Smaller Plane Used On Chathams Run

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 14

Smaller Plane Used On Chathams Run

A twin-engined Navaho aircraft took six passengers and their luggage from the Chatham Islands airstrip at Hapupu to Wellington yesterday. The aircraft, piloted by Captain I. Reardon, of Tasman Air Services, Ltd, will continue the Chathams link until the airstrip is again able to take the Bristol Freighters of Safe Air, Ltd.

Unusually wet weather and the high level of the Te Whanga lagoon have softened the 1000 ft extension of the airstrip and the Civil Aviation Division has ruled it unsafe for Bristol Freighters for a fortnight. A passenger on the Navaho aircraft said last evening in Christchurch that it could carry only six passengers (plus pilot and copilot), but Captain Reardon said the aircraft might make the trip four days a week. The Navaho is fast enough to make two, trips in one day, although it has to leave the Chathams about mid-after-noon to get to Rongotai before dark.

The outlet to the lagoon has not been opened yet: Pre-

parations have been made to cut the sand bar blocking the lagoon from the sea. County council workmen have a bulldozer at the outlet, but the wind has changed from the north-west to the southeast and south-west. Winds from these quarters make it difficult to start the lake flowing through a cut. The owner of Tasman Ajr Services, Ltd, an Aucklandbased firm, is Mr J. Ferrier, formerly of Christchurch. It is not known whether the Navaho will carry mail.