Munro arrives safely

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 1

Munro arrives safely

NZPA-AAP Sydney The air race star, Mr Boyd Munro, arrived in Sydney yesterday after a nine-day, 3635 km crossing of the Tasman via Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. He left Christchurch on January 15, pumping fuel by hand into the engine from a 300 litre drum fixed in the co-pilot’s seat. Another Tiger Moth biplane swept under Sydney’s harbour bridge yesterday at just about the same time as Mr Munro was due to land at Sydney airport. A spokesman for Mr Munro, who has set himself a place in aviation history through winning numerous national and international air races, said he did not know anything about the harbour bridge flight. By he admitted it was a coincidence that two Tiger Moths would be in the skies above Sydney at the same time. An Aviation Department spokesman said last evening that he had not heard anything officially about the bridge stunt. He said such flights were highly dangerous and illegal without permission. Mr Munro’s Tiger Moth, a prize he won in the 1987 Singapore to Christchurch air race, was built in Britain in 1941 and saw service as a trainer with the Royal Air Force for 13 years.

It was shipped to New Zealand in 1955 and was privately owned for the next 27 years.