SEAPLANE BASES NEEDED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 8

SEAPLANE BASES NEEDED

FLIGHTS NOW RESTRICTED MINISTER VISITS NAPIER Press Association WELLINGTON, Frida* A telegram from Napier early this week stated that the Hon. T. M, WUford. Minister of Defence, had said he was looking for another seaplnue base besides Hobsonville. In reply to a question on the subject to-day, the Minister made it clear that his main object was to select suitable places for the landing of seaplanes should they leave their horns hangars at Hobsonville. He pointed out that it was ngcessary to find sate landing places for these machines, as their radius of operations would be determined accordingly. It was no use sending such planes out for a distance from the base without first of all ensuring that they would have adequate facilities for alighting and taking off. Mr. Wilford said that while in Napier he had made a partial inspection of the locality for a suitable land-ing-place, and the Director of Air Services, Major T. M. Wilkes, would visit Napier again to go more closely into the question. He was also considering w-hether Porirua Harbour would afford suitable conditions for the landing of such machines. An ideal seaplane airdrome would

ive a depth of some six to 10 feet of water over a run-way of up to a mile in length, and conditions must be snch that it can take off into the wind from whatever quarter it is blowing.