NEW ZEALAND PILOTS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND PILOTS

Queen Mother’s Flight

(New Zealana Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 20. A New Zealander, Captain R. E. Flower, commanded the Bristol Britannia which brought the British Prime Minister (Mr Harold Macmillan) to Auckland today. Captain Flower, who has been with British South American Airways and the British Overseas Airways Corporation since the end of the war, will also fly the Queen Mother from Fiji to Auckland in the same Britannia on February 1. Captain Flower, aged 40, was educated at Waitaki Boys’ High School. His mother, Mrs Margaret Flower, who lives in Blenheim, met her son at Whenuapai today, and so did an aunt, Miss P. Brydon.

Captain Flower said he joined the Royal Aip Force Volunteer Reserve in 1937, and flew in the R.A.F. during the war. The Britannia has a crew of nine, and Captain Flower said he considered it an honour to be chosen as Mr Macmillan’s pilot. The Queen Mother will have a New Zealand captain for the whole of her journey from Britain to Auckland. Captain W. J. Craig, formerly a pilot with Tasman Airways, wil be captain of the Douglas DC-7C that will carry her to Nandi, Fiji. The second pilot of the DC-7C will be Captain G. M. Allcock, formerly of Papatoetoe.

Captain Craig will arrive in Auckland from England on Wednesday night to make a preliminary survey and inquiries in connexion with the Queen Mother’s flight.

Captain Flower will fly to Nandi on Saturday to have a look at the airport there, and will return to Auckland on Sunday. The Britannia will remain in this area until the Queen Mother arrives in Fiji.