FERRIED "SPITS"

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 79, 1 October 1945, Page 8

FERRIED "SPITS"

WOMAN PILOT RETURNS

Conspicuous among the hundreds of khaki-clad servicemen on the decks of the troopship Dominion Monarch as she arrived in Wellington Harbour yesterday afternoon was a trim figure in the neat blue uniform, with. silver wings, of the Air Transport Auxiliary. This was Miss Trevor Hunter, the first New Zealand girl to become a ferry pilot in England, who has flown many types of aircraft, from light trainers to Mosquito bombers, during nearly four years in the service. Miss. Hunter^ favourite aircraft, however, is not one of the big machines; it is the Spitfire. ' "Spits," she maintains, have "got something" Miss Hunter, who holds the1 rank of first officer in the Auxiliary, now ,has the right to fly all single-engined and twin-engined aircraft. Like all other members of the Auxiliary, however, she had to start by ferrying light single-engined machines, progressing step by step, with periods of interim training, to the larger and more difficult aircraft.

"I started off on Miles Magisters." she said, "and I also flew a lot of other light types. Later I took over trainers and fighters, and quite a long time after that I was put on to light twinengined aircraft. After quite a lot of experience on these I went to heavy twin-engined aircraft." Types flown included Warwicks, Mitchells, Wellingtons, Beaufighters, Mosquitoes, and Bostons. Most of Miss Hunter's flying, however, was done in Spitfires. Machines were flown by the A.T.A. pilots from factories to the squadrons and from maintenance units to squadrons, the pilots being engaged in "generally moving aircraft about in England," and thus making more men available for combat duties.

Miss Hunter is a daughter of Mrs. A. J. Banks, of Hobson Street, Wellington, and of the late Mr. Hunter, of Wanganui. She left the Dominion in 1941 to join the A.T.A., and was recently stationed in Leicester. Other New Zealand .women pilots in the A.T.A. who were mentioned by Miss Hunter include Mrs. Furkert, Betty Black, June Howden, and Jane Winstone, who was killed in an air crash.