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© 2009 Hawkes Bay & East Coast AeroClub Inc |
12th November 1928 Hawkes Bay Aeroclub was incorporated. The 2nd registered aeroclub in NZ. 16th November 1928 The first offical meeting of the club. 166 listed members. First airfield located on corner of Bridge Pa Rd and Pakipaki Rd. End of November a holding company was formed (The Hawkes Bay Aeroplane Company) for the purpose of underwriting early set up costs and put the club into a position where it became self supporting. The company bought Cirrus Moth G NZAT and re registered it as ZK AAB. The aeroclub named the moth "Heretaunga". 1929: Training in AAB began. 1st Instructor Tiny White First aerial pageant First PPL.s 1931 The Napier Earthquake. The aeroclub makes its presence welcome in the aftermath. For three weeks the club had eight to ten moths in the air every day,keeping communications alive delivering telegrams and letters, doctors and nurses, medicine and distressed relatives, and running errands in to the remote areas of Hawkes Bay. The practical application of aircraft to a community had been well demostrated to Hawkes Bay in a most timery fashion. 1932 August 3. The aeorclub executive agree to purchase land for a new aerodrome - an 80 acre block next to Hastings Golf course at Bridge Pa. 1933 January 20. The new club house was officially opened by Charles Kingsford Smith with the official North Island air pageant arranged to mark the occasion. 1936 NZ Aerial Mapping purchase first plane - a Monospar SD25 1938 The Esk Valley floods again saw the club running relief operations this time for flood vcitims. 1939 Pilot training stepped up to provision trained pilots for the Air Force. Hawkes Bay recieved an inital quota of 12 trainees, which was supplemented with an extra five pilots every eight weeks. The club linked with the Air Training Corps and in line with a national move agreed to give the Government its planes in the event of war. With the out break of war Hawkes Bay Aero Club effectively went into hibernation. By March 1940, thirty two of the clubs trainees had joined the RNZAF, the RAAF or the RAF 1946 January. Club operations resume 1968 Hawkes Bay Skydiving Club was born Hawkes Bay Gliding Club builds a hangar at Bridge Pa 1976 Full runway strip lighting installed 1978 NZ Aerial Mapping seal a 1000metre landing strip. |