News

With sadness we record the passing of veteran Lewis (Lew) Day DFC aged one hundred. Day joined the RNZAF in 1942 for initial pilot training at Harewood, Christchurch, going on to complete his flying course in Manitoba, Canada and also specialist navigational training from Prince Edward Island as part of the EATS.

Former RNZAF Air Commodore Mal Gunton, a long-time honorary member of NZBCA, is one of the very few surviving RNZAF fighter pilots from WWII still with us. He was recently reunited with Vought F4UCorsair ZK-COR, the fighter type he flew in the Pacific.

Sitting in a cramped, curtained-off compartment, navigators worked by the light of a simple lamp, the pilot relying on him to find the target before guiding the aircraft and its crew safely home. Amongst a small set of tools to plot his route was a set of dividers. These have flown to Berlin and back.