AIR LINERS HELD UP

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 257, 27 July 1936, Page 10

AIR LINERS HELD UP

Bad Weather on South Island Section SAFETY FIRST POLICY Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, July 25. Very bad weather between Timaru and Dunedin has caused considerable interference with the very high percentage of completed scheduled trips ou the trunk service of Union Airways I,tel. between Palmerston North and Dunedin during the last three days. Not since Wednesday’s southbound trip has one of the company’s liners been able to proceed further south than Timaru, a stop being made there in the interests of safety, the company’s policy being that it. is better to have delays than to risk lives, malls and property. Thursday’s, Friday’s and Saturday’s south-bound machines all got as far as Tirnaru and then stopped, remaining there overnight and returning to Palmerston North the next day as near to schedule time as possible. Passengers, mail and luggage were, transported from Timaru to Dunedin and vice-versa by taxi, with the result that the machine was some time behind schedule on the northward trip. Fog and low clouds between Timaru and Dunedin necessitated the machine stopping at the former aerodrome again last night. It left for Christchurch at 10.35 this morning, arriving there 40 minutes later. Good weather was experienced for the remainder of the journey, and the trip to Blenheim occupied only 75 minutes, and the last stage to Palmerston North only 55 minutes, the machine arriving _at the northern terminus at 1.45 p.m., 70 minutes behind schedule.

MAILS SENT BY TRAIN By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, July 25. Flying Officer Campbell left the Taieri Aerodrome at 7.40 this morning in the Otago Aero Club’s Moth for Timaru with air mail, but was compelled to turn back owing to bad flying conditions. The mails were dispatched by train.

The Timaru-Dunedin section , of the route is subject to low cloud, making navigation difficult without the aid of radio beacons. Dr. M. A. F. Barnett, head, of the aviation section of the Meteorological Department, explained some of the weather hazards of flying in New Zealand in an address in Christchurch on Friday. He said that the atmosphere, in New Zea-land-was very clear and visibility was m consequence much better than in Europe. But the topography layout of New Zealand had an important and in some respects adverse effect on what might, be called our climate as it affected aviation. The fact that New Zealand was a relatively long and narrow country traversed by a high mountain chain cramped the available flying room, and made the part played by low cloud important. The mountain chain also had a marked effect on the distribution of pressure and the velocity and direction of the wind. Not only were conditions bumpy on the lee side of the mountains, but rapid pressure changes under certain conditions made altometer readings somewhat unreliable, and unexpected changes in the direction and speed of the wind were frequent. These facts would always make blind flying skill very necessary in New Zealand. The chief pilots of Union Airways, Ltd., and the pilots of Cook Strait Airways, Ltd., are blind-flying experts. FLYING IN ENGLAND Mr. Oscar Garden Now an Airline Superintendent Mr. Oscar Garden, the Christchurch airman who made a solo flight from England to Australia a few years ago, is now superintendent for United Airways Ltd. and is flying the mails in three-engined aeroplanes between Liverpool and Ireland. After a course of intensive study, Mr. Garden recently secured the higher certificate in commercial flying and navigation. He also won a blind-flying contest. United Airways operates from Heston, serving Liverpool, Blackpool, Isle of Man and Belfast (Ireland).