FOSTERING AVIATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 150, 13 July 1937, Page 6

FOSTERING AVIATION

-Fresi Association.)

Flying Services Association To Be Formed d0mini0n-wide field

(By Teleeraph-

WELLINGTON, Last Night. An attempt to consolidate all those people with experience valuable to aviation in one big organisation is now being pnade here and will come to a Lead when a meeting is held shortly to form a Elying Services Association. At present, it is pointed out, the only bodies established for the purpose of fostering aviation are the aero clubs which, while they are doing valuable work, are necessarily concerned with the task of teaching people to fly and giving quaiilied pilots the opportunity of gaining wider experience in handling aircraft. The fact that this is their primary aim necessarily narrows the field in which they can work and the people whom they can attract. Some people may join an aero club from a general interest in flying, but in ' Wellington a band of enthusiasts for aviation feel that there should be an organisation which would cast its net much more widely and mobilise thosc interested in any field which may prove of valne to aviation. Thus navigation officers, electrical experts, machinists, mechanics, exmemhers of the Royal Air Eorce (of whom'it is said they >are now too few to make it worth their while to form their own separate body), model aeroplane malcers, gliding clubs, observers, all will0 be invited to join the new organisation when it is properly cqnstitnted. The intention is to extend the branches of the body throughout the country and to make it a national organisation. After it is formed the body will work to foster interest in flying and to widen the knowledge of its members in the various phases of work associated with aviation. And at the same. time it is hoped that the body will not be without its usefulness from *the point of view of possible emergeneies, for it will give many new opportunities. of experience to the young and enthusiastic and will also serve to spread wider knowledge of the powers of a young man in, say, Invercargill, who has equipped himself with a sound knowledge of navigation but who is unknown to people in the North Island. From this point -of view the body may be viewed as mobilising the Dominion's talent for any possible sudden need. The plans of the association, of course, are still incomplete, but it is imderstood that these are the general lines on which it is to work and that the first foundation meeting will be held here at an early date. *