AEROPLANE ON FOXTON BEACH.

Shannon News, 3 May 1929, Page 2

AEROPLANE ON FOXTON BEACH.

FACILITIES FOR FLYERS. During the recent flights of aero planes north and south, a Moth, pilot ed by Captain Mercer,' Instructor t the Canterbury Aero Club, and earryin, as a passenger Mr Climie, Secretary o the Club ana the Canterbury Progres League, landed on the Foxton beach having been caught by darkness whit on route from Christchurch to Feild ing. -

The flyers parked their machine o: the ocean beach, where they had land ed on the water’s edge, folded its wing back, covered the engine and cockpit with .canvas- covers carried for th purpose ancl made their wav into Fox ton. . ‘ '

■Captain Mercer told a Foxton Het aid representative that after leavin; Blenheim, bad weather conditions Wer encountered over the Straits with ba< visibility. Darkness was rapidly com ing on and it was found impossible t make Feilding that night. The lilt? machine was given “full bore” up th coast from Kapiti, the speed being : the vicinity of 95 miles p'er hour. A along the oast the towns were lit u and easily discernible'as Captain Mel cer carefully scanned the ocean bear at the Heads for a landing . groum Darkness prevented him from landin on the old river bed and he brough the machine down as near to the W: ter’s edge as possible. “I could no tell,” he said, “whether we were fiftor fifteen feet off the ground, it wa so dark.” A good landing was effecl ed and no difficulty was experience in running the machine up the soft san out of reach of the water, where, it returning to it in the morning‘it ha the appearance of a huge gull sittin quietly on the sand with wings folder Shortly after 9 o’clock next morniu Captain Mercer unfolded the wings o the machine ana slotted them .. mt place. Willing hands assisted him t push the Moth out on to' the firm sane a twist or two of the pvopellor an he was ■- off, soaring up over the sam hills to land on the bid river bed i order to give the beach children a opportunity of seeing the ’plain Shortly afterwards they proceeded t Hastings. Questioned as to the suitability * c the old river bed as a landing .groun for ’planes, Captain Mercer said th ground was ideal and very necessary He knew he would be able to land o the Foxton Beach on his run up i necessary, but the old river bed w: not mapped out as a landing groun and as lie did not have time to circl over it owing to the darkness and eoul not risk landing on it in the dark. Ha he known more about- it he would ce tainly have landed there in preferent to'the ocean beach, but he was afrai of posts or fences. The old river be* in his opinion was very suitable f: an air port. It was quite as large £ might be desired, but then a larg area of land was not required for rui ways. The ideal way of laying o« a ground for lunways was to cut. up roughly in the-form of a Unio Jack. Bun ways were levelled fro; corner to corner, side to side and en to end. The ground between thes run ways was not required for an particular purpose and could be le< in its ngtural/slate., At the beach. sam hills were the only obstructions an runways in this manner were to ei able a pilot to take off ip any win by selecting the correct runway. Th clear area in the middle is certain! very suitable for landing purposes, I Captain Mercer’s opinion it would b a good idea for local residents to hay a hangar erected at the beach. Thi could be done at very little cost. Th shed need only be a skeleton with sand floor and would not cost mor than a car shed. If this were don and the fact made known it woul not be long before the beach woul become a recognised air port an ’planes .vould be calling im.