AIR FORCE OFFICERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 223, 21 August 1931, Page 3

AIR FORCE OFFICERS.

COMAIAND OF NO. 2 SQUADRON

WELLINGTON, Aug. 21. Notification appeared in last evening’s Gazette that Squadron-Leader AI. C. AlcGregor, D.F.C., Officer Commanding No. 2 Squadron (WellingtonTaranaki), New Zealand Air Force, has been posted to the reserve of officers, and that he had been succeeded by Squadron-Leader G. L. Stedman, pilot instructor to the Wellington Aero Club. - The new appointment dates from July 31, the day after Squadron-Leader AlcGregor’s transfer to the reserve.

Squadron-Leader Stedman joined the Alain Body of the Expeditionary Force and went through Gallipoli and Palestine before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. Gaining his commission, he was posted to Alesopotamia. Since the war he has been in close touch with aviation, both military and civil, in New Zealand. When the New Zealand Air Force was divided into squadrons and flights last September he was given charge of C flight in the smtadron which he now commands. He was promoted to the rank of squadron-leader for his work during the earthquake, but had not been ported until now. Squadron-Leader AI. C. McGregor is probably the best-known pilot in the Dominion. His stunting exhibitions ha»e amazed people in all parts of New Zealand, and besides all liis civil flying he spent moire than 1000 hours aloft during the war. A fighting pilot, he was a member of the squadrons of Bishop and Mnnnock, two of the greatest British aces. He has flown between 30 and 40 different types of machines, ■"eluding the French Spad and the German Paltz and Fokker. He wears tile Distinguished Flying Cross and has also gained a bar to tho decoration. At the beginning of November last he commenced a tri-weekly sendee between Christchurch and Dunedin, and maintained it for several months. He was active in the relief work that followed the Hawke’s Bay earthquake.