Post by Dave Homewood on May 5, 2024 19:12:35 GMT 12
From The Press, 17 August 1964:
Learning To Fly At 83
(N Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, Aug. 16.
A New Zealand grandmother who once flew as a joyrider with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in the Southern Cross this week became Britain’s oldest learner-pilot, the Sydney “Sun-Herald'’ reported from London. She is Mrs Evelyn Hobday, aged 83, of Auckland, now living in Farnborough, Hampshire. Mrs Hobday has nine grandchildren.
She is learning to fly a two-seater Auster aircraft at Blackbushe Airfield, near Camberley. Surrey, the newspaper report added.
“It is terribly exciting,” she said. “I have wanted to fly ever since I was living in New Zealand. I belonged to the aerial club there and went up a few times in aeroplanes. They were much more rickety affairs than they are now.
“In 1928 when Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith made the first flight across the Tasman I went for a joy ride in the Southern Cross. I had to pay a few shillings for the privilege.”
“What I like most,” she said, “is the sense of freedom it gives you being up there among the clouds and being able to look down on everything.
“I don’t like just flying straight and level. I like to move the plane around a bit.
“I once went for a ride with a test pilot who did aerobatics with a new machine. I adored it
“I haven’t done any aerobatics so far but you never know.”
Does she think she will ever get a pilot’s licence? “I don't think I’ll ever get that far,” she said. “But I’m enjoying the learning part I fly as often as I can.”
Learning To Fly At 83
(N Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, Aug. 16.
A New Zealand grandmother who once flew as a joyrider with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in the Southern Cross this week became Britain’s oldest learner-pilot, the Sydney “Sun-Herald'’ reported from London. She is Mrs Evelyn Hobday, aged 83, of Auckland, now living in Farnborough, Hampshire. Mrs Hobday has nine grandchildren.
She is learning to fly a two-seater Auster aircraft at Blackbushe Airfield, near Camberley. Surrey, the newspaper report added.
“It is terribly exciting,” she said. “I have wanted to fly ever since I was living in New Zealand. I belonged to the aerial club there and went up a few times in aeroplanes. They were much more rickety affairs than they are now.
“In 1928 when Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith made the first flight across the Tasman I went for a joy ride in the Southern Cross. I had to pay a few shillings for the privilege.”
“What I like most,” she said, “is the sense of freedom it gives you being up there among the clouds and being able to look down on everything.
“I don’t like just flying straight and level. I like to move the plane around a bit.
“I once went for a ride with a test pilot who did aerobatics with a new machine. I adored it
“I haven’t done any aerobatics so far but you never know.”
Does she think she will ever get a pilot’s licence? “I don't think I’ll ever get that far,” she said. “But I’m enjoying the learning part I fly as often as I can.”
