CIVIL AVIATION

Hokitika Guardian, 20 November 1929, Page 7

CIVIL AVIATION

PROSPECTS IN THE DOMINION. SUGGESTED, AIR, SERVICES. All interesting address on civil aviation and its prospects in New Zealand was given by Wing-Commander S'. Grant-Dll!ton (Director of Air Services and Director of Civil Aviation in New Zealand!, speaking as chief guest at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Friday, states the “Post.”

Jll spite of having been thirteen years in the Air Force, said WingCommander Dalton, he still did not quite realise how quickly one could get from one place to another by air, as compared with travelling bv train or boat, and that, he thought, must be ''ccause he was slow in getting what was called “air-mindedness”— an expression that he hated, by-the-bye. Nowadays, unless and until a, country got “air-sense” or “airmindedness,” it was not going to develop very quickly. But New Zealand was getting that sense. From what he had already seen, it was clear that New Zealand was getting “air-mindedness,”

Supposing that any one of those present found, when he got hack to his office at two o’clock, a telegram stating that he was urgently required at New Plymouth or Napier, what would he do? He thought that lie would get hold of the railway timetable and look up the trains. “Hullo, I can’t get there to-day,” lie would say. “I must go by - the express tomorrow morning, getting there to morrow evening!” Or he might take his private car and get there by midnight the same night. But if they had got civil aviation going in New Zealand, the business man, under such circumstances, could easily do the 150 miles or so to Nanicr by four o’clock. He would therefore send a wire saying, “Meet me at 4.30 :” and lie would say to himself, “Thank goodness, I need not miss that theatre appointment in Wellington to-night. I can get back ifcy seven o'clock.’’ (Laughter and applause.) The time was coming—-it was, perhaps, not so very far away—when for urgent business trips like that they would only have to ring up the. aerodrome, ns people ring no the Croydon Aerodrome in the Old Country, and away they would go. That was what they should get before long.

“EAGER TO GET STARTED, ” There were already a number of companies Hilly too eager to got started, All they wanted w&S tilC money, and he thought they would get It shortly. Bui they were looking for the Government to tome forward and any, “We will give you so many thousands of pounds i\pd a contract for the maßs.’f But* the Government as they all knew, was “pretty tight” (laughter); and he was rather on the Government’s side and thought that it should not come forward until the companies'had made good. Then the PostmasterGcneral would come forward and sav, “I will give you the mails” and everything would be all right. He did not think that it Was up to the Government to c-ome forward with the money and mails first. WHAT MIGHT BE DONE. He believed there was talk of getting the mails down from Auckland to Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and taking the reply mail back to Auckland in time to catch the same boat before it left again. (Ao : plause). That could be done, providing New Zealand had the necessary landing-grounds. But the Government could not provide all the landing-grounds for the Dominion. That would cost too much; and it was, therefore, up to the various towns and cities to provide landinggrounds for themselves. They were already providing them, as a matter of fact; and in the near future any town or city that had not got a land-ing-ground would ibe out of it in regard to aviation. New Zealand was not behind England in that respect, because England had hold back a bit. It was only this last summer that they had started to try get the towns and cities in the Old Country to provide their own landing-grounds and Sir Alan Cobham had been flying around everywhere to encourage the towns and cities to get a move on.

“HIGHER, HIGHER, HIGHER.’’ He had been told before be came out that New Zealand was a very difficult country for aviation, on account of its bills and the prevail ins? winds; and there was some truth in that. There were very few landing grounds yet; and where it was hilly it would he very difficult to find a safe place to land on in case of a forced landing. The safest place for aviators over billy country was ‘•higher, higher, higher.” ’1 lie higher tuoy went the hotter. So he would advise any companies running air services in New Zealand to make it a rule for their pilots to fly at 5000 feet and upwards. And why not have flyingboats and go along the coasts? There wore hundreds of little sounds and bays on the coasts and <|uite a number of lakes and rivers in the interior where a flying-boat could easily land. TTe was a great believer in flyingboats. He might cross over to Australia in a flying-boat; he would not go in an aeroplane lor anything. He did not like flying across the land in a flying-boat and he did not like flying acro'-s the sea in an aeroplane. They might think that sillv, but his experience in Egypt, flying from

Alexandra to Port Said, and so on, had shown him that it was not nice having land beneath one when one had not got wheels. POSSIBLE AIR SERVICES.

Discussing possible air services, the Director said that there might be me leaving Auckland, say, at eight in the morning, calling at New Plymouth, perhaps, at 9.30 a.m., and arriving at Wellington at 11 am. Three hours would be ample for the trip. By rail it was 420 miles, and by road more than that; but it would he very little over 300 miles if one flew straight, and the machines they would get would average 100 miles an hour all right. Of course, a head wind at thirty miles an hour would cut the speed down to seventy miles an hour; but if they had the luck to he flying with such a wind, their speed would he 130 miles an. hour. He thought such a service would pay. He had spoken, to many business men on the trains, and they had all told him that if they had only 'an hour or so’s business to do in Auckland, say, they would rather fly there and hack than spend a day in going there, a whole day in Auckland and another day getting hack, as they must now do. Then the aeroplane he had been talking about might leave Wellington again, say, at noon, arrive in Christchurch at 1.45 p.m., in Dunedin at 4 p.m. and in Invercargill at five o’clock. That was absolutely possible, The only thing holding up the inauguration of such an air service was the. lack of landing grounds. A setvice from Gisborne to Wellington and another from Gisborne to Auckland would pay well, because Gisborne had no railway, and it took a very long time to get there. Then the eighty miles across the Strait from Wellington to Nelson, and vice versa could be done under the hour, whereas the boat took several hours. On. a trip to the South Island the other day, lie had left by the ferry steamer about 7 p.m., arriving at Nelson early next morning, and had then gone on to Blenheim by car, arriving late the same day ; but he had flown back to Wellington, leaving Blenheim at three o’clock and landing at Lvall Bay by 4 p.m., though there was a thick fog and rain. But if he bad not flown he might have been there yet. (Laughter and applause.) The mails and passengers would be the main standbys for civil aviation, because the carrying power of the machines was low as compared with that of trains or boats. Four passengers of 1501 b each were about what the class of machine New Zealand would get could carry. As to what use aviation would he commercially, he would rather leave it to them as commercial men to say, because they knew their own jobs best, and' knew what could be got out of them French aeroplanes took fresh iruit, and flowers over to England and a Nolwm-Wellington air service might also be Very useful in that direction. (Loud applaUSm)