Young Airmen On Trial

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30287, 13 November 1963, Page 18

Young Airmen On Trial

(New Zealand Press Association)

BLENHEIM, November 12. Flying in the dark without airfield lighting facilities was like driving a car without lights at 70 miles an hour over a paddock containing ditches, said a witness in the Supreme Court at Blenheim today. He was giving evidence in a case in which two 21-year-old airmen from the R.NZ.AJ'. station at Woodbourne. Barry Winstone Dorr and Brian Arthur Holes, are jointly charged that on August 31 at Woodbourne they unlawfully took, but not so as to be guilty of theft, a Piper 18 aircraft valued at £2OOO. the property of the Marlborough Aero Club. Dorr is also charged with committing an act likely to

imperil the safety of an aircraft and its passenger and crew. He allegedly piloted the aircraft at night while the Woodbourne control tower and night-flying facilities were closed and while he was not the holder of a current pilot's licence. Mr F. G. Paterson conducted the case for the Crown. Mr A. G. Wicks represented both accused. Henry Bielby, chief flying instructor of the Marlborough Aero Club, told the Court that Dorr had held a student pilot's licence which had lapsed some time before August 31. Dorr was not authorised by the witness to use the aircraft. Dorr's flying experience amounted to 371 hours, none of it at night.

Earlier Mr Paterson said Dorr and Holes had attended a social evening on the station which tliey left about 2 a.m.

Thornes Harold Sinclair, air traffic controller at Woodbourne. considered attempting to take off or land in an aircraft in darkness was not safe. He did not consider street fighting and Lighting from inside one of the hangars offered any assistance. With the Lighting available at Woodbourne after the night-flying facilities had been closed, he would say that only an experienced pilot could have any diance of handling the conditions Six witnesses were heard today. The case is expected to conclude tomorrow.