N.Z. TUTOR FOR DUKE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27698, 30 June 1955, Page 6

N.Z. TUTOR FOR DUKE

Training In Flying Helicopters (From the London Correspondent ot "The Press") LONDON, June 22. New Zealand-born Lieutenant-Com-mander Maxwell Simpson, R.N., of 705 Squadron, H.M.S. Siskin, Gosport, is the most experienced helicopter pilot in the Service, having flown theso machines for two-and-a-half-years. He is the man who will teach the Duke of Edinburgh to pilot helicopters. He has had a varied career and will have in common with the Duke of Edinburgh a love of ships and the sea. Although his father wanted him to be a lawyer, young Max Simpson had set his heart on a life at sea and ran away from home to joip the Merchant Navy. When war broke out he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force and, towards the end of the war, transferred to the Fleet Air Arm. During the Korean War Lieutenant-

Commander Simpson served in the Australian aircraft-carrier, Sydney, and on one occassion had to crashland his aircraft behind Communist lines. . It has always been the commander’s policy never to desert his aircraft if it can be possibly avoided. So. by crawling towards the American lines, he managed to make contact with the United Nations forces and sought help in rolling barrels of fuel to his aircraft. After much painstaking effort he and an American soldier managed to pour sufficient fuel into the plane to allow him to take off and make his way back to his aircraft-carrier. During his long flying career, Commander Simpson has flown nearly every type of naval aircraft. In recent years he has concentrated on helicopters. In this branch of the service he has been responsible for a number of notable rescues. On May 25 he flew a 525 Whirlwind helicopter laden with 50 fire, extinguishers to the assistance of a vessel on fire off the enemy coast. In January this year he accomplished for the first time the difficult task of passing a line from ship to ship from a helicopter during a salvage operation carried out to assist the freighter Knightsbridge grounded south of the Isle of Wight. Commander Simpson, who comes from Wellington, has flown the Duke of Edinburgh by helicopter on a number of occasions already and has landed on the lawns of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.