TASMAN AIR SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 256, 27 July 1939, Page 8

TASMAN AIR SERVICE

Preparations At Auckland Base Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, July 26. With large quantities of stores arriving from Britain, the unpacking, sorting and indexing of thousands of items for the repair and maintenance of transocean aircraft provides one of the principal tasks for the skeleton staff at the Mechanics Bay base of the Tasman Air Service. Ranging from minute washers to complete aero engines, each component has to be carefully classified and stored, so that it may be accesible at_ a moment’s notice. Within the next few weeks, it is expected, the staff at the base will be brought up to the normal strength of between 20 and 30 men. A proportion will be skilled in the maintenance and handling- of Imperial Airways craft in Britain, and several New Zealanders who have served with the’company in England are returning to the Dominion to assist in servicing the flying-boats to be used on the transtasman run. In the large workshops and stores of the base every facility is being provided to carry out every phase of maintenance and repair work. As a preliminary, many days are being spent in sorting the enormous range of spare parts into orderly sections. By means of a card indexing system it will be possible to obtain readily any item, from tiny screws and nuts to massive carburetters and airscrew equipment. Eight complete motors are also to be kept in stock. Radio Station At Auckland Progress made with the installation of equipment at the Musick Memorial radio station, Auckland, which will be used in connexion with the transtasman air service, was reviewed last night by the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones, in an interview. All equipment except the mediumwave trasinitter would be installed in time for the first flight by one of the three modified Empire-type machines acquired for the service, the Minister said. He added that the teleprinters for the Musick Point—Mechanics’ Bay circuit would also be working. Though no date had yet been announced for the inauguration of the service, Mr. Jones said that arrangements had been made for the Musick memorial station to be manned by a skeleton staff sufficient for the preliminary service.