AN AIRMAN’S LIFE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 4

AN AIRMAN’S LIFE

The Restless Sky. By Air ViceMarshal C. E. Kay, C. 8., C.8.E., D.F.C. liarrap. 248 pp.

The task of reviewing this book would have been made immeasurably easier by the addition of an index, and in the chapters describing . intercontinental flights, a few maps. Yet it still remains a chronicle of courage and achievement, especially in the case of a relatively small body of unsung heros who in the earlier days of flying blazed the trail for today’s vast number of air travellers. The author’s first flight in an aeroplane was at Mangere when, as a small boy, at the end of the 1914-18 war he was

to enjoy 10s worth of thrills in a joyride provided by a returned war hero. He thereafter made up his mind that, come what- may, he would be an airman himself. Eight years later when in England he. was lucky that his application for a short-service commission in the Royal Air Force was backed by a short character recommendation from Lord Jellicoe who, while Governor-General of New Zealand, had admired the boy’s skill in handling small boats; and in 1926 his air training began in the R.A.F. training station in Egypt The next four years gave him a good deal of flying experience in different types of aircraft and in 1930, fired by the example of Bert Hinkler, who had completed a record flight to Australia in only 18 days, Kay and another New Zealander, Harold Piper, purchased a new high-wing enclosed-type monoplane from its maker, a Frenchman called Marcel Desoutter, and prepared to challenge Hinkler’s record. The account of this adven-

ture fills about a third of the book, and details the appalling hazards of long-distance flying in those days. With a maximum speed of 80 m.p.h., and a very limited petrol-tank capacity, the plotting of the day’s flight. had to take account of the always unpredictable weather, and forced landings in terrain quite unsuitable for such risks. Navigational aids were makeshift, and liable to disastrous error from shifting winds. No communication with the ground was possible, and spare parts had to be sent by sea to various destinations on the arranged route. Icing constituted a grave danger to the stability of a fragile machine.

A series of misfortunes due to technical trouble put paid to Desoutter’s chances of beating Hinkler’s record, but Kay and Piper completed their long and perilous journey to Sydney in six weeks. Four years later the author and another New Zealander, Jim Hewitt, who owned a D.H. Moth entered, with the timely aid of the proceeds of a New Zealand state lottery, for the famous air-race to Melbourne which was so spectacularly won by ScOtt and Black. The New Zealand pair gamely completed the course, but came in sixth. With the outbreak of the war the author, now commissioned in the R.N.Z.A.F., was in command of No. 75 (New Zealand Squadron) of Bomber Command, and his account of operations over enemy territory from the early days when the Air Force was seriously under strength to the triumphant mass-bombing of Germany a few years later have an epic character. In 1943, the author was sent home to command first an Air Force station at New Plymouth (when it was half expected a Japanese attack on New Zealand might be made from the sea), and subsequently the chronicallycrowded station of Ohakea, finally ending up at Wigram, which was mainly a training station. With a very distinguished career to his credit he became Chief of Air Staff in New Zealand at the end of the war, and in this capacity visited America and toured the Pacific Islands.

The last chapter contains a moving account of a flight to the Antarctic, where the imperishable evidence of Captain Scott’s explorations are still to be seen. Throughout his book Air Vice-Marshal Kay gives evidence of a lively mind as keenly interested in the historical past as the present, and he is a close observer of the international scene of today.