Captain’s Log for 27 February
A sad farewell to the staff as we leave Burns Lodge but the team provided us with a lovely meal for the 30 of us that attended. We acknowledge the fact that we really enjoyed our time at the Holy Cross.
Our guest speaker was Peter Trevathan, an amateur historian interested in preserving the heritage of the Taieri aerodrome. The Aero club on the Taieri was formed in the 1920’s but in the late 30’s, the government became interested as a place to train young pilots. Training planes such as the Harvard, which was so noisy that it couldn’t be used in actual warfare as it could be heard coming from long distances away, to the popular Tiger Moths, which would bounce around in any air turbulence.
During the war years some famous pilots came through the Taieri airbase. There were even some spectacular crashes including one of the famous Mustang fighter planes.
Later, the famous and very reliable DC3’s flew from the Taieri to Antarctica until the runways were not long enough to take more modern planes and the Momona airport was constructed.
Peter ended his talk with a call to help with the preservation of our military history.
John Seddon was acting sergeant for the night as Ross was away.
The Trip to Invercargill and the Richardson Motor museum is going ahead this Sunday 5th March and given the numbers will now be going in a minibus, kindly made available by the Salvation Army.
On Tuesday the 26th, a few of us removed our belongings from Burns Lodge and took them to our new “home” at the Wingatui racecourse where we will be enjoying the beautiful views from the upper lounge after Easter.
Monday March 6th - No meeting.
Monday March 13th - No normal meeting but a Ten Pin bowling outing arranged followed by a meal. Details from Graham Beach 021 0672 166
Welfare Notices to Rob van Abs - 027 553 4405 rob.vanabs@salvationarmy.org.
Meeting Apologies:- Brian Shanks 027 376 2272 or email briantshanks@gmail.com