75th Anniversary of South Westland Air Service

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I'm heading over to Wellington tomorrow and staying the night, then catching a couple of flights (via Christchurch) to Hokitika on Friday morning. I should be there just after 11:00am and after picking up a rental car, I'll be driving down to Haast.

I hope to get a ride in some of those beautiful old aeroplanes over the weekend if the weather behaves itself. If I manage to get a flight in a Fox Moth, I'll be happy; if I also get up in a Dragon and/or Dragonfly, I'll be ecstatic! I couldn't think of a better place to go flying in de Havillands than at Haast.

However, I'm going for a blast in a jetboat up the Waitoto River on Saturday morning before the air pageant. I arranged it yesterday.

[DragonflyDH90]

Thats a great jetboat ride, well worth the time.

The forecast isnt the best but we will see what we can do with what we have.

See you there.

[Gavin Conroy]

Here is a photo taken this morning.
Flying with these two aircraft was a big reason for me to head over to Haast.
The Fox Moth once served with the MAC it was nice to fly around its old stomping ground.
We got some really nice photos of these two aircraft.

Dave, The Fox Moth is very quiet for an aircraft of its time. The wooden interior etc does make for a nice trip.

More to follow,


Some fun in the Fleet on the way home.

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, super fantastic Gavin!

[baz62]

Yeah great photos Gav. I like the black and white ones they give an air of nostalgia to thos e wonderful DeHavillands.

[stu]

Looks to be footage for a story on tonight's 3 News being fed up the line from Christchurch as I type this.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I arrived at Hokitika late-morning. ZK-AYR and ZK-AMI were there, plus the Dragon and Fox Moth from North Shore.

Following the official opening of the Bert Mercer Lounge in the airport terminal (and unveiling of the plaque by his daughter), I went for a flight in the Dragonfly (piloted by Jerry Chisom), then climbed into AMI for another flight. While we were cruising around in the Fox Moth, Jerry formated on us with the Dragonfly, so I got some good air-to-air photographs.

I left Hokitika a lot later than I had intended because of the joyrides, but drove like the clappers through pouring rain and made it to Haast in only three hours neat from Hokitika, including stopping at Franz Josef to grab a lotto ticket. When I arrived at Haast, I was surprised to discover that all the aeroplanes had made it through from Hokitika.

It's rather wet at Haast at the moment, but all the locals are optimistic that things will clear tomorrow. I hope so.

Paul Beaucamp-Legg is here....I was just talking to him not long ago. He must just about be the last of the old West Coast pilots left alive. I imagine he will be a guest of honour at the dinner tomorrow night.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Oooops....bit of a typo there.

It was ZK-ADI I went for a flight in, not ZK-AMI (which if my memory serves me correctly was a Catalina used by TEAL for pilot training).

The local police visited the hotel not long ago. A sergeant and two constables. I wasn't aware they had more than one cop at Haast. Perhaps they think all of us aviation buffs are going to get pissed and play up? ;D

BTW....Alec Waugh is filling in and doing the honours on behalf of his brother Richard during the weekend.

[Dave Homewood]

So are there no other photos from the event itself? How did it go? Was it washed out?

[kiwithrottlejockey]

There was no flying at all during the event due to “Haast weather” but the entire weekend was still a huge success.

I still haven't sorted out my photographs from Hokitika (plus a few I took at Haast) as I've only just got back from Gisborne (late yesterday) where I drank way too much alcohol over a couple of days (and I've still got a bloody sore head), but I'll get onto it over the next few days, then I'll post some.

I was fortunate enough to go for a ride in ZK-ADI last Friday (18th December) and share the cabin with Jack Renton, the son of Jack Renton who was one of the major shareholders of Air Travel NZ Ltd and also the owner of the land that Southside Aerodrome was sited on. Jack (junior) had a few very intersting stories to tell about his father as well as personal memories of riding in the various aeroplanes on the South Westland airline service. Jack was also in attendance at Haast during the weekend.

The air pageant went ahead on the Saturday afternoon, but without the flying. The coasters turned it into a big social occasion. The dinner on the Saturday evening was a huge event — some of the local old-timers reckoned it was probably the biggest social occasion that had ever been held in the Haast area. The dinner was held in a huge (and I mean really HUGE) marquee that had been errected on the aerodrome. The marquee was errected on the river gravels (which is what most of the airfield is), but the ground was so saturated from all the rain that water was soaking up through the gravels and forming puddles in various places inside the marquee. However, that didn't seem to worry the locals who took it in their stride. I noticed several of the older ladies of the district turned out in all their finery (dress-wise) but wearing gumboots. Only in Haast, eh? ;D Even the Mayor of Westland got up to give her offical speech, wearing a really nice dress and gumboots! I left the party on the aerodrome about 11:30pm and it was still going really strong.

The following morning was a beautiful day and I headed back to the aerodrome where the locals were planning on another air pageant to replace the one that got rained out the previous day. I had been under the impression on the Friday evening that all of the de Havillands had made it through from Hokitika, but apparently ZK-ADI and ZK-AYR were still stuck in Hokitika. I don't know if they had taken off and tried to fly to Haast but been forced to turn back, or whether they had decided to sit it out at Hokitika. However, the Fox Moth and Dragon from Auckland had made it through. Colin Smith told me they had literally flown really low all the way once they ran into the bad weather and followed the breakers and counted off the river-mouths until they got to the Haast River. They had then turned inland to follow the river in almost zero visibility and saw the huge marquee appear out of the murk and that is how they located Haast Aerodrome.

I understand ADI and AYR took off from Hokitika early on Sunday morning and presumably made it through to Haast. I didn't stick around as the wind was starting to get up (crosswind across the runway) and I wasn't sure if they were going to get in any joyriding. The Auckland Fox Moth carried out at least one flight on the Sunday morning before I headed off to the glaciers, then on to Hokitika. However, just before I left, and while a group of us were standing on the airfield talking, the Fox Moth was suddenly weathercocked around into wind (while it was sitting on the ground with nobody in it), which gives you an indication of the increasing strength of the wind.

I'll post some photographs into here sometime over the next few days.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

BTW — I went for an interesting blast up the Waiatoto River on the Saturday morning with Waiatoto River Safaris. The boat driver was Neil Ross' daughter and she is as mad as her “old man” (he started Dart River Jets and ran it for several years before eventually selling the operation to Shotover Jet several years ago). The river was in full-on flood with lots of trees being washed downstream and plenty of mist and low cloud but that still didn't stop her from going hard-out both up and down the river dodging all the trees. We didn't go into the Waiatoto Gorge though as it was a bit too wild in there that day. A group of white-water rafters were spat out of the gorge while we were up there though. It would have been an interesting ride through the gorge for them. I presume they were dropped upriver by helicopter.