AERIAL TOPDRESSING AT TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume III, Issue 139, 24 September 1954, Page 1

AERIAL TOPDRESSING AT TAUPO

OPERATIONS AT TAUHARA AERODROME History was made last week when Aerial topdressing and grass-seed sowing was carried out from Tauhara Aerodrome, Taupo; this being the first occasion on which this modern method had been used in the Taupo district. Two areas of about one thousand acres each, one in the Oruanui Block and one in the Tauhara Block, were covered, the operation being part of the land development programme being carried out by the Department of Lands and Survey. The work was done by the staff of James Aviation Ltd., of Rotorua. The planes used were a Tiger Moth for the grass-seeding and a Beaver for the topdressing. The pilots engaged were Mr Ron W. Woolford, topdressing, and Mr J. H. Roberts, seeding.

The aerodrome appeared to be satisfactory for the purpose, though described by the operators as being "a bit rough." It would seem that any use of the Aerodrome for other than occasional visits from smaller planes will be likely to require extension of the field to the northward beyond the present fence line. An incident during the operations was the collapse, under the wheels of a truck, of a "tomo" or sink-hole in the middle of the niain run-way. The depression was soon filled up and no damage was1 done, though it might have been otherwise had the ground sunk under the wheels of a plane. In the present operation some 227 bags of grass seed were sown on the Oruanui Block, together with 120 tons of superphosphate, and similar quantities of seed and manure on the Tauhara Block.

The use being made of aerial topdressing in New Zealand is indicated by the fact that in the year ended June 30, 1954, 203,110 tons of fertiliser were applied by air, almost half of which, 94,663 tons were dropped in the Auckland Province. In 1954 about 27 per cent of all grassland topdressed in the country was topdressed from the air, the acreage being 1,929,499 acres. The 1954 aerial topdressing programme wa^ undertaken by 46 operators, who had a total of 200 aircraft, and flew 832,181 flights, of a . total duration of 54,038 hours. i

The area now included in the Tauhara Aerodrome was first used as a landing fieldi on November 11, 1929, when Mr Ian Horton, liying the N.Z. Herald's Gipsy Moth landed there from Auckland, i Later on the same day Captain McGregor landed his Moth plane there, after flying from Ohakune, and passenger flights were made from the field. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith landed his famous plane, the j Southern Cross, on the field after flying non-stop from Christchurch during a tour of New Zealand. On that occasion Sir Charles made a number of passenger flights from the field.