Auckland Aero Club’s Northern Tour

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 14, 5 January 1934, Page 5

Auckland Aero Club’s Northern Tour

During this week four planes from the Aucklnd Aero Club have been touring the North, staging displays and'engaging in passenger flights. The personnel of the flight was : Chief Pilot: Flight-Lieut. D. M. Allan ; Other Pilots : Flying Officer I. C. Horton, Pilot-Officer R. Kirkup, and Pilot-Officer E. B. Firth. The ground organisation was carried out by Messrs. P. S. Lewis, K. Robinson, R. Diggle and D. Wood, while the secretary of the Club, Mr. L. W. Swan, acted as manager of the tour. The original programme was to visit Rawene on Saturday, December 30, but on account of the high wind the planes did not come North as it was considered that there was a risk of damage to the machines while pegged to sandy soil'during the night in a high wind. Rawene will be visited on Saturday, January 6.

Kaitaia Leaving Auckland on Sunday morning the planes made a quick flight to Kaitaia, landing at Mr. J. Morrison’s, Pukepoto. This landing ground is now well marked and wind indicators erected. Over fifty passenger flights were undertaken, but from the spectacular point of view the stunts staged by Flight-Lieut. Allan were the most thrilling items of the day, and in the car bombing display some close shots were registered and Messrs. D. Gallagher and H. Timbers, who were in the car ducked for cover more than once. The following competitors in the Herald Scholarships were given their first tests : Messrs. G. P. and F. P. Adamson, V. Buckle, Dysapt, H. Fitzherbert, D. V. Gallagher, A. Head, T. L. Sturmfels, D. A. Taylor and S. H. Urlich. The results of these tests will not be known till all competitors have been tested.

Messrs. R. Johnson (President), H. Timbers (Secretary), and L. Peace of the Kaitaia Aero Club assisted in various ways on the ground during the day and the ladies of the Pukepoto Tennis Club with Mrs. J. Morrison at the head, are to be thanked for supplying the members of the party with refreshments. The Tennis Club had a lunch and afternoon tea stall on the ground, and as a re-

sult of the efforts of the ladies, the funds for the laying-down of the court have been materially increased. Mangonui and Tokerau Beach Staying at the Kaitaia Hotel overnight, the planes being pegged to the ground in the landing paddock, the party left for Cooper’s Beach, Mangonui, on Monday morning. At this landing ground a number of passengers were carried during the afternoon and the large number of spectators were thrilled with the display 'of aerobatics. Two candidates for the Herald Scholarship, Messrs. C. J. Bramley and L. V. Roberts were given their first test. Two planes visited Tokerau Beach, where a sports meeting was in progress, during the afternoon, and undertook passenger flights. While the planes were on the Beach, such was the interest of the spectators in them, that little attention was given to the athletic events. The planes left Cooper’s Beach for Eerikeri on Monday evening, arid hardly had the flight started when one of the machines developed engine trouble and returned to the bpach, when an examination revealed a cracked cylinder head. Word was sent to Auckland, and a plane with replacements was despatched, arriving at the beach on Tuesday morning.

Kerikeri and Kaikohe At Kerikeri on Tuesday and at Kaikohe on Wednesday, January 2nd

and 3rd, the planes conn^HHESj work, carrying were also given, and scholarshipeS trants tested. At Kerikeri there was a large crowd of spectators, and a good number of passenger trips were run, but at Kaikohe the attendance was disappointingly small—so many people were still away on holiday. Only two scholarship tests were taken at Kaikohe : Miss J. McGregor and Mr. J. Squire. This morning, Thursday, the planes left to continue the tour further south.