INAUGURAL FLIGHT

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30916, 24 November 1965, Page 8

INAUGURAL FLIGHT

N.Z. Pilot In Command

Captain R. A. Probert, assistant flight superintendent (training) with Qantas, will command the airline’s first jet service into Auckland’s new international airport at Mangpre today. The Qantas service from Sydney will be the airport’s first commercial jet arrival and is scheduled to land at 2.45 p.m. Educated at Auckland Grammar School, Captain Probert was in Nos. 1,3, 9. 40 and 41 Squadrons, R.N.Z.A.F., during World War 11. After the war he joined the New Zealand National Airways Corporation as a pilot, then flew with British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines from 1948 to 1954.

He began flying with Qantas when B.C.P.A. amalgamated with the Australian airline in 1954 and has been flying Boeing 707 jets for six years.

. His present position is overseeing all pilot flight training and checking on the company’s world routes. Captain Probert is looking forward to the inaugural flight when his father, Mr J. W. Probert, of Auckland, will be at the airport to meet him. Two other New Zealand crew members are Flight Engineer K. Nicholson, of Nelson, who joined Qantas in 1958, and Flight Hostess Pat Moor, of Auckland. Flight Hostess Moor was employed by Qantas last September when the airline sent a recruiting team across to New Zealand to engage hostesses. Four girls were chosen and since Miss Moor took up her duties in December, 1964, she has flown on a number of the company's world routes.