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Air N.Z. chief pilot to retire

Air New Zealand’s chief pilot for the last 10 years. Captain P. Le Couteur. will retire on August 17 after 31 years with the airline. He is one of an elite group of pilots to have clocked more than 20,000 flying hours, a feat almost impossible to achieve in commercial aviation today, and has the distinction of having flown every type of aircraft employed by Air New Zealand during its history. Captain I. Gemmel, who has been the airline’s DCIO flight captain for the last two years and a half, will succeed Captain Le Couteur as chief pilot. Captain Gemmel joined Air New Zealand in 1946 as an apprentice engineer, but learned to fly in his own time and was accepted on the flying staff in 1953 as a Solent i [flying boat second officer. Since then, he has flown. DC6s, Electras, DCBs, and more recently, DC 10s. In 1971, he was involved in planning the technical and training operations for the introduction of the DCIO into the airline’s fleet.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19750809.2.161

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 20

Word Count
176

Air N.Z. chief pilot to retire Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 20

Air N.Z. chief pilot to retire Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 20