Crowd honours flighty old bird

If Hilda Hewlett knew how many people had turned out to the launch of her autobiography yesterday, she'd have been "genuinely astonished".
So says the author of her life, Gail Hewlett, who yesterday received an overwhelming response at Classic Flyers, to launch the book Old Bird: The Irrepressible Mrs Hewlett.
The book has been written by British-based Gail, the wife of Hilda's grandson, Anthony.
Hilda Hewlett was the first woman to gain a pilot's licence in Britain and she also inspired the name of one of Tauranga's busiest roads.
Mrs Hewlett, who is based in Britain, has been researching and writing the life of her remarkable grandmother-in-law for 20 years.
She told a crowd of about 50 members of the public and local dignitaries that she had found the research "addictive".
"I am very nosy and it was very hard to know when to call a halt and start writing," she said.
"She [Hilda] professed not to think that what she did was so very extraordinary. And she would have been the first to admit she was an accidental pioneer."
Hilda had taken inspiration from Louis Paulhan, piloting a Henri Farman biplane in 1909, she said.
"When this extraordinary, flimsy craft powered out into the air, Hilda knew that was what she wanted above all else. To know and understand that power."
Mrs Hewlett said she dedicated much of her book to Hilda's husband, Maurice, who despite considering himself "a Victorian" had an "open and sympathetic attitude to women" and allowed Hilda to follow her own path.
Hilda learnt to fly at age 47, in 1911, and became the first female owner of one of Britain's first flying schools, as well as the first to own and run a factory producing aircraft during World War I.
Hilda moved to Tauranga in 1927, aged 62, and began her association with aviation in New Zealand.
Hilda gained the nickname of "the old bird" during her time here, inspiring the title of the book.
Mrs Hewlett's husband Anthony was brought up in Tauranga, but has lived in Britain for the past 40 years. He was just 5 years old when Hilda died in 1943.
He accompanied his wife at the book launch yesterday.
Mrs Hewlett said a typescript of Hilda's memoirs had been discovered in the family garage in Maungatapu by Anthony.
Hilda and son Francis - Gail Hewlett's father-in-law - bought land at Edgecumbe Rd, which became Tauranga's first "flying field" at the Waikareao Estuary. Hilda became one of the founders, and the first president, of the Tauranga Aero Club.
When the airport opened in 1939, it was decided the road would be called Hewletts Rd in recognition of Hilda and Francis' contribution to aviation.
Mrs Hewlett said its link with Jean Batten Drive was fitting, given that during Jean's triumphal tour of her home country after her record-breaking flight from England to Australia in 1934 she stayed with Hilda in Tauranga.
She told those at the book launch that Hilda's life had been an "honour" to write about.