MORE ADVANCED TRAINING

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1930, Page 15

MORE ADVANCED TRAINING

NEW TYPE OF AEROPLANE. ' ' FOUR. FOR NEW ZEALAND. Four Hawker “Tomtit” aeroplanes, a new type of' machine recently adoptedby ' the Royal Air Force '.for training purposes, have been ordered for the New Zealand Air Force' and should arrive in the Dominion at the end of this year. A statement to this effect was made at Christchurch on Wednesday by Wing Commander S. Grant-Dalton, Director of Air Services, who said that the new machines would enable club-trained pilots who gained commissions in the New Zealand Air Force to receive more advanced training than has been possible on the light planes used by clubs. Wing-Commander Grant-Dalton stated that many of the people coming in for training next year would be pilots ■who had learned to fly with the clubs. They had already done a good deal of flying in Moths, so that, they would need to go on to something more advanced. That was the reason for the new machines. It was probable that two pilots from each club would be appointed to commissions in the Air Force, he said, making a total of fourteen in all. A change that"“would' be made in the' organisation of the Air Force was the division of the territorial personnel into squadrons, of which there would be four. Training would mainly be concentrated st the Wigram Aerodrome, though a limited amount of seaplane and flying-boat training would. be . .done 1 at the Hobeonville Base. .. -en-i