Retired Napier pilot Lew Day enjoys a 100th birthday flight

Lew Day in Bill Lamb's Tiger Moth for his special 100th birthday flight. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Napier man celebrated 100 years of a life spent mostly in the air by looping and barrelling hundreds of metres above the ground.

Retired pilot Lew Day joked that he was “horrified” when he realised his family had surprised him with a flight in a Tiger Moth for his 100th birthday.

“No, it was great,” he laughed.

Day went up from the Hastings Aerodrome today to celebrate the milestone.

The last time he piloted a plane was 23 years ago, while the last time he was a passenger in one was about 2012.

He would have kept flying longer if he could have but he eventually retired after 57 years of flying, aged 77.

Take-off!Tiger Moth pilot Bill Lamb taking Lew Day for a flight from Hawke's Bay and East Coast Aero Club. Photo / Warren Buckland

Lew and his wife Doreen are both qualified pilots and celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary in late May.

Lew lived in Napier when he enlisted in the RNZAF in 1942 and flew Sunderland flying boat patrol bombers during World War II.

He later took a commission in the RAF, with whom he flew in the Malayan Emergency and the Korean War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry.

Lew Day at Cape Canaveral in 1986 before the Challenger disaster. Photo / Day Family

He was an instructor at the Central Flying School at Cranwell, UK, before they returned to New Zealand in 1962, where he worked as a flight instructor, then a corporate pilot and went on to fly air ambulances.

He was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM) in 1997 for his services to aviation.

Daughter-in-law Marg Day said it wasn’t until the last moment after entering the aerodrome that Day realised what was happening.

Lew Day flew planes for more than 50 years, but the last time he had been in one was over 10 years ago. Photo / Warren Buckland

“He has got a big smile on his face now,” she said.

Day’s son Brian said Day would have first flown in a Tiger Moth in 1942 and it appeared that he got to experience the plane to its fullest once again this time.

“They did a few loops and rolls, so I think he was pretty happy with that.”

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz