Broken hangar makes

new church

It being an ill winds which blows nobody any good, there is at least one group of citizens in Fiji who have reason to be mildly glad of the latest spate of cyclones to hit their homeland.

They are the congregation of the Legalega Methodist church at Nadi who have just finished rebuilding their church, wreck ed by Cyclone Eric, with material from the Nadi airport hangar of Sunflower Airlines, also wrecked in the cyclone.

Sunflower bought from the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji the wreckage of the hangar from which they operated and is now building a new hangar on the site.

Half of the timber and all of the roofing iron from the old hanger, built by the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the 1940’5, was given to the church by the airline. In return the congregation undertook the de molition work, the men forming

the wrecking crews and the women providing the food to keep them going.

“They have done a really great job,” said Don Colling wood, managing director of Sunflower Airlines. “The site is clear and we have begun buil ding our new home base.”

Ratu Pio Tini, foreman of the work crews, said the new church would be built on a

piece of land given by the Tui Rara, Ratu Waiseke Serakarua.

Sunflower Airlines have been expanding fairly rapidly and now has a fleet consisting of a 16-passenger Riley Heron and three nine-passenger Britten Norman Islanders flying sche duled and charter passenger and freight services throughout Fiji and charters around the Pacific.

Don Collingwood (fourth from right back row), Managing Director of Sunflower Airlines, with some of the church work crew who demolished the airline's old hangar at Nadi Airport to make way for a new one and to rebuild their church.