FLIGHT AT EIGHTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 280, 26 November 1931, Page 6

FLIGHT AT EIGHTY

GISBORNE TO AUCKLAND WOMAN ENJOYS EXPERIENCE ••LIKE SAILING IN A SHIP” AUCKLAND, NW. 24. To fly over portions of the country which she had traversed many years previously by bullock waggon in the early pioneering days was the experience yesterday of Mrs. A. Parnell, of Gisborne, who. although she is aged 81, chose the aeroplane in preference to other means of transport when she came to visit her daughter in Auckland. Mrs. Parnell is enthusiastic about aviation. and when the first aeroplane visited Gisborne she was among the passengers to make a flight. .She was then 70 years of age, and was the oldest passenger to be given a flight, while her grandson was the youngest. When she decided to visit- Auckland with her sister, Mrs. L. A. Beatty, who is aged 79. Mrs. Parnell attempted to persuade Mrs. Beatty to travel by air. but her sister preferred to go by sea. Mrs. Parnell set out in an aeroplane owned by the Gisborne Air Transport Company on Friday, the pi'or being Flight-Lieutenant W. H. Lett, the company’s chief pilot. After leaving Gisborne head winds and thick clouds were encountered and when Motu was reached conditions became worse. The pilot, who had been flying at. 6000 ft.. came down’to 2000 ft.. and then decided f hat it was n«t advisable tn continue the journey across the broken, mono

| tainous country. Mrs. Parnell was very i disappointed that the flight could not i be continued. ■ Another start was made shortly after | noon yesterday and Hamilton was reached at 3.15 p.m. After a short stop the pilot continued the journey to the Mangero aerodrome, where a landing was made about an hour later. The machine used was a coupe Gipsy Moth. “What amused me was that people asked me if I was not frightened or if 1 was not sick; they seemed to expect me to be, but 1 never felt the least bit uncomfortable or nervous,” said Mrs. Parnell when she arrived “It was very cold at times, but I had a hot-water bottle, a leather coat ami a rug, and 1 was all right. We were partly in the clouds, but it was a beau tiful day. It seemed to me like sail ing in a ship, with the gentle motion ami the wind whistling past, while the clouds over the Motu ranges looked lik<_ snow.” Almost exactly three years ago Mrs Parnell enjoyed a romantic reunion with her sister, after a separation oi "1 years. When she was 17, Mrs. Painell said farewell to Mrs. Beatty in Armagh, Ireland, their birthplace, ami came to New Zealand in the ship Mcrrington with her husband to settle < >n arrival they went to Alangapai, and in the following year to Gisborne where they made their home and whei • Mrs. Parnell has resided almost co. tinuously since. Mrs. Beatty married in Ireland an later went to America. After livin', in < alifornia for a number of yearshe decided to come to New Zealam. to visit her sister, a reunion havin' been zn f he minds of both for a long

time. In November, .1928, she reached Gisborne and saw Mrs. Parnell for the first time in 61 years. Mrs. Beatty has remained in the Dominion ever since.