ABSORBED IN HER WORK

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1934, Page 7

ABSORBED IN HER WORK

FLYING AS WOMEN’S CAREER

INTERVIEW WITH MISS BATTEN.

DEVELOPMENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

GREAT POSSIBILITIES IN FUTURE.

“Why should not commercial aviation be a career for a woman?” asked Miss Jean Batten, interviewed by a Daily News representative yesterday. “Like any other career it depends entirely on the suitability and temperament of the person who undertakes the work, whether a man or a woman. Flying is already established as a career for women. There are five women in England besides myself who have gained their commercial ticket.” Questioned regarding her future intentions, she said: I am afraid that I could never give up flying now. Complete absorption in, and enthusiasm for, her profession would seem the keynote of Miss Batten’s personality behind the scenes. Though she is obviously grateful for the public acclamation that has been accorded her everywhere in Australia and New Zealand since her record-breaking flight, it is in the job of the aviator and in aviation’s future that her chief interests lie.. There is no obvious difference in the charming personality of Miss Batten on the platform and Miss Batten in private. Calm, pleasant and precise in all. she says and does, she was willing yesterday to tell pressmen her plans for the future and her belief that civil aviation has a great future in New Zealand. In her suite at the Hotel Criterion there was ample evidence that a triumphal progress has its more prosaic responsibilities. “Even now,” she said, indicating a secretary busy dealing with an imposing mail, “there is a tremendous amount of this sort of work to be done. No, I am not tired by it. It is really rather a pleasant holiday after the flight!” KEYED UP BY SUCCESS. Pressed on the point, she seemed faintly amused by the suggestion that the exacting requirements of a public tour should 'be either tiresome or tiring. “You must remember,” She said, with the now famous smile, “that on the trips from England I was flying eleven and a-half hours a day most of the time and, in addition to that, had to re-fuel and look after the engine. As far as being tired is concerned, well, success keys one up, I suppose. I was much more tired when I had failed before and was worried about financing another attempt.” Miss Batten was enthusiastic about the New Plymouth airport. “It is really excellent,” she declared. “Indeed, all the aerodromes I have landed at in New Zealand have been good—'better as far as surface is concerned than those in other parts of the world, Where they are so often swampy and do not dry so quickly after rain. I sincerely believe that there are wonderful opportunities for aviation in New Zealand.” Conditions for flying, She explained, were excellent. In winter it was common to have a visibility, of 80 miles, whereas in England a visibility of 12 miles was considered good in the same season. In addition there was a practical demand created for the services of aeroplanes owing to the mountainous and broken nature of the country and the comparative slowness of road and rail transport by winding routes between towns which were really not so very far apart. “And as for conditions,”, she added, “you have only to think that this present tour is being made in winter and remember that not once have we been behind schedule.” VALUE OF AIR SERVICE. Speaking further of the commercial value of air service in the Dominion, Miss Batten recalled that she had recently travelled from Invercargill to Blenheim in approximately 11 hours, and remarked that whereas Gisborne and Napier were many hours apart for the road or rail traveller, the journey could be accomplished in next to no time by an aerial taxi.

Interested, too, in the future of Imperial air-routes, Miss Batten recalled her experiences en route from Singapore to Australia and her trying experiences in the series of monsoonal storms which so nearly defeated her after leaving Rangoon. “I certainly think that any commercial air-service link between Singapore and Australia,” she said, “should be by seaplane. Most of my flying over that section was either over water or islands on which one would have little or no chance of making a safe landing if anything were to go wrong.”

Despite her terrifying experience of the intensity of the monsoon, she expressed the opinion that regular schedules could be maintained safely all the year round by heavy, multi-powered machines. It was a different matter flying a light machine through such weather.

Asked regarding the claim that she was a New Zealand trained pilot, Miss Batten said that her first flying instruction had been in London in 1929, where she had taken out an ordinary pilot’s license. Her sole instruction in New Zealand had been two years later, when she had taken lessons in aerobatics under Flight-Lieutenant C. M. Allen at Auckland.

“What am I going to do in the future?” Miss Batten smiled. “Well, in the summer I plan to visit towns on the West Coast which I could not visit this time, and perhaps do a little passenger work. It may be that I shall come back to New Plymouth.” Between public receptions, lectures, the heavy demands of correspondence, interviewers, flying, social engagements, and the hundred other things that fill her days, Miss Batten ha. found time to complete 30,000 words of a book descriptive of her flying career. An instalment has already been read by Lord Bledisloe, who was so delighted by the work contained in it that he has promised to write a foreword when the book is ready for publication. Arrangements for Miss Batten’s Hawera visit on Friday have been finalised as follow: Arrive 11 a.m. at aerodrome in her own machine, escorted by four Federation planes flown by Hawera pilots; civic welcome to be tendered at aerodrome; at 12.15 p.m. Miss Batten will be the guest of the Hawera Rotary Club at luncheon; 3 p.m., speech at the matinee performance at the Opera House; 4 p.m., guest of the Hawera Women's Club; 6.30 p.m., guest of the Hawera Aero Club at dinner; 8 p.m., speech at Opera House. Miss Batten will later be a guest at the Hawera Assembly.