View Full Version : TEAL's Coral Route
Kiwithrottlejockey
14th Feb 2016, 23:24
No sound with this, but it has some great film footage of TEAL's Solent flying-boat operations in the South Pacific....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO-PNgelv8A
Centaurus
16th Feb 2016, 12:39
Loved those greaser landings. Thanks for posting that clip. No back to front baseball capped, boozy loud mouthed Bogans on those flights.
Brought back memories of similar destinations around the Pacific with Air Nauru 737's except we landed on atoll runways and not many greasers either. :E
Kiwithrottlejockey
17th Feb 2016, 10:00
The old flying-boat crew members are getting rather thin on the ground now. A friend of mine's Dad (Geoff White, who is now in his late-80s and living in Albury on the NSW-Victoria border in Australia) is an old flying-boat pilot. Geoff and Ray Hanna were best mates growing up in Auckland when they were kids and were in the same ATC squadron together. When they left school, they both applied to join the RNZAF to train as pilots. Geoff was accepted, but Ray Hanna was rejected. However, Ray successfully applied to enlist in the RAF instead, meanwhile Geoff joined the RNZAF on a five-year short-service commission in 1947 and after gaining his wings, served as a transport pilot flying C-47s, then during his last year of service he was sent to England to train on Bristol Freighters before flying one of the RNZAF's new examples from England out to NZ. In late-1952, Geoff finished his RNZAF service and joined TEAL, flying Solent flying-boats. From there, he flew DC-6s, Lockheed Electras, DC-8s and DC-10s before retiring. Not a bad career progression with TEAL/Air NZ, from four-engine flying-boats to wide-body jets.
Kiwithrottlejockey
2nd Mar 2016, 01:12
This looks like a very interesting book....
• Coral Route: Tasman Empire Airways Ltd, flying boats & the South Pacific by Gerry Barton and Philip Heath (http://steeleroberts.co.nz/product/coral-route)
Gerry Barton is a conservator at the Museum of Transport & Technology in Auckland, New Zealand, where the Short S.45A Solent 4 flying-boat ZK-AMO “Aranui” is on display.