REAL SKY PILOT

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 August 1929, Page 10

REAL SKY PILOT

PASTOR AS AIRMAN.

SYDNEY, August 14. There’s one gallant aviator in Australia we haven’t toasted yet. Rev. Leonard Daniels, the flying parson of the Bush Church Aid Society, whose “parish” covers thousands of square miles in the remote parts of Australia, away beyond sundown. He is in Sydney helping to raise money for his gospel campaign. At the Bush Church Aid rally in the Chapter House of St. Andrew’s Cathedral last night, the story of his adventurous life was told. Rev. S. J. Kirkby, organising missioner, appealed for cash for the great bush work. But the “sky pilot” wants only one thing for himself —£40 for skids for his Moth ’plane. “I’ve got a friend in the outback who ‘flies for the brewers and spirit firms,” said Rev. Daniels. “You can see him coming like a bird. Then he lands right in front of the pub door, while I’ve got to drop down on the landing ground a mile or two out. “Now, I put it to you. Why can’t I land in front of the pub, too? “Give me £4O to ‘skid’ my ’bus, and I’m set. The skids will enable me to land in a back yard—anywhere you like—in the space of a few feet.” Rev. Daniels is a big man in a big outback, doing a big work. Ho was an aviator in the war. His parish lies west of the Darling in New South Wales, and he is the only aeroplane parson in Australia. He is pilot, mechanic, gospel preacher, bush craftsman, and ambulance man rolled into one.

For fourteen months he has been sky-piloting in the lonely regions, and, save for a £amaged wing when taking his bus on its maiden flight, has never had a crash.