FLYING INSTRUCTION

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 221, 15 June 1931, Page 8

FLYING INSTRUCTION

Wellington Aero Club ASSISTANT APPOINTED Recognised ac on® of the best pilot® in the Dominion, with a reputation for ability a» an aeronautical engineer, FlightLieutenant G. B. Bolt has been appointed assistant instructor and ground engineer to the Wellington Aero Club. Having learned to fly at Messro. Walsh Bros.’ flying echool at Kohimarama, Auckland, in 1917, Flight-Lieu-tenant Bolt has been a prominent figure in New Zealand aviation ever since that time. Making aviation hia career, he joined the staff of the flying school, and being a pilot of both seaplanes and landplanes, he was connected with the experimental aerial mail services which were undertaken some ten years ago. On one of his flights in the far north, with Bishop Cleary as his passenger, the seaplane broke down when just outside Hokianga Heads. It happened that a pair it racing pigeons were aboard; these were released with a message, “Machine broken down outside Hokianga Heads; send rocker valve. H. Cleary,” and duly reached their Auckland loft, assistance then being sent. Two yeans ago he and Squadron-Leader Stedman were employed as pdots, of “e Avro-Avians of the Goodwin-Chichester Aviation Company, and in thia capacity gave joy rides to hundreds of people in tne Wellington district. Then he joined Dominion Airlines, and was sent to England as their representative, visiting all the leading firms and factories connected with tne aviation industry, gathering information concerning the various types of machines and their suitability for New Zealand conditions. He made a study at the commercial services, and more than once acted a second pilot on the big air liners need by Imperial Airways, Ltd., on their London thepilot of the Desoutter monoplane owned by Dominion Airlines, and wh’ch later crashed and killed I. L. Knight, who had relieved him, and two passengers, he inaugurated Che Gis-borne-Hastings air service. He was con nccted with the aerial relief meaBn T es Ing the recent Hawke’s Bay earthquake, and when Dominion Airlines went into liquidation, he took up a position with New Zealand Airways at Dunedin.