N.Z. AERO CLUBS WANT MORE MONEY AND NEW PLANES

Grey River Argus, 20 December 1948, Page 3

N.Z. AERO CLUBS WANT MORE MONEY AND NEW PLANES

WELLINGTON. Dec IA, The secretary of the Wellin Aero Club (Mr J. W. Armand) ■ cisscrtod *. — “Unless some assistance is forthcoming immediately, many aero clubs will go out of existence in a very short space of time.. What we need is assistance now, not next year or the year following. It is vital to the future of this country that we should be prepared, and what better preparation could there be than to train the youth of New Zealand in aerial defence?” Sir Frederick Tymms’ report on civil aviation in New Zealand had stated clearly <he worth and value of aero cluns which the report stated, more than repaid the subsidies thev received for training before the recent war

Air Training Corps training was being done by the clubs at a loss—it cost more than the Government paid for it and the Tmer Moths were too costly gifts to receive for the clubs had to spend considerable sums in bringing them to airworthiness and the aeroplanes were obsolete and costly to maintain. The Tymms’ report had suggested as one method of Government assistance the replacement progressively of the existing fleets with more modern aircraft selected after consultation with the clubs and he thought the De Havilland Chipmunk would be eminently suitable for training.