CIVIL AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 10

CIVIL AVIATION

PROSPECTS IN DOMINION

SUGGESTED AIR SERVICES

ADDRESS BY DIRECTOR

An interesting address on civil aviation and its prospects in New Zealand was given by Wing-Commander S. Grant-Dalton (Director of Air Services aiid Director of Civil. Aviation in New Zealand), speaking as chief guest at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday. A number of suggested air-services were mentioned by the Director, "who also ■ referred to today 's aero-pageant at the Eongotai Air Port. It is rather a pity that the speech is not reported verbatim, peppered or punctuated, as it was, with a, few breezy harmless expletives. That is, it seems," "«, way they have" in the Air Force, as well as in the Army and the Navy; and, judging by the laughter and applause, the- "seasoning was greatly appreciated by the commercials present. He had been in the Air Force over thirteen years, stated Wing-Commander Grant-Dalton; and, though he did not know a great deal about it, he had, perhaps, watched the progress of civil aviation more closely than people who had not been flying. But he had never thought that he would be going into the subject seriously. He had been offered a job in New Zealand for two years as Director of Air Services. in the Defence Department, and he understood that that included the directorship of civil aviation as well; but he had thought t»at the latter would be secondary to the military side. As a matter of fact, however, he had found that nearly all his time since he arrived in the Dominion had been taken up on the civil side of it, showing that New Zealand was coming forward with the air-sense. From each and every province, people kept writing him for advice about the formation of aero clubs and to ask how they could learn to fly and increase their knowledge of aviation matters. NEW ZEALAND GETTING AIRMINDEDNESS. In spite of having been thirteen years in the Air Force, he still did not quite realise how quickly one could get from one place to another by air, as compared with travelling by train or boat; and that, he thought, must be because he was slow in getting what was called " kir-mindedness " —an expression that he hated, by -the bye. Nowadays, unless and until a country ■'• got "airsense" or "air-rnindadnes," it was not going to develop very quickly. But New Zealand was getting that sense. From what he had already seen, it was •clear New Zealand was getting " air-niindedness." ; Supposing that any one of those present found, when he got back to his office at 2 o'clock a telegram stating that he was urgently required at New Plymouth or Napier, what would he do? He thought that he would get hold of the railway time-table and look up the trains. "Hullo, I can't get there today," he would say. "I must go by the express to-morrow morning, getting there to-morrow evening!" Or he might take his private ear x and get there ,by midnight the same night. But if they had got civil aviation going in New Zealand, the business , man, under such circumstances, could easily do the 150 miles or so to Napier .by 4 6 'clock. He would therefore send a wire saying,"Meet me 4.30"; and lie would say to himself: ','Thank goodness, I need not miss that theatre appointment in Wellington to-night. I can get back by 7 o'clock." (Laughter and 'applause.) ' The time ' was coming—it was, perhaps, not so very far away— when" for urgent business trips like that they would only have to ring up fho aerodrome, as people rang up the Croydon 'Aerodrome in the Old Country, and away they would go. That was what they should get before long. "EAGER TO GET: STARTED." There were already a number of companies only too eager, to get started. All they wanted was the money, and he thought they would get it shortly. But they were looking for the Government to come forward and j'say, "We will give you so many thousands of pounds and a contract . for the mails." But the Government, as they all knew, was "pretty tight" (laugh-, ter); and he was rather on the Government's side and thought that it should not come forward until the companies had made good. Then the Postmaster-General would come forward and say, "I will give you the mails"; and everything would be all right. He did not think that it was up to the Government to come forward with the money and mails first. WHAT MIGHT BE DONE. He. believed there was talk of getting the mails down from Auckland to Wellington, Christehweh • and DuV edin, and taking the reply mail back to Auckland in time to catch the same boat before it left again. (Applause.) That could be done, providing New Zealand had the necessary landinggrounds. But the Government could'not provide all the landing-grounds for the Dominion. That would cost too much; and it was, therefore, up to the various towns and cities to provide landinggrounds for themselves. They were already providing them, as a matter of fact; and in the near future any town or city that had not got a land-ing-ground would be out of it in regard to aviation. New Zealand was not behind England in that respect, because England had held back a bit. It was only this last summer that they had started to try and get the towns and cities in the Old 'Country to provide their own landing-grounds, and Sir Allan. Cobham had been flying around everywhere to encourage., the towns and cities to get a move on.WELLINGTON DONE WELL. Wellington,' he thought, had ' done very well to get the flying-ground at Lyall Bay. The Wellington people must have found it particularly difficult to get a decent bit of level ground, because the city's surroundings were "terrifically hilly"; and he must congratulate everybody concerned on getting the Lyall Bay place converted into a first-class aerodrome. (Applause.) It had its disadvantages, of course. They ought to have 800 yards clear run in every direction, and Lyall Bay could not run to that. But they had got it in one direction, though the ground was a bit narrow' in another. Still air-pilots did not mind that so long as there were no big .buildings in the way. If a pilot could get a run of 500 yards, he could take off, if there were no tall buildings in front of him; so that as long as the Miramar golf course was not built upon, it would be quite all right. "WINDY WELLINGTON." Ho had hear& of "Windy Wellington"; but he might tell them that wind was a great help to a pilot, both in getting off and in landing/provided that it was not a gusty wind. A good wind of 30 to 40 miles an hour pulled one up when landing and got one off the ground quickly when getting away. If the following day was like that day, for instance, he thought it would be just about goad enough to hold the pageant. If one had to go to New Ply. mouth or Auckland, or any fairly distant place, it did not matter whether the wind was gusty or not, because one

could easily get above the gusts. But it would bo low flying at the pageant —people liked to sco the aviators flying low, bombing low, and looping low; and it was always dangerous near the ground in gusty weather. He wondered if they had ever heard; the silly riddle, "When is a mouse if it spins?— Because the higher it gets the fewer." He had never been able to see any sense in it. (Laughter.) But "the higher, the feweri" was a very good maxim for the Air .Force. The higher one got, the fewer the accidents —the higher the safer. If one was a thousand feet or two up and the engine "conked out," one .had a 10-mile radius to land in and could pick the best landing-place; but if one were only 100 feet up one had to be "damned quick." (Laughter.) It was a great advantage having the aerodrome so close to the city. It might have been aw.ay out near Upper Hutt, which would have meant a great loss of time in getting to the aerodrome and would have made it much less useful to business men in case of urgent calls to distant towns. Wellington had done extraordinarily well in getting it so close. (Applause.) "HIGHER, HIGHEE, HIGHER." He had been told before he came out that New Zealand was a very difficult country for aviation, on account of its hills and the prevailing winds; and there was some truth in that. There were very few landing grounds yet; and where it was hilly it would bo very difficult to find a safe place to land on in case of a forced^ landing. The safest place for aviators over hilly country was "higher, higher, higher." The higher they went the better. So he would advise any companies running air services in New Zealand to make it a rule for their pilots to fly at 5000 feet and - upwards. And why not have flying-boats and go along the coasts? There were hundreds of little sounds and bays on the coasts and quite a number of lakes and rivers in the interior where a flying-boat, could easily land. He was a great believer in flying-boats. He'might cross over to Australia in a flying-boat; he would not go in an aeroplane for anything. He did not iike flying across the land in a flying-boat- and he did not like flying across the sea in an aeroplane. They might think that silly; but- his experience in Egypt, flying from Alexandra to Port Said, and so on, ,had shown him that it was not nice having land beneath one' when one had not got wheels. .. "■ /' POSSIBLE. AIR SERVICES. Discussing possible air services, the Director said that there might be one leaving Auckland, say1, at 8 in the morning, calling at New Plymouth, perhaps, at 9.30 a.m., arid arriving at Wellington at 11 a.m. Three hours would be ample for the trip. By rail it was 420 miles, and by road more than that; but it would be very little over 300 miles if one flew straight, .and the machines they would get would average 100 miles an hour all right. Of course a head wind at 30 miles an hour would cut the speed down to 70 niiles an hour; but if they had the luck to be flying with such a wind, their speed would be 130 miles an hour. He thought such a service would pay. He had spoken to many business men on the trains ajid they had all told^him that if they had only an hour-oPso's business to do in Auckland, say, they would rather fly there and' back than spend va day in going there,, a .whole day in Auckland, and another day getting back, as they .must now do. Then the aeroplane he "had been talking about might leave Wellington again, say, at noon, arrive in Christchureh at 1.45 p.m., in Dunedin at 4 p.m., and in Invereargill at 5 o'clock. That was absolutely possible. The only thing holding up the inauguration of such an air service was the ..lack of landing grounds. A .service from Gisborne to Wellington and another from Gisborne to Auckland woulu pay well;, because Gisborne had no railway, and'it took a very long time to get there. Then, the 80 miles across the Strait from Wellington to Nelson, and vice versa, could be done under the hour; whereas the boat took several hours. On a trip to the South Island the other day he had left by the ferry steamer about 7 p.m., arriving at Nelson early next morning; and had then gone on to Blenheim by car, arriving late the same day; but he had flown back to Wellington, leaving Blenheim at 3 o'clock and landing at Lyall Bay by 4 p.m., though there was a thick fog and rain. But, if be had not flown, he might have been there yet. (Laughter and ' applause.). The mails and passengers would be the main standbys for civil aviation, because the carrying-power of the machines was low as compared with that of trains or boats. Four passengers of 1501b each was about what the class of machine New Zealand would get could carry. As to what use aviation would be commercially, he would rather ieave it to them as commercial men to say; because they knew their own jobs best, and knew ■what could be got out of them. French aeroplanes took fresh fruit and flowers over to England, add a Nelson-Welling-ton air service "might also be very useful in that direction. (Loud applause.) On the motion of the president of the Chamber e(Mr. Edwin Salmon) a very hearty vote of thanks was accorded", the speaker. ___^^_____ m _ mm