FLIGHTS OVER ALPS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 12

FLIGHTS OVER ALPS

Cessnas Bought By Company

Two new ski-equipped aircraft from the United States are to be brought into use to take tourists on scenic flights over the Southern Alps and to land on the glaciers. According to the managing director of.the Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company, Ltd., (Mr Harry Wigley) the new aircraft are Cessna 180's and will be based at the Fox Glacier and the Hermitage. The aircraft are built specially for landing and taking off in snow, and have proved more successful in other parts of the world than the Austers at present used by the company. The Auster aircraft had skis fitted to them in this country, but the Cessnas have specially-manufactured skis as standard fittings. Mr Wigley said the new aircraft had been bought because there was an ever-increasing demand by tourists and ski-ers to land on the snowfields. Ski-ers could be taken 8000 ft up the glaciers and provided with inspiring downhill rpns. and tourists keenly sought flights to the high snowfields in the summer. The Cessnas have more power at high altitude than the Austers, and Mr Wigley considers the extra power a great advantage. This is the fifth season in which the ski-equipped aircraft have been operating, and more than 1000 trips have been made by the Austers to date. Personal Items Mr Roger de Bergecol de Lile, who was France’s first Ambassador to New Zealand, has been appointed Ambassador to Guatemala. Mr de Bergecol left New Zealand a little more than a year ago.—(P.A.) The Consul-General for the Argentine Republic (Mr R. M. Zabala) will leave Wellington on September 8 to return to Buenos Aires after seven years in Wellington. He will be succeeded by Mr H. S. Fernandez, who is at present Second Secretary at the Embassy at Djakarta.—(P.A.) The Rt Rev Dr. J. D. Salmond. Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, has been elected a vice-president of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, with special responsibility for the South Pacific area. He succeeds the Very Rev Dr. A. C. Watson, of Melbourne, and formerly of- New Zealand. Dr Salmond has been attending the 18th general council of the alliance in Sao Paulo, Brazil—(P.A.) The Chief of the General Staff (Major-General C. E. Weir) leaves New Zealand today to attend a conference of Commonwealth Chiefs of Staff in London.—<P.A.) Mr J. Leggat, the new Director of Education for Western Samoa, conducted his last assembly as headmaster of Christchurch Boys’ High School yesterday morning, before all the forms—normally one is excluded because of space restrictions. Tomorrow he will leave for Auckland, and on Tuesday he will sail for Western Samoa. Yesterday afternoon he was presented with a watch from all the pupils, and previously at a staff dinner, he was presented with a silver salver bearing the school crest.