Tiger Moth pilot worked to get youngsters aloft

By ELIZABETH BINNING, ANNE BESTON AND NZPA

Tiger Moth pilot Nola Mary Pickard was an enthusiastic promoter of the vintage planes and devoted her time to encouraging young people to share her love of flying.

The 54-year-old and her husband, Michael Stanley Pickard, 61, were killed on Saturday when their Tiger Moth aircraft crashed and burst into flames shortly after taking off from a Taumarunui airstrip.

The couple had not long been married.

Witnesses said the plane stalled in a turn, spun out of control and burst into flames on hitting the ground.

About 60 people saw the accident.

They could do little but watch helplessly as flames devoured the aircraft.

The Pickards, from Manurewa, were members of the Tiger Moth Club and Mrs Pickard was co-ordinator of the Royal New Zealand Aero Club Young Eagles, a scheme encouraging young people to fly.

The Young Eagles chapter was formed in 1994 and members are taken on a flight and encouraged to become involved in their local aero club.



The Tiger Moth Club secretary, John King of Auckland, said Barry Cowley, the pilot of the freight plane lost in a storm off Kapiti two weeks ago, had also been a member of the Tiger Moth Club.

"It has not been a good couple of weeks for us. "The aviation community is very closeknit. We mostly know one another."

Yesterday, friends laid flowers in the paddock and civil aviation investigators started examining the remains of the plane.

There was no obvious reason for the crash, which occurred as the couple prepared to take part in a spot- landing competition.

Tiger Moth Club spokesman Jim Lawson said Mrs Pickard was an experienced flight instructor and was participating in the club's annual event for the second time.

Her husband also had some experience as a pilot but was not flying at this event or at the time of the crash.

The aircraft had travelled about 600m from the end of the runway when something seemed to go wrong and it began to spiral downwards.

Seconds later plumes of smoke appeared from a paddock 2km away.

While the emergency services were called, a team from the airshow, including a nurse and doctor, rushed to the crash site.

But by the time they arrived the plane's mostly wooden and fabric body was engulfed in flames.

The crash is the first fatal accident in the club's 34-year history of holding annual events.

This year's event had attracted about 50 participants, many of whom flew home on Saturday afternoon.

Others left yesterday morning, flying over the crash site with a "wave waggle", saluting their lost friends.

Civil Aviation Authority investigator Tom McCready said the plane was still intact when it hit the ground and there were no visible clues as to what might have caused the accident.

"We've just gone through the controls this morning, and made sure everything's as it should be," Mr McCready told Television New Zealand. "We have found nothing untoward."

It could take months before the cause of the crash is known.