AIRCRAFT AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1946, Page 9

AIRCRAFT AUSTRALIA

REEFTON PILOT ARRIVES ON LEAVE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Aug. 5. A war-time association between two New Zealanders who’ served together as first and second pilots of a Royal Air Force Sunderland in West Africa was renewed on the delivery flight of the new trans-Tasman aircraft Australia, which arrived from Sydney to-day. On the flight from Britain to Sydney the aircraft was commanded by Captain A. M. Fostei, formerly of Christchurch, and witn him as co-pilot was his former Ait Force companion, Captain W. R. King, of Reef ton. Both are now captains in the service of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, and both have come to New Zealand on leave. Captain Foster, who was met by his mother, Mrs. G. M. Foster, of Christchurch, and his brother, Flight Lieutenant M. Foster, of Wellington, has been away from New Zealand for eight years. He joined the Royal Air Force with a short service commission and served for about six years before transferring to civil flying. He has recently been engaged on Empire route flying between Britain and Singapore. , , ' Captain King, who. has been away five years, as a member of the R N Z A.F.’, and in No. 490 Squadron, RAF in West Africa, transferred to the British Overseas Airways Corporation in 1945. ‘ • Both officers said the delivery flight of the Australia was purely routine. The Australia, second of the Mark V Sunderlands delivered for Tasman Airways, Ltd., will probably be used for the conversion training of the company’s pilots before going into regular service between Auckland and Sydney.