Flying With NAC

 

My first memories of flying in an airplane was accompanying my father (age five or six in the 1950's) on an NAC DC3 from Bell Block aerodrome (New Plymouth) to Christchurch.

It was a trip I made with Dad every couple of years to stay with my grandparents in Christchurch's Port Hills.

There was always a stop at Ohakea enroute and I vividly remember enjoying the low flying over farmland and watching the rivets on the wing!

Also had a stop-over at Paraparaumu before tackling Cook Strait.

The boiled sweets served by the stewardess were another treat to look forward to.

The DC3 was a great aircraft and very reliable, albeit slow by today's standards. https://www.zazzle.com/new_zealand_national_airways... #Airlines #NewZealand #Flying #DC3 #NAC #history

Flying the Way it Used to Be

From Brisbane to Singapore 1937
Refueling at Daly Waters in the Northern Territory

In this day of A380's and Changi's terminals it is easy to forget how far travelling by air has advanced in a very short space of time.

This image shows a refueling stop in  Australia's Northern Territory.  In 1937 when this photograph was taken aircraft has to stop several times on long flights to refuel.  It was only two years earlier, on 7 April that Qantas operated its first overseas passenger flight from Brisbane to Singapore.  It was a  four-day trip in those days and the aircraft (partially pictured at right) was a four-engine DH86.

Demand for the service was such that two years after this journey was captured on film the DH86 was replaced by Short C Class Empire flying boats, which also operated out of Sydney.

1937 was clearly a watershed year in Singapore aviation as the Wearne Brothers launched the first commercial air service between Singapore and Malaya that year using a de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft called (quite appropriately) the Governor Raffles. It flew from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

It was also the year that Amelia Earhart departed from Lae in Papua New Guinea en-route to Howland Island. She never made it.

No Frequent Flyer points in those days and only the well-to-do could afford air travel. Qantas has also become an airline consigned to Singapore's history as it recently stopped flying there, preferring instead to go through Dubai.

Related articles

• Amelia Earhart's Navigator: The Life and Loss of Fred Noonan
• De Havilland Dragon Rapide
• Qantas base leaves Singapore for Dubai

Wonders Never Cease

'On The Tiles'

I entered this online promotion run by KLM just for the hell of it. Today I received news that mine was one of nearly 4,000 tiles selected to decorate the cabin of one of their triple 7's.

A 'delft touch' if you'll excuse the pun!

Death By A Thousand Cuts

Source: Captain Capitalism

My death by a thousand cuts took place in a claustrophobically small aircraft toilet, some thirty eight thousand feet about the Earth.

I had forgotten to pack a razor and had resorted to using the one provide in a cellophane pack by the airline.

Being early morning in the time zone I had left eight hours before didn't help my mood as I wrestled to open the packet in the small confines of the toilet cubicle.

The trick, of managing to keep any hot water in the stainless steel basin also eluded me.  It was then I discovered that the small tube of shaving cream provided was of sufficient vintage to ensure that it had hardened solid and could not be coaxed out, no matter how hard I squeezed.

Not to be outdone I resorted to using liquid hand soap form the dispenser attached to the wall.  The arrival of turbulence prompted the announcement from the stewardess to "please return to your seats and securely fasten your seatbelts".

It is the first and only time that I decided to disobey this instruction.  My shirt had been removed by this time to stop the liquid soap continuing its run and there way no way I was going to repeat the procedure after the airpockets had passed.

The hand held plastic razor was of the twin blade variety.  Not that I had any problem with reverting from the  usual four blade version I was used to, to this more primitive and flexible piece of plastic and sharpened steel.

The fact that razor manufacturers always seem to add another blade to their product on an annual basis I find slightly absurd.

A more apparent problem soon emerged with the first sweep of the blade across my chin.  Forgetting that the blade was of similar vintage to the tube of cream I was therefore mortified to notice that large bloody welts had suddenly appeared on my face.

I am not sure if it was the altitude, but blood seems to run more freely in a pressurised aircraft cabin.  There was no choice but to forget about shaving and focus on first aid with the help of a dwindling supply of paper tissues.

Thankfully when I emerged from the toilet as a bloodied version of the Australian comic Norman Gunston, there were few awake in the cabin to witness my sheepish return to my seat.

While Heathrow customs did look somewhat askance at my appearance, the rest of the journey into London proved uneventful.

However I learn a valuable lesson: I pack my owner blade razor and will never again try to use the complimentary airline version.

Related articles

• Shaving science: cutting-edge research sharpens men up in the morning (telegraph.co.uk)

Ibrahaim The Kite King

Ibrahaim was the kite king of Orchard Road some fifty years ago. He owned a small salibat stall; a more primitive version of Kopitiam stalls found around Singapore today.

He was well known to the children of Kramat Lane for his prowess with kites, even though he was then in his early thirties and they were in the main, under ten. Kramat Lane as it was then, with its open canal-sized drains, no longer exists. These deadly ditches have long since been covered over and hotels have taken the place of factories and shop houses.

Kite flying was and remains very popular in Singapore and in a weekend evening of Marine Parade you can often see kite contests underway. And I do mean 'contests' as kite flying here has a competitive edge to it.

References to Malay kite flying were recorded early in the 16th century with the very earliest using a skin of leaves, reminiscent of the early Maori kite's use of plant materials. 'A study in Polynesian Tradition' 1931, by Nora K. Chadwick suggests that kites were long used in the Malay archipelago to catch fish. There are other references to kites being used by fishermen in the Malay-Polynesian archipelago, a system used to this day.

The aim of kite fighting is to severe the string one's opponent through the use of a carefully prepared abrasive string.

In the '50's children used to carefully save blown filament light bulbs, They would surreptitiously 'borrow' their mothers pestal and mortar and grind the glass bulbs into an abrasive dust. The metal filament itself was removed from the mix.

A block of the red builders glue made from cow skins would be heated up in old and cleaned tin cans and the powdered glass would be added.

One of the most important attributes was to secure an extremely long and unbroken reel of cotton as any knots and joins in the reel were a potential weakness.

The cotton was pulled through the glue and glass mixture and then strung between trees or poles to dry. There were often many cut hands during this preparatory process but the end result was a strong cutting string to which the kite was attached.

Kite fighting and tactics to defeat an opponent remain a serious business as the number of Singaporean blog and web sites testify. There is even an active association to promote the sport.

Clearly and unlike in the West, the expression "Go Fly A Kite' has a more positive meaning.