DELIVERY FLIGHT FROM U.S.

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30762, 28 May 1965, Page 12

DELIVERY FLIGHT FROM U.S.

A delivery man with one of the biggest rounds in the world arrived in Christchurch yesterday. In fact, the whole world in his delivery area. He is a ferry pilot, delivering aircraft from the makers to customers everywhere.

Mr Walter Moody arrived in a twin-engine Piper Aztec aircraft from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, ordered by the Wellington Aero Club. The six-seater aircraft is to be adapted in Christchurch for use as an air ambulance. It is not the first time Mr Moody has flown an aircraft to New Zealand, but he said it was just about the smoothest flight he had ever had. Usually there was some bad

weather on such a long route, but this time the weather was “marvellous.”

Mr Moody flew the aircraft across the United States to San Francisco one night and left the next morning on the long 14hr 30min hop to Hawaii. “I made the trip with two other airplanes which friends of mine were flying to Australia,” he said. “One was another Aztec and the other a Commanche. We spent Sunday checking and refuelling at Hawaii and left on Monday morning for Canton Island. We spent that night there and the next night at Nandi. I left for Christchurch just before daylight.” Mr Moody said he had extra fuel tanks in the cabin with 170 United States gallons of fuel for the flight from San Francisco to Hawaii. He said he owned a small company at Lock Haven which

specialised m aircraft deliveries. He had one other pilot and a pool of five more on whom he could call when business got brisk. His longest ferry job was to fly an aircraft from the United States across the Atlantic and through the Middle East to Tokyo. The longest nonstop flight was direct from Boston to Finland—a distance of 4155 miles, which took him 26 hours and used up 160 United States gallons of fuel. Mr Moody learned to . fly in the United States Air Force before the war, and flew Flying Fortresses in Italy during the war. Up to five years ago he had flown nothing smaller than heavy twin-engined aircraft and four-engined aircraft, but now he finds he likes the small aeroplanes very well. He will return to the United States by a commercial airline on Saturday, and after four or five days at home he

will be off again, this time to Brisbane. “Anything becomes just a job after a while,” said Mr Moody, “but this sure beats working for a living.” The photograph was taken from an aircraft of Airwork (New Zealand) Ltd. as the Aztec approached Christchurch Airport late yesterday afternoon.