HELICOPTER SQUADRON
Cost Too High For Rescues
(N.Z. Press Association) ROTORUA, Aug. 4. The cost of running a helicopter squadron in New Zealand would be about as high as running the Canberra Squadron at Ohakea, according to Mr R. Scott, of Rotorua, the first man in New Zealand to get a helicopter
licence. In an address to members of the Rotorua Rotary Club yesterday, Mr Scott, training and safety officer for James Aviation, Ltd., said the armed forces in this country should have helicopters. However, he said the rough weather and high costs in New Zealand made the commercial use of helicopters uneconomic. The first helicopter in New Zealand cost more than £15,000. More recent models cost more than £23,000. Only once in the five years he had been on call as a helicopter pilot to search and rescue organisations, had his services been required. That was after the Kaimai air disaster, and then bad weather hampered operations, said Mr Scott.
The work of helicopters depended on calm weather which was when air crashes and shipwrecks seldom happened. Mr Scott said there was the important question of who would pay for the use of helicopters in rescue work.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 16
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198HELICOPTER SQUADRON Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 16
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