from the air.” *

Lieutenant O’Farrell said he had never seen such a concentration of schools. The 27-year-old Irishman has a soft spot for children. He takes his machine down to let them have a look at it as closely as he can and as often as ne is able, and yesterday when he flew over Christchurch he amply demonstrated this. He has received considerable admiring fan mail from one North Island school on whose basketball court he landed.