HOSPITAL PATIENT ON BOARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26749, 19 April 1948, Page 4

HOSPITAL PATIENT ON BOARD

Patients being transported by air to the Dunedin Hospital have never been landed nearer to their destination than one woman was on Saturday afternoon when a De Havilland Dragonfly aircraft of the Canterbury Aero Club was brought down without accident on the home straight of the Forbury Park racecourse. The light twin-engined plane, which is frequently used for air ambulance work, was piloted by Mr C. Fantham, a well known Christchurch pilot.

Residents of the closely populated area surrounding the racecourse were afraid at first that the aircraft had crashed on the field, and within a short time a crowd had arrived on the track. The patient, accompanied by a nurse, was being brought from Christchurch when heavy mist was encountered and although alternative approaches to the Taieri were investigated, a clearing could not be located. The machine flew over the city shortly after 3 p.m. and still could not discover a clearing in the fog, so Mr Fantham decided to land on the Forbury race track, with which he was familiar. Mr Fantham stated that he knew the space available between the fences which enclose the track would be sufficient to accommodate the aircraft’s wingspan, but a high degree of skill was obviously exercised in bringing' the machine in to land. The maximum use had to be made of the runway available and only a few yards’ clearance existed at the sides. The plane touched down about halfway along the home straight and, by use of the wheel brakes, was brought to a stop just as it entered the turn past the members’ stand.

As soon as a report of the landing reached Taieri airfield, one of the Otago Club’s aircraft, piloted by Mr R. G. Bush, made a reconnaissance flight over Forbury Park to see that the Dragonfly had suffered no mishap. From the air it could be seen that the plane at Forbury was undamaged and the Otago machine returned to the airport. Broken timber at one section of the track suggested that a wingtip of the Dragonfly might have caught some of the fencing, but any fears in this direction were dispelled immediately it was seen that the aircraft was intact. The timber had apparently been used in connection with the installation of photo-finish equipment on the course, and it was suggested humorously that the Forbury Park Trotting Club officials would have been more than a little surprised, on developing their first photo-finish plate, to discover that an aircraft had lead by a propeller in the run home. An ambulance which had been sent to Taieri to await the arrival of the Dragonfly and its patient was recalled as soon as word was received of the landing at Forbury, and it arrived at the racecourse soon after 4 p.m. to take the patient on to the hospital. Conditions by this time had improved slightly over the hills and Mr Fantham decided to take the Dragonfly on to the airport. The plane left the ground after a surprisingly short run on the back stretch and spent the night at Taieri, returning to Christchurch yesterday. . Aircraft' have made landings within the city limits before, the foreshore, the Oval and the beach all having been picked out by pilots searching for emergency landings. This was the first occasion on which Forbury Park has been used, however, and the incident was more remarkable through the pilot’s cool selection of the actual track in preference to the inner portion of the field. It recalled memories of the early days of flying in the province when Mr George Bolt, flying an Avro Avian, once raced a motor cycle at Forbury Park. The motor cyclist was able to get up a good speed on the track, while Mr Bolt skidded his light aircraft around in pursuit in a steeply-banked position. A National Airways Lodestar also encountered the dense fog over the hills around the Taieri Plains on Saturday afternoon and after searching for an opening over Green Island, the plane turned back to Harewood. Passengers, freight and mails were brought on to Dunedin by car. A Lodestar arrived from the north at noon yesterday.