4 minute read
Club Captain s Report
Another month has ripped past far too quickly for my liking. August started with the prizegiving on Sunday the second which was well attended and successfully concluded apart from a few prizewinners who couldn’t attend the day who were presented with their well-earned prize at our Wednesday smoko. Well done everyone.
Unfortunately, August was disrupted by the return of the virus which saw our big event, Daffodil Day having to be cancelled. Peter Thwaites ran the annual ‘Mud Plug’ on the 16 th August, see Peter’s report of this event with the results separately in this newsletter. There was a short run out to Hawkesbury carriages arranged for the 19 th but the weather didn’t play ball and it was held after the next Wednesday smoko, not quite sure how many attended but it was a good turnout. This was the first mid-week event I had arranged and judging by the turnout it is something worth being done again.
This month there is a visit from the Nelson branch to join us for our weekly smoko and parts shed raid next Wednesday the 9 th . Good to see interclub things like this (not to mention inflow of foreign capital) as being good for vintage motoring for both clubs. On the back of the successful historic tour of the Wairau Bar in July There is a short run for Sunday 20 th September, this time on the history of aviation in this district. From the first crossing by air of Cook Straight in 1920 to Kingsford -Smiths first crossing of the Tasman Sea to wartime aviation when Marlborough was selected due to its good weather as the main training bases for our military to the post war years and SafeAir Ltd and to the present. I have roped in Allan Graham to help me along with Paul Davidson of the Argosy Trust and owner of the Argosy at Woodbourne. Paul is a documentary maker by profession and was involved in the final days of SafeAir and has made a DVD called the Final Flight which is well worth seeing and will be available on the day. Also talking to us is Lester Hope, who was an avionics engineer at Safe and a very knowledgeable historian on Marlborough aviation in general and SafeAir in particular and the Author of the book “SAFE IN THE SKIES” which will be also be available on the day. The day is arranged to leave the clubrooms at 0930 travel to the runway tearooms at Woodbourne where I will introduce Lester and Paul, give a brief outline and hand over to Lester who will speak for thirty minutes or so then over to Paul who has a simulated flight to the Chatham Islands in the actual Argosy that did the final flight, this is by all accounts a very professionally produced simulation complete with sound and motion, the normal cost for this is about $25
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but he is giving it to us at about $10. The Runway Café is adjacent to the aircraft and they are happy for us to bring our own lunch bearing in mind that they are a commercial business and I for one feel it would be the polite thing to patronize their business on the day to some extent. After lunch we can travel to John Walsh’s place at Fairhall where he has an extensive collection of aviation artifacts photos and memorabilia, it is also the exact site where Kingsford-Smith operated the Southern Cross aircraft from in 1928.
Jim McLean
INDIAN CHIEF VIEWS THE WHITE MAN’S FUTILITY …….
An old Indian chief sat in his hut on the reservation, smoking a ceremonial pipe and eyeing two US government officials sent to interview him.
"Chief Two Eagles," asked one official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his material wealth. You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done." The chief nodded in agreement. The official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?" The chief stared at the government officials for over a minute and then calmly replied, "When white man found the land, Indians were running it.
No taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, medicine man free, Indian man spent all day hunting and fishing, all night having sex." Then the chief leaned back and smiled,
"Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."
Contributed by Jim McLean
The photo’s on the following Pages were contributed by branch photographer : Linda Laing from the Hawksbury Run and our Prizegiving last month.
