AVIATION MISHAP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 March 1939, Page 7

AVIATION MISHAP

AUCKLAND CLUB PILOTS INJURED. CRASH WHEN PRACTISING LANDINGS. l (By Tele<^raph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 1 28. Two club-trained pilots undergoing “instruction were injured when a de Havilland Gipsy Moth plane crashed in an open field about two miles west of the Mangere Aerodrome about 9.30 this morning. They were:— Frederick Robert Hesketh, aged 31. single, Remuera, a commercial pilo! employed by the Auckland Aero Club: injury to the spine, condition not serious. Goerdie Keith Larney, Christchurch aged 26, single, a pilot of the Canterbury Aero Club and a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, internal injury, condition not serious. The pilots were practising forced landings, which is a routine part of a pilot’s activities, and they chose an open field on a farm over which to go | through' the movements of landing without actually coming down to the ground. While turning at an altitude of between 100 and 200 feet the plane got out of control, tending to develop a spin, and struck the side of a hummock. The engine hit the ground and the machine bounded back a few yards, smashing the engine housing and right wing and buckling the under-carriage. Mr Larney, who was in the cockpit climbed out of the plane and assisted Mr Hesketh. who had been at the controls, on to the ground. Farmers came running from all directions, but little was required of them except to cal.’ the ambulance.