Touring U.S. in a Tiger moth

Press, 13 July 1976, Page 21

Touring U.S. in a Tiger moth

NZPA Washington A New Zealander, who always wanted to see the United States, is flying round the country during its bicentennary in a fragile pre World War II biplane. In 1968 lan Bennie, aged 38, an aircraft engineer from Auckland, bought a rotting Dehavilland Tiger Moth, used as a trainer by the Royal Air Force during World War 11. There were 9000 made from 1931 to 1945, but only about 500 still exist. “I had had dreams for years of visiting the United States,” he said, “then after I got this plane, it occurred to me this wa» the way to do it ”

He described the doublewing aircraft as “all fabric and wood and string and wire,” and said he bought it from a crop-dusting firm that had put it in mothballs. “After it became obsolete it was dismantled and stored away for a few years rotting,” he said. “It took me nine months and about $3OOO worth of materials to get it back in shape. I’ve even done it in red, white and blue.” Mr Bennie then had it flown to Los Angeles, where he began his tour in April, 1975. But a few weeks later he had an accident while landing at an air show on the Mojave Desert and it took him three months to get new parts from New Zealand and rebuild the plane. He has spent much of his time touring air shows and bicentennial spectacles in the southern United States, and had another harrowing experience in Florida.

“I was flying along and saw two dots ahead of me,” he explained. “I pulled the stick down and they went over me. They were ah force jets. My speed was about 85 miles an hour and their’s was around 500. I didn’t get informed of their presence by air force control.”