LONGLAND’S AERODROME

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 193, 5 August 1930, Page 8

LONGLAND’S AERODROME

DAMAGED BY GALE. 'PLANES NOT AFFECTED. Further details of the damage to the Hawke Bay and East Coast Aero Club s property at Longlands during the recent hurricane show that the housing shed on the grounds contained five hangars, four of them with closed swingdoors, and the second from the left wing a large open one for the monoplane, whose wings do not fold up. it was the latter that was the root of the trouble. A gale blew up from the south-east, striking the shed face on, the open hangar forming a dangerous air-pocket. As a result, the end hangar on the left and the open hangar, with a total frontage ot 40 feet, were torn away from the right wing, lifted over the fence and the small poplars behind, and deposited, roof down, in the neighbouring paddock, 40 feet away.

The Aorangi, the club’s original Simmonds-Spartan, which was housed in the left wing, was left untouched and unmoved, exposed to the open. The doors of the first two hangars in the wing left standing, were damaged by the force of the wind, and the ground blocks torn clear when the other wing was wrenched off. The two ’planes in the hangars were uninjured, the third ’plane being in Gisborne.

As Captain White is expected back in Hastings in a day or two, and there are only three hangars available, the Simmonds-Spartan has been dismantled and brought into town. The doors of the remaining hangars have been barricaded, and an endeavour made to fix up the broken left wing of the shed. Half of the timber, it is thought, will not be able to be used again. Only the wooden girders and ironwork have been left.

The loss occasioned by this accident to the shed is a serious one to the club.