SUBSIDY TO PILOTS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29745, 12 February 1962, Page 9

SUBSIDY TO PILOTS

State’s Grant Delayed The Government has paid a subsidy of £6O to each pilot who gains his private pilot’s licence since 1956. The subsidy has been subject to approval annually and normally approval has been announced some months before this time of She year.

With no announcement so far, the Royal New Zealand Aero Club and ite affiliated clubs were gravely concerned, said the president of the Canterbury Aero Club (Mr R. M.. Buchanan).

The subsidy granted in the year up to March 31, 1961, was £l4 JOO for pilots throughout New Zealand, Mr Buchanan said.

Young persons who completed the 40-hour flying course had to meet an average cost of £l6O. Most of them were 18 and 19-year-old boys who dad not earn a great deal, and even if the subsidy was paid they had to pay about £lOO each. The Canterbury club, which had 100 pilots under training, had been trying to get a decision for the last nine months, Mr Buchanan continued. The president and secretary of the Royal New Zealand Aero Club had made representations to the Civil Aviation Administration and to the Government, but no firm announcement had been made. The Dominion officers were now trying to get an appointment with the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine). Aero clubs maintained a steady flow of pilots to commercial airlines and agricultural organisations, Mr Buchanan said. With fewer men receiving initial training with the Air Force, it was safe to say that the great majority of those who had entered commercial flying in the last 10 years had been aero club-trained.

"We hope the Government will gladiden us and the many young pilots under training with clubs throughout New Zealand with an early and favourable reply,” Mr Buchanan said.