Model Pilot

Guinea Airways' New Chief

IN choosing Mr. Eric Chater, as general manager for their flying services, Guinea Airways Limited had selected one of the best aviators Australia had pro duced, a prominent Victorian pilot told the Melbourne Herald when the an nouncement was made public early in October.

Mr. Chater’s flying record was almost a model for a commercial pilot.

He began commercial flying with West Australian Airways, taking passenger planes from Perth to Broome, and later to Adelaide. While working in that service he joined the search for the late Air

Commodore Kingsford-Smith and his crew in the Southern Cross, when they were lost for a fortnight at Coffee Royal near Port George in Western Australia.

His efforts to keep in the air the old D.H.50 he was using in the search, in face of mechanical breakdowns, lack of repair facilities, and climatic difficulties, were little short of superhuman.

Later, as instructor to the Victorian Aero Club, he introduced night flying and blind flying tuition to Australian aviation.

During his two years of service with the club he did not have an accident.

For three and a half years Mr. Chater has been flying the goldfields planes in New Guinea, and assisting in G.A.’s organisation. The company operates one of the most flourishing aerial services in the world.

The Lockheed Electra aeroplane, imported by Guinea Airways Ltd., landed on the aerodrome at Wau on the morning of September 19. Top: Excited crowd around the ’plane when it landed.

Lower: Mr. Eric Chater, general manager of Guinea Airways Ltd., who was in charge of the plane from Adelaide to Wau, chatting with Mrs.

F. S. Stewart, just after landing.