The Flying Boat Days - Lord Howe Island

[Dave Homewood]

DVD Review

THE FLYING BOAT DAYS - The Early Aviation History of Lord Howe Island 1931 to 1974



This DVD has been produced by forum member and ex-pat kiwi Lord Howe Islander Peter Phillipps, who has collected together an amazing amount of photos and home movie footage of the flying boats and floatplanes that vistied and serviced the remote Pacific outpost, Lord Howe Island.

Peter also narrates the documentary with the fascinating story of aviation on Lord Howe from the time the first aircraft visited, Francis Chichester in his Gipsy Moth ZK-AAK "Lady Elijah" through till the last Ansett Short Sandringham service in 1974.

There's a lot of coloured photos and home movie showing the gorgeous Sandringhams, including the ex-RNZAF NZ4108 "Islander" now with Kermit Weeks' collection.

The photos of local ingenious repairs to the likes of Chichester's Gipsy Moth through to large four engined flying boats that washed ashore are fascinating to see.

The film has a wealth of information and photos and footage that you probably will not find elsewhere, and though it has a bit of an amateur quality (really quite a chamrming made in Lord Howe feel to it, much of the footage being from old movies and home video) I would highly reconmmend this to the Flying Boat fans out there.

As well as the main feature there is extra footage including an excellent ride in a Grumman Albatross around the island with some water touch and goes; some footage of a lovely large model Sunderland flying around the lagoon, from the same water where the real big aircraft flew from; and also a slideshow of beautiful photos from the flying boat days on Lord Howe.

For a copy of this DVD please contact:
Peter A.R. Phillips
Douple P Publishing
P.O. Box 103
Lord Howe Island
NSW, Australia 2898

Email [e-mail]
Or you can send a PM to Peter via his account Planecrazy
rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile&user=planecrazy

[Dave Homewood]

Book Review

THE FLYING BOAT DAYS - The Early Aviation History of Lord Howe Island

This is a second review, of a book on the same theme as the film above, and with the same name. I thought it would be sensible to add the two into the same thread as it will reduce confusion having two threads with the same name, and also those interested in one will surely be interested in the other.

Peter Phillips who made the film has also written the book, and it records the history of aviation on Lord Howe, and like the film it traces the waterborne-airborne visitors from 1931 till 1974 but with more detail in some aspects, and also more recent happenings on the island since the airport runway was installed.

Within the 127 pages are may photographs, maps and well researched stories of the golden age of aviation in the Pacific. Some of the accidents are detialed, as is the war years on Lord Howe, and unexpected arrials such as a Fletcher that landed before there was a runway, and took off again from the cricket pitch. There are also technical details for some of the large flying boats that once visited Lord Howe's shores.

This book was first published in 2002 but has been reprinted at least five times since, with my edition being from 2009, so it's obviously a popular book. I would certainly recoomend it, it's a great book to read and keep as a reference and will go nicely on my bookshelf next to the book I have on Norfolk Island aviation.

To order a copy please contact Peter Phillipps on the details above on the DVD review.