Nostalgia as pilots reunite

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 4

Nostalgia as pilots reunite

More than a hint of nostalgia was in the air when two vetei'an pilots, George Harvey (left) and Peter Buck, climbed into the cockpit of a Fokker Friendship F 27 at Christchurch Airport yesterday.

The occasion was the celebration of 25 years of commercial flights of Series 100 and 500 Friendships by Air New Zealand.

As they eyed the latest technological advances on the flight deck, Captains Harvey and Buck cast their minds back over the years to 1960 and the delivery flight of the first New Zealand Friendship, ZK-BXA, Kuaka.

They recalled that 12-day flight from the Netherlands with its 14 refuelling stops. “The autopilot went on the blink on the first leg so we hand-flew it most of the way,” said Captain Harvey,

now aged 70. “Apart from that it was a trouble-free journey. It was a delightful aircraft to fly.” Captain Harvey, a former chief pilot of the National Airways Corporation, commanded the delivery flight from Amsterdam to Wellington and on to Christchurch.

Captain Buck, now aged 62, was flight operations manager of N.A.C. at the’ time of its merger with Air New Zealand. He was also on the delivery flight and

later commanded the first commercial flight on December 22, 1960. Yesterday, the two retired pilots were flown to Auckland, via Napier, to give them a chance to compare the latest Series 500 with the Series 100 they first flew.

The flight was linked with the past in more than the historical sense. They were flown to Auckland by Captain Peter Buck, junior, a pilot for Air New Zealand on the provincial routes. The company’s Southern Region manager, Mr Paul Bowe, paid tribute to the service given by the Friendships — the “workhorses of the fleet.” Air New Zealand has the largest Friendship fleet in the world.

“The company has no immediate plans to replace them,” said Mr Bowe.