gets Fiji

Unlimited enthusiasm gets Fiji Flying Club airborne

From David Evans, in Suva The Victa Airtourer taxied to a stop on the apron oppo site the control tower at Nausori airport, the engine revved once, then the propeller fluttered to a stop. The canopy slid back with a clatter and out onto the wing stepped Charles Stinson, OBE, Fiji’s Minister for Communcations, Works and Tourism.

After several hours of dual flying, 2 had just completed his first solo rcuit of the airfield, and it was his rthday.

The Victa Airtourer, its stubby ;llow and white fuselage now a miliar sight in Fiji skies, is owned / the colony’s newest air service, ir Pacific Ltd., and is chartered f the Fiji Flying Club.

This club is the result of the fore ght and hard work of a number of dng enthusiasts in Fiji who have, me of them for a number of years, sen trying to get a flying club “off e ground”. The main difficulties sre the large initial cost of an air aft and the lack of a qualified structor.

Hearing of the difficulties, and eing the possibilities of expanding e new company, Air Pacific’s Suva >ss, Pat Macassey, offered to supply e Victa. The offer was not long in :ing accepted.

A bunch of eager flyers, headed \ a figure long familiar in Fiji ing, Tom French, and another perienced flyer with many hours to s credit, Tom King, of the Bank New South Wales, promptly rmed the Fiji Flying Club. They jre joined by would-be pilots with icks of enthusiasm but little or no actical experience—men such as teve” Stevenson, a man familiar th those interested in competitive

motoring events in Fiji, and long time citizen Jock Baker.

The club’s 50 flying members are forming the nucleus of a strong band of enthusiasts who will probably supply the colony with many pilots of commercial standard.

The club is based in Suva, where there are currently over 30 members receiving flying training, and it has a branch in Lautoka, where some 20 north-west members are now receiv ing regular training at Nadi Inter national Airport. There are a further 40-odd potential flyers who have recently joined the club and many of these will be taking up flying training in the near future.

Amazing

The enthusiasm with which the club was met by local citizens when it was formed was amazing. Among its flying members are Vijay R. Singh, the Minister for Social Services, Adi Samanunu Cakobau, daughter of Ratu George Cakobau, the paramount chief of Fiji, and several members of the Ragg family, of Northern Hotels, including David junior, who has also recently completed his first solo.

When the club was formed and the aircraft arrived, there was still one problem to be surmounted—there was no instructor. Air Pacific was

still trying to find a suitable profes sional to act as a full-time instructor when Tom King stepped in and offered his services gratis to the club. Tom has over a thousand hours as an instructor, and his experience dates back to the war years when he helped train RAAF pilots.

Tom worked like a Trojan until Air Pacific found a full-time instruc tor in Clive Plane, a man with several thousand hours of flying ex perience.

Though the club is only three months old, the members have already clocked up 150 hours of flying time, and the hours are now being stacked up at a rate of more than 25 per week. Six locally-trained pilots are now flying solo, and this requires an average of six to eight hours per pupil. Many others will go solo in the near future.

The object of most of the fledgling flyers is to obtain the little folder now familiarly known to them as the PPL—the Private Pilot’s Licence.

Quite a handful

To qualify for the licence a pilot must have at least 40 hours air ex perience (with almost half of them solo), high passes in examinations in the principles of flight, air naviga tion, aero engines and airframes, meteorology and, since the Victa is equipped with a VHP radio receiver and transmitter, a practical and written examination in radiotele phony.

This is quite a handful, but the

Fiji's Minister for Communications, Works and Tourism, Mr. Charles Stinson (in cock pit), is congratulated after his first solo flight by his instructor, Mr. Clive Plane.

rainees are tackling the theoretical lide of things enthusiastically. Fiji \irways pilot, Trevor Morl e y , ogether with several others, is ecturing the flyers at the Derrick rechnical Institute one night every veek —at no charge.

All the student pilots must under ake a medical examination and take •ut a permit to fly—a Student Pilot’s dcence. This entitles them to fly oth dual and solo under the super ision of the instructor.

When the cost of flying instruction £F6 an hour) is included, a private ying licence costs about £F2SO. Why, len, are people so eager to learn ) fly? Most of them just love ying. You will, however, strike the idividual like Suva builder and otelier Y. P. Reddy who, besides is passionate love of flying, also itends to use his licence to keep an /e on his rapidly expanding Viti evu-wide business interests.

With the rapid growth of private ying in Fiji, the club is already mtemplating the acquisition of lother aircraft. There is, of course, so the possibility that one of the embers, having gained his (or her) :ence, may decide to buy an air aft.

Meanwhile, with the coming of ivate flying to Fiji, the Victa’s radio llsign—“Victa Bravo Delta”—is scorning familiar to all who listen on the Fiji airwaves.