New Zealand News

Even if they offered Air New Zealand the right to fly to Singapore via Melbourne and Perth, he could see no benefit in this – it would in any case require further bilateral negotiations with Singapore.

The Auckland/Los Angeles route is the key to the New Zealand network and Air New Zealand says a Qantas presence would cut heavily into its business. The airline was scathing of the Qantas request, saying the Australian side “must have been joking”.

Nevertheless, cooler observers feel the growing might of US air services on the route may in time force a closer accord between the two South Pacific carriers. Continental alone almost matches Air New Zealand on frequencies, and United has served notice it has no intention of soft-peddling.

Qantas’ case was that it was a major generator of American visitors to the two countries and many of these visitors were forced to backtrack to Australia in order to get home.

The same talks agreed on a weekly Auckland/Cairns service for Qantas-which it was entitled to in any case under the present bilateral, but Air New Zealand failed in its bid to gain the same rights.

Australian Training Concept Creates Waves

Civil Aviation has run into severe flak over its wholehearted support for an Australian plan to establish a flying training school at Palmerston North in cooperation with a local university.

The proposal comes from Jim Sparks, of Cessnock’s Civil Air Training Academy. The scheme is to graduate pilots with both the Australian and New Zealand CPL, with class 1 instruments and multi ratings.

Sparks foresees the school supplying a limited elite of pilots to the industry, schooled not only in flying skills, but also in management, law in general, aviation psychology, personnel and instructional skills.

The course will be integrated with Massey University which apart from maintaining a large science and arts campus is also the leading tertiary body for off campus studies. According to university educationist, Dr Graham Hunt, the pilot course would be a ‘first’ in integrating flying training with academic content in New Zealand.

Sparks says the flying part of the course will be based on the 20 year old Cessnock course, but combining the resources of a University. He plans to equip the school with a simulator developed in conjunction with Southampton University and a vertigo ‘Blue Box Link’ generating vertigo at 15rpm.

Ab initio training will take place on Pipers at Palmerston North while students will go to Cessnock for 25 hours of multi-engine conversion on Grumman Cougars. Cost of the year long course for the 20 would-be pilots accepted annually would be $28,000, including accommodation.

Mr Sparks says Civil Aviation has given overall approval to the scheme, though it was awaiting more organisational detail. Massey University was evaluating the application of technology to flight training with a view to Civil Aviation approving reduced actual flying time.

Local criticism of the scheme has been led by Mr Walter Wagtendonk of Nelson Aviation College. He likens it to “selling off the family silver to an outsider”. If the university was made available to one it should be to all.

Opponents take issue with the proposal to reduce air time through the use of a simulator and contrast it with what they see as an excessively rigid and unbalanced attitude by Civil Aviation in applying regulations to local flying schools.

Ansett New Zealand 737s to Be ‘Like New’

Ansett New Zealand’s fleet of four Boeing 737 jets would arrive in New Zealand as ‘zero time’ aircraft, says the airline’s chief executive, Mr Ross Keenan. They would have an operational life as if they had just been rolled out of the Seattle plant.

Mr Keenan was asked to comment on Australian Aviation’s January issue reference that three of the aircraft, which were originally sold to Lufthansa, were among the earliest off the line, numbers 2, 4 and 5 and that one of them had the honour of operating the first commercial flight for the type, on February 1 o, 1968 (refer p68 Jan 87 AA). New Zealand papers were quick to report the age of the machines, which have latterly been operated by the US domestic carrier, America West.

Mr Keenan said one aircraft had already been overhauled and refitted in Canada and similar work was being done on the other in Seattle. They were being fitted with wide bodied type interiors, galleys and seating. Instrumentation and systems were being upgraded to modern standards.

He said the decision to lease aircraft almost 20 years old was not based on prices, which he would not reveal. They were bought because they were identical 737s.

“When you buy a new fleet, your aircraft must be exactly the same, from cockpit layout to engines and performance. That is extremely difficult to achieve, especially now when the used aircraft market is very tight and prices are astronomical.

“We were very lucky to find a fleet that suited our requirements with four identical aircraft and the prospect of being able to get even more of the same. ”

The first of the refurbished 737s was due in Auckland in April and will fly familiarisation and route training hours before main trunk jet services begin on July 1.

Man Powered Flight Test to Continue

While the closure of a sponsoring airline (Air Albatross) last year meant the withdrawal of a substantial prize for sustained man-powered flight, the quest is still alive. Latest to produce a machine that looks capable is wartime fighter pilot Don Walther, of Christchurch.

Walther (65) has been testing his machine at the Wigram RNZAF Base. It is entirely different from the favoured canard, having a short stubby fuselage and what can be best described as greatly staggered biplanes, one at either end of the fuselage. The pilot occupies a horizontal position on his stomach, peddling a three bladed pusher propeller.

Walther likens the principle to a Leonardo da Vinci design. Despite the lesson from antiquity, he’s no slouch with aerodynamics and stress analysis. A brief test with him at the controls saw the aircraft nearly airborne at its lift-off speed of 18kts. A slowing problem caused by wingtip skids necessitated a return to the hangar for modifications (wingtip wheels). The machine is constructed largely of reinforced polystyrene, with aluminium alloy main spars and is skinned with clear plastic film. It weighs 126Ibs and with Walther’s weight of 126Ibs checks in at 6Ibs below the design AUW.

For fairly obvious reasons, the staggered biplane design is to overcome manoeuvrability problems experienced by Albatross, Condor and Puffin designs, he points out. Further tests were scheduled for April.

Government May Be Sued Over Air Albatross Crash

A crash which killed eight people in 1985 may result in the Government being sued. The liquidator for Air Albatross, Mr Tolmie Scoular, said he was considering a damages action.

The crash happened when an Air Albatross Cessna 402 on a scheduled flight to Wellington hit a power cable stretched across Tory Channel, in the Marlborough Sounds.

The chief inspector of air accidents, Mr Ron Chippindale, found the prime cause of the accident lay in the pilot’s decision to fly below the regulation minimum so that passengers could sightsee. He said the cables were inadequately marked and supporting pylons carried daytime warning lights of less than one-fiftieth of the required power.

Despite Chippindale’s urging, the National Aviation Advisory Committee has rejected any action to mark the cables more clearly. The committee noted there were a further 561 cables around the country of similar height (300ft) and that it would cost $368,000 to mark just the Tory Channel cable with lights and balls. The nationwide cost for all cables above this height would amount to $150 million.

The committee described the problem as not that of wires but rather one of educating pilots. The findings have concerned operators who note that since 1958, 144 wire strikes have been recorded resulting in 35 deaths.

Mr Scoular said legal action was considered because faults were attributed to other people as well as the pilot.

Briefs

• The RNZAF has purchased from Royal Jordanian Air Force stocks a number of Hughes Aircraft AGM-65A Maverick air to surface missiles. The missiles, with automatic television homing, are to supplement the air-to-air Sidewinders for the Services A-4K Skyhawk upgrade which is due for completion in 1989. The missile carries a 59kg warhead over 14 miles.

• The New Zealand Airline Pilots Association has informally rejected any possibility of pilots agreeing to take the sleeping drug temazepam while on long-haul flights. Some British airlines have proposed using the drug, which has no after-effects, to allow pilots to catch some sleep while colleagues take over.

Temazepam was used during the Falklands conflict to ensure that Harrier pilots got at least five hours sleep between flights. • Christchurch hang glider pilot Bill Degen has achieved the first crossing of the Southern Alps by hang glider. Launching from Mt Chessman, he flew 58km to land near Lake Brunner.

Righting a Wrong

The arrival of the RNZAF’s 50th birthday coincides with the publication of a book which throws a less than complimentary shadow over one period of the Service.

One of New Zealand’s finest World War Two fighter aces was Johnny Checketts, credited with 14 confirmed kills and as many probables. Checketts arrived in wartime Britain nearing the ripe age of 30 and having run a gauntlet of unenthusiastic flying instructors at home.

He seems to have applied himself to the business of aerial combat with unusual maturity. Author of the book, Dr Vincent Orange, cites his habit of flying for hours to exercise his eyesight until he had a legendary knack for spotting the enemy first.

He was shot down over France and made a remarkable escape via the underground, returning to Britain to be employed on intelligence and after the Normandy invasion to command a multi-national wing. Unlike his close friend Alan Deere, he chose to return to the RNZAF after the war, though advised against this by the then Chief of Air Staff, Leonard lsitt.

In ten postwar years in the RNZAF, Checketts commanded several stations with flair and distinction and was instrumental in husbanding in the jet age with the arrival ofVampires,Yet despite this and a gruelling year at Britain’s staff college, he never rose beyond his wartime rank of Wing Commander, nor was he called on to exercise the duties of a staff officer.

He resigned from the Service in 1955 in an affair which reflects sadly on the brass. While commanding the South Island station of Taieri, a Harvard trainer on night flying exercises crashed killing the pilot and an airman passenger. The inquiry blamed Checketts for breaching a little known regulation forbidding the carrying of passengers on night flying. It took no account of his absence at the time, the boozy flying indiscipline he’d inherited and overcome at the station-and his own efforts in unearthing the regulation.

Checketts, a charismatic flyer, disappeared into obscurity for more than 20 years, involving himself in aerial work flying and wildlife administration. It was the efforts of another fine airman, the present Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal David Crooks, who perceived the injustice and who restored his old commanding officer as an honoured guest in Services messes.

And the reason for Checkett’s fall from grace? The answer seems to lie much in an unpleasant ill feeling which existed in the postwar years between those who served in the European war theatre and those in the Pacific. The orientation in turn was split between the ways of the RAF and the USAF. Checketts was too tall a poppy from the European theatre not to be cut down.

History, and no doubt irrelevant now, but the dichotomy points up an interesting situation widely perceived but little spoken of at the time. It resulted in the return of many good airmen to the RAF.

The Service is much changed now, altogether more professional and Checketts has been persuaded to play a full part in the birthday commemorations. Vincent Orange, lecturer in history at Canterbury University, is also the author of a biography of the New Zealand commander in the Battle of Britain, Air Marshal Sir Keith Park – who also suffered a baffling fall from grace later, though not under the same circumstances.

The RNZAF was to hold a number of pageants and open days to mark its 5oth birthday. They included a two day pageant at Ohakea on April 4 and 5, incorporating flying by the Services Historic Flight and civilian displays. There was to be a formal opening of the RNZAF Museum at Wigram on April 1.