Pilots’ Licence In 25 Days

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 22

Pilots ’ Licence In 25 Days

(New Zealand Press Association)

HASTINGS, August 30.

Two young Australians arrived at Bridge Pa aerodrome, Hastings, 26 days ago to gain their private pilots’ licences. This morning they set out in a chartered plane to fly themselves around the South Island.

They are Mr Rick Morse and Mr Bill Buchanan, of Collarenbri, a small town about 500 miles north-west of Sydney. They came to New Zealand because it was cheaper to get their licences in this country than in Melbourne. They arrived in Hastings on August 3 and in 25 days they had logged up 50 hours’ flying and had qualified for their licences.

Their achievement in gaining their pilots’ licence in less than four weeks was described by the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Aero Club’s instructor, Mr H. Maxwell, as “something of a record.”

It bad not been much, of a holiday for them, he said.

They had been working hard every day, either in study or flying, and only on a few days had the weather prevented them from flying.

They needed 40 hours* flying L to qualify but did 50 hours. They were “very good pupils,” said Mr Maxwell. Today they hired a club Cherokee and left for a round trip of the South Island—a well-earned holiday after more than three weeks’ hard work.

They will return to Hastings on Sunday and then leave for Sydney on their way home.