AIR PAGEANT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 75, 24 February 1930, Page 7

AIR PAGEANT.

SUCCESS AT MARLBOROUGH,

Per Press Association

BLENHEIM, Feb. 23. There must have been 10,000 people from Wellington, Nelson and Marlborough and surrounding districts at tho Woodburn aerodrome yesterday, when the first full-size air pageant was held under the auspices of the Marlborough Club. There was ideal weather for flying, and the whole function went off without a hitch or mishap of an'’ kind.

The Indies did quite well in the early competitions. Miss Aroha Clifford won the zero hour competition, which carries with it Mr M. It. Dix’s cup for the visiting pilot who landed at Wourbourne Aerodrome nearest to 3.45 p.m. on Friday, and she also succeeded, after dead-heating with Miss Pauline Bennett, of Blenheim, in the landing competition for club-trained pilots. The only man to secure a place in the event was Mr D. G. Grigg, of Christchurch, who crept into the third position.

The landing competition for B license pilots was keenly contested by the visiting aviators, and resulted in Flight-Lieutenant M. C. MacGregor winning the event and the Furness Bose Bowl. The all-transport race, in which the competing pilots had to run, ride in a motor car, dismount, get into their machines, and fly a certain distance was productive of feverish haste and much excitement, particularly at the finish. MacGregor again carried off the laurels in this event, by a sensational sprint at the finish, just crossing the line ahead of Flight-Lieutenant J. C. Mercer, of Santerbury. . The result of the height estimating contest will not be known for a few big event of the day, the New Zealand Air Gup for light 'planes over a cours© of fiv© miles, was also flown in three heats, the final being won by Captain Barlow, of Christchurch, in his Gipsy Moth, his time being 6.19. Captain Bolt won the slow race for light ’planes. An air parade by all machines concluded a very successful pageant.