COMMERCIAL FLYING
PROSPECTS IN NEW ZEALAND. Captain E. Dickson, R.F.C., who has arrived from Britain to take charge of tho Canterbury Aviation Company* r.orodrome at Sockburn, said in Christdmrch that commercial flying had proved <i success. It was absolutely certain that before very lons aviation would have takon its place nlongnidc other means of commercial transport. Men at Home who wero in a position to do. so wero already buying machines to do "hops from their country houses to town. Captain Dickson was asked whether many m«n had entered commercial Dying fipm tho Air. Force ranks. He said that a fair number had been taken over, while a great many others had gone back to their old occupations. Demobilised men generally wero very keen to keep up their flying, but many of the younger men had gone baclr to nnisii their university courses and so on. Without a refresher course a man was quickly lost to aviation, and it was Mces«arv to have reserves for this Purpose. Captain Dickson instanced the wt mat latterly, follo.vin? on a'long illness, no hnd ten training repatriated prisonew of war from Germany. Some of them had been a short -time and somo n long time away from flying, but they all _ required the same amount of trainiiig. The Allied losses in aviators were fairly Iwavv. Captain Dicteon said tn.it the loseos were one or two n day and during tho Somme push, when tic Huns pushed the Allies back on March 21 last, ,is squadron lost t!r«c .times the complement of its pilots during two months Some wero shot dwn >n flames; others had to land in the German lines wounded or unwoun-Jel. and were taken pra°Ts S 'for the training of «f' P'. ft * Home, Captain Dichon eud that ftew was a fair •amount of this work going on. Ho did not anticipate a great deal of it in New Zealand immediately but aviation in this country' must forge ahead, just as quickly in **«■ Zealand as in other countries, if not more <|U,ckly. New Zealand could not bo behind tho cfptain Dickon was invited io «- .press an opinion, from his own knowledge of the Physical features of .New Zealand,, on flic possibilibM of flying development. He replied that they were very-rood. There was no reason why ll y ing°should not bke place everywhere in New Zealand. All the hill country that was opened up had suitable landing places in the valleys,. but nobody would expect to land, say, in the. King Country, where it urns heavily wooded and not yet opsned up. Oth«rwiso tiie whole of the country, as far as he knew, was adaptable for aviation, but it wouTd be necessary to create.stations where the population, justified it Mail services hnd been running y at Home, but it wns too early yet to know whether thw had been any great saving. A lot of-flying had been done to , France, and it was nnite n common thins for a man to catch his Iwat nt Southampton'by leaving Undon by aeroplane New Zealand would be suitable for mail services because of the rough •country, and it was quite a common thin? to" dron mails and newspapers by .parachute, while passing over a particular Gpot. ' ■' ' ~ ■ The pny of pilots would "always keep high, at feast-so-far nii the present genera'Hofi wa-i concerned, kcause it was essential that a pilot should he. .ibfolute.y perfect in the matter of hw job, to sav nothiiis of his physical condilion, and there was a certain amount of expenstt incurred in training a pilot up to that decree. Hence the Each tiilot had to show what work he had done and his log- book w.mld give full particulars as to hia cxix-ricnce, crashes or incidents during flight. _ ' Tlen'ying to a question as to tue utilit.v of-the seaplane'in NC'W Zealand, Captain Dickon BftMl'thnt Hre type of ranciilno, in iN own channel, wns cf. great use, (wnccially for places where it was imwseible tn"g«t.a landing, such as in the far n"vth, but pr.ch places roubl be very small. For harbour work flying lionte v/orc very usenil, and afforded n great deal of He li<">ril of nn ampliibiotis mnrhiiiL , , but both floats! and wheels meant .increased wind Tesisbnce. Ge'icraliy speakin.e. there wai more head ripem-oice «n sfiaplenos ""'I Hy i p.? hosts, and h-d rot lb<> lifting , powpr ts-cn'-i ,1 their lnnilihn-t?.-ii- was honvier.
Not. a very lmnnful view wns expressed hv Captain'Dielfon rc/nrdinp; Hie possibility of mar'ifnctiivincr irropla'ie entrine* in New Zealand. IT-c* <=M?d tint machine' mid even mirw could '» rn."<l<> 1ao.iI!->-. bur. thoro iroiiU be ™ f'iffi-iiHy in wt-tin? cviriiips from Hie Old fount *y, nnH H wnuM bv a vor l ' I" ti n, p befnrn y«Vf -Kpnltlul \TM Vllf'v t'l '»» Cllt of? '•' fh> pvfi.it "? n-> athrV. T 'ii« Risibility. wnV'ro Tornoto [>■* hirOlv to be worth' while disenwinir at nresent.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19191124.2.10
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 51, 24 November 1919, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
808COMMERCIAL FLYING Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 51, 24 November 1919, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.