PARACHUTE ESCAPE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20169, 23 February 1931, Page 19

PARACHUTE ESCAPE.

| ODD QUALIFICATION FOR THE | CATERPILLAR CLUB. I Flight-lieutenant V. J. Somerset-. I Thomas, who has (been appointed inI structor in navigation and flying at the i Wigram Aerodrome, has the distinction I of being probably the only man in New Zealand to have membership with the | Caterpillar Club, which is surely one of | the most- oddly-constituted clubs in the I world. The essential qualification for I this club'is that an airman must have I got away from a broken aeroplane in > mid-air on a parachute, i. The club was founded in New York, I but has now been extended jnternation* I ally; There are only about 100 members in the world. Flight-Lieutenant Somerset-Thomas qualified for admission about a year ago in Egypt, vjhen hi* machine suddenly, broke down at a high altitude' and he was forced , to, make his escape by parachute. "They said that the air in Egypt was too rare, but, it worked all 'right," he told a reporter of The Phess. t He wears on his blazer a small golden caterpillar, which is the club's insignia. Tho name was suggested ,by the characteristic mode of descent of a caterpillar on a cobweb. Royal Air Force Experience. Plight-Lioutenant Somerset-Thomas was born at Auckland, New Zealand. Ho went to England before the Great War to join the Boyal Navy, in which ho reached I the rank of lieutenant-com-mander. In 1922, however, ha was seconded to the Eoyal Air Force, in which service he has done eight years' flying. For the last three years and a half he has been an instructor in flying and navigation at the No. 4 Flying Training School, Egypt.' All the pupils from New Zealand-attend this school, which is . the largest in the world. Ho has boon sent to New Zealand on loan from the Admiralty for the next five years, although .ho hopes ,to stay here permanently. For the first few days after the earthquake, Flight-Lieutenant • SomersetThomas was actively engaged in piloting' the emergency air service between Wellington'ant 1 Napier.