Aeronautical College At Harewood Too Small

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31277, 25 January 1967, Page 14

Aeronautical College At Harewood Too Small

Accommodation at the Department of Civil Aviation Aeronautical College at Christchurch airport would be severely taxed this year, said the principal (Mr J. Irvine) yesterday. Already several extension rooms were having to te used temporarily, and the coUege was trying to obtain a prefabricated building to relieve the shortage. Plans for a permanent, twostorey college, under consideration for at least a year, had been prepared in Christchurch and were now at the head office of the department in Wellington awaiting approval. Mr Irvine said 1967 promised to be a heavy training year at the college. Several courses were running concurrently, and large numbers of meteorology and telecommunications trainees were attending. This week the first 1967

course of air traffic control cadets began their initial training. A second intake of cadets would enter the college on April 26. The 24 cadets had been selected from 150 applicants from all parts of New Zealand. Mr Irvine said the cadet scheme had been introduced because of the shortage of adult recruits. The threeyear course for the cadets in-

cluded classroom training, periods of practical training at small airfields, and three months’ flying training. Originally the Royal New Zealand Air Force was to have provided the flying training, but it was now unable to do so. At present the department was awaiting Ministerial approval to invite tenders from aero clubs to provide the cadets with 60 hours of flying training. Recently the department had again been recruiting air traffic controllers overseas, Mr Irvine said. He believed there had been some success in Britain and some interviews had been conducted in Germany, but there appeared to have been little interest in Canada.