AIRPORT SHAPING

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1929, Page 12

AIRPORT SHAPING

CLUB'S ACTIVITIES

SAND NUISANCE ABATED

WG JOB GOING [WELL

' It appears certain that in a short {Hine there will bo considerable activity in aviation on the new ground at Jiongotai. The ground is taking shape |»pidly under a gang of soino 150 men, jiriiile tho Wollington Aero Club, which Jwas formed last year, lias been active in preparing for action as regards the [provision of funds and the acquisition ■of members, activo and non-active. Little can be dono without money, but, [while several leading citizens have made offers of financial assistance, and ;there is no doubt that the club will be actively assisted by the public, no steps liavo been taken, in this direction for several reasons. Tho City Council las jdono much for +he ideal of a Wollingjfcon airport, and will have spent some J£17,000 on the job when it is finished. {With a full appreciation of this in mmd, the club did not wish to launch any public appeal until tho National : Museum and Art Gallery Fund was ■Hearing the last stages of its campaign. Now that this has .been accomplished, it is likely that shortly more will be Jieard from tho club. It has been by 3io means idle in the meantime, as plans have been gratuitously propared for a hangar, and a contracting firm has promised to erect it free. The membership has increased considerably. It is intended to make tho financial year of tho club commence from Ist March. Ground lectures to members lave already been arranged for, , and lectures on engine lubrication, etc., will be given. The advice of Mr. Dix, the Marlborough delegate to the Washington Civil Aviation Aeronautical Conference, who is representing the Wellington Aero Club also, will no doubt prove valuable in deciding the course of action to be taken. A fund of at Jeast £3000 is aimed at as a start, for .the purchase of 'planes and for tho fitting up of hangars. Of course, such, a port is not for the 1190 of Wellington aviators alone, and in its time it will no doubt be largely used by cross-Strait traffic as well as -by'the many commercial services that must spring into being all over the country as the air sense .becomes developed.

That there is. an air sense already ifast developing in Wellington was evident to a well-known solicitor, who, when ho called as a matter of course :«t a petrol station in the Hutt Valley .for some "juice," was somewhat surprised to l)e seriously asked to pur- : chase an aerojplano by the proprietor, I who, it seems,- is going South for a ■ .•week's tuition himself. This is, of jjeourse, purely the commercial pushing :«f possibilities. Aviation as a sport ; as not yet so aggressive, but that day will no doubt come. CHANGED ASPECT. Tho levelling of the 110 acres of sandhills at Rongotai, which form tho aerodrome, has already made a difference to the aspect of that part of ••Miramar, ar.d when tho work is complote the said drift nuisance there will have practically disappeared. About two-thirds of the rotten lock hillock ■which has been a landmark for so many ■ years has already been taken down and spread, covering some six acres alongside Broadway, and the surface appears to be an excellent one. Tho rotten rock certainly keeps the sand down. _t ■ is nothing now to thoso engaged on the '."fob of levelling to find next day, after a night of wind, that wavelets have formed on the spread sand, and that an "appreciable portion of it has been wafted elsewhere, but once tho rock is spread over it, tho sand ceases to bocome nomadic. On the five acres lev--1 elled last' year, oats and grass have •been sown; in fact, a good crop of oats was taken off it, and the grass has a good hold. This portion of the port is : +o bo top-dressed, and if it proves satisfactory, may be used as a football , ground this winter. It should make a : good one, as it was covered with soil, and there are no stones near the surface. The rotten rock from the hillock is , to bo covered with clay, in I which condition it will fill landing and .taking-off conditions, but it will ultimately be turfed. It' was estimated that there wcro somo 20,000 tons of a-oek in the hillock, but there seems to be more. There is apparently enough . still there to cover another four acres of the ground. NEAKING- COMPLETION. Somo 150 men are at. work still at Bongotai, but the bulk of the rough work should bo done in another three ■weeks, and tho number of hands employed may be expected to dwindle from now on. It is a scene of great activity. Somehow tho area looks much larger when levelled. Roughly, it is some 19.j0 feet east and west and about 1100 feet north and south, and it would be practically a rectangle, but for an 'elongation, of tho eastern corner, which lengthens off and narrows down to a few chains in width. The northern side follows tho concrete covered sewer, and on the south the great flat abuts on the seaside road, which it is expected somo day_ to make into a two-chain- . wide; esplanade all along tho beach. With, a concrete wall along the esplanade, and with the slope from the aerodrome to the road grassed, the sand drift will practically cease, but the soujco of the sand, the beach, will re- . main, and as Wellington' is unlikely to become less windy, there need be no fear of a shortage of the commodity. A great deal of the flat took little levelling, the ups and downs.being little more than a foot or so in height or depth, but this applied only to tho middle. All along the margin of the golf course there are hummocks of six ' feet or more to remove, while along ; the sandhills nearer the sea, where the bulk of tho filling sand was obtained, the hills were much bigger. Uails and trucks are being used to move the sand. Tho clay for tho surfacing will bo obtained from round tho beach, to the east, near Palmer's Point, where tho City Council is starting a new quarry. A mile and throo-quartcrs of light railway will be put in there, and'a small locomotivo will be used for haulage. The stripping from the quarry will fiirJiish the clny surfaeo of t!io aerodrome.

While- there appears ample space for the present, there arc, west of the bitumen plant Jit Bougqtai, sit least thirty acres more that can be taken in if necessary, which should give ample room for future expansion. This would moan the removal of tho plant there, but this will probably happen in any case by and bvo.