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The Nelson Photo News

 

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Flying
-- and the Safety Factor

Down at the airport there are hugs and kisses, and often is heard the final good wish: "Safe flight." Down at Christchurch, about 650 members of National Airways Corporation's engineering staff echo this good wish, and throughout the day and night hours they use their skill to see that tomorrow's passengers enjoy the same measure of safety and peace of mind as did today's. "Photo News" flew to Christchurch with NAC last month to have a look at the corporation's engineering headquarters. Nelson, as the nation's fifth busiest airport, is very air conscious, and we are sure our readers will find this photographic article of interest.

It soon became obvious that unlike the cars we use, aircraft are not just parked at night and left until the morrow before being started and used again. Oh, no. The airport terminal and many of the buildings may be deserted, but out on the perimeter of the airfield each aircraft is given an intensive maintenance check, then brought back to one of the huge hangars where the check on airframe and other components is made. These checks are exacting and each component checked has to reach rigid specifications. Every aircraft in the fleet also undergoes an overhaul at specific intervals-from 200 flying hours to complete overhauls (which involve a complete stripping down of the whole aircraft). All this is accomplished on the 16 acres engineering site at Christchurch, 6.1 acres of this under roof. To give some idea of the extent of NAC's safety record, here are some interesting facts: Last year corporation aircraft flew 67,524 hours and transported 1,148,213 passengers 307.80 million passenger miles. And not one passenger was lost. Not one aircraft was lost. That's air safety.

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A last wave before boarding a Friendship at Nelson airport

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While the aircraft has been on the tarmac awaiting its next flight, it has been checked, and now the engines are started, the chocks are removed, and it's thumbs up for everything normal.

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The wheels come up and we' re airborne

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Passengers settle down with papers, or work, confident in the knowledge that NAC's safety record has no peer in the world.

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Rosemary Kennard, of Takaka, assists stewardess Judy Bootten, to hand our sweets (Mr Tas McKie is on the receiving end).

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Over Mount Robert and the shining waters of Lake Rotorua can be seen through the cotton-wool clouds.

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Christchurch airport, showing in particular the corporation's engineering workshops. These include the two hangars at far right and the buildings adjacent to them (on the left). The building fronting the entrance road is engineering administration and those at the left of it and at the rear house the engineering, instrument, electrical, radio and electronic workshops and cafeteria. Attached to the hangars are the manufacturing and airframe workshops. At the top of the pic, alongside the trees, is the turbo-prop test chamber.

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Night falls and few passengers or staff are in the terminal building (above), but on the perimeter of the field engineers are putting a Friendship through an overnight maintenance test (right) and inside the huge hangars, three more aircraft await their checks (below).

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Some of the aircraft operated by NAC in the past (most of these are now obsolete but the DC3, top right, remains a great aircraft and is still in wide use today).

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In the instrument repair shop we came upon Ken Sellers, who lived in Stoke up to 2½ years ago.

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A panoramic view of the engine workshop in which the Rolls Royce turbo prop and Pratt and Whitney (DC3) engines are overhauled

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A general view of the instrument workshop

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Radar equipment, of the type installed in viscount and Friendship aircraft, is checked by John Mosely

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A Viscount Dart engine under overhaul

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As well as training their own apprentices, NAC runs a special Government block training course of apprentice aircraft engineers from all over New Zealand (here some heed the words of Bill Chudleigh.

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Wilton Gray uses an X-Ray machine on an engine casing in the X-ray plant (the processed film will show up any flaws in the casing).

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Tarmac engineers are kept busy in Christchurch as they are in Nelson and other New Zealand airports.

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This pic mainly concerns passenger comfort -food and drinks being loaded aboard a Viscount scheduled for Auckland.

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Before the turbo prop engines are replaced in the aircraft after an overhaul, they are tested in a "Dart" test shop where they are put through intensive tests lasting days before they are passed (the engineer sits at the control panel while the huge prop is fitted to the engine at right).

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The human element is not forgotten and in this mock-up of a flight deck (a procedure trainer) every pilot must undergo periodic procedure training.

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Back home to Nelson and a fine view of the Southern Alps

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And through the clouds, home lies below

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The DC3 making the last daily flight to Nelson is held over for the first flight the next morning and overnight, it too must have its overnight maintenance check, carried out here by Wally Lister.