Warbird scholarship programme widened
A vintage Spitfire takes off for a practice flight during Warbirds over Wanaka last year. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
Warbird aircraft engineers are now eligible to apply along with Warbird pilots to the Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust scholarship programme, the trust has announced.
Warbirds Over Wanaka general manager Ed Taylor said since 2016, scholarships worth a total of $40,000 had been awarded to younger Warbird pilots to help them get valuable time flying historic aircraft.
Most of the recipients to date were involved in last year's airshow, Mr Taylor said.
The scholarship programme was paused after Covid forced the cancellation of the 2020 and 2022 airshows but, following last year's successful event, the trust was now in a position to resume the programme, he said.
The original scholarships were restricted to pilots, but the trust had decided to increase the number of scholarships and expand who could apply, meaning Warbird aircraft engineers were now eligible.
Each scholarship would now be worth up to $10,000 following each airshow from now.
The number and value of scholarships awarded would remain at the discretion of the trust's scholarship team, he said.
Applications for the 2025 scholarship round open next month.
— APL
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Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Warbird scholarship programme widened
A vintage Spitfire takes off for a practice flight during Warbirds over Wanaka last year. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON Warbird aircraft engineers are now eligible to apply along with Warbird pilots to the Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust scholarship programme, the trust has announced. Warbirds Over Wanaka general manager Ed Taylor said since 2016, scholarships worth a total of $40,000 had been awarded to younger Warbird pilots to help them get valuable time flying historic aircraft. Most of the recipients to date were involved in last year's airshow, Mr Taylor said. The scholarship programme was paused after Covid forced the cancellation of the 2020 and 2022 airshows but, following last year's successful event, the trust was now in a position to resume the programme, he said. The original scholarships were restricted to pilots, but the trust had decided to increase the number of scholarships and expand who could apply, meaning Warbird aircraft engineers were now eligible. Each scholarship would now be worth up to $10,000 following each airshow from now. The number and value of scholarships awarded would remain at the discretion of the trust's scholarship team, he said. Applications for the 2025 scholarship round open next month. — APL
NZ Herald
23-04-2025
- NZ Herald
Anzac Day 2025: Commemoration events in Whanganui and wider region
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NZ Herald
23-04-2025
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Scots honour Gisborne Spitfire pilot as the ‘Face of Courage'
The villagers initially fear their homes may be struck by the aircraft but still despair as the Spitfire descends into a deadly tailspin and strikes a nearby railway siding. Villagers rush to the crash site to pull Everiss from the burning Spitfire, but the trainee pilot dies a short time later. It is generally accepted Everiss, instead of bailing out, sacrificed himself to prevent his Spitfire from striking homes in the village. The Scots still gratefully honour the pilot each year with a memorial service, but his story is little known in Gisborne. Military records show that when Everiss enlisted in 1939, his father Fred was 'late of Gisborne', mother Murielle lived in Hamilton and wife Phyliss resided in Te Kūiti. Everiss enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and began pilot training in January 1941. After gaining his pilot's wings in Canada, Everiss was sent to the United Kingdom and posted to No 58 Operational Training Unit at Grangemouth, beside the Firth of Forth in central Scotland and just 10km from the mining village of Cowie. He was flying near Cowie, accompanied by another Spitfire, when his aircraft developed engine problems, leading to his death. Everiss, a Pilot Officer, lies at rest at Grandsable Cemetery in Grangemouth. John Craig was one of those watching villagers who pulled Everiss out of his Spitfire in 1941. Craig travelled to New Zealand in 1979 and tracked down a brother-in-law of Everiss in Auckland, who gave him a photograph of the pilot in RNZAF uniform. A painting, based on the photograph of Carlyle Everiss and titled The Face of Courage, remains on permanent display today at the Cowie Bowling Club. In 2007, villagers raised £12,000 ($27,320 today) to create a bronze bust of the New Zealander, which sits on a plinth on a site outside the bowling club and is named the Carlyle Everiss Memorial. 'No one here underestimates the contribution Carlyle Everiss made in sacrificing his own life for the sake of not just the villagers at that time, but for all generations to come,' councillor Gerard O'Brien said when the bronze bust was erected. Today, an Everiss scholarship allows students from Ōtaki College to reciprocate a New Zealand scholarship for Scottish students from Robert Gordon College to travel to New Zealand in memory of Archibald Bisset Smith VC, captain of the New Zealand Shipping Company vessel, the SS Ōtaki. Smith was killed in battle with a German raider in 1917. The students visit Everiss' grave in Grangemouth before attending an annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Carlyle Everiss Memorial. The service is also attended by representatives of the RNZAF and RAF, Lord Lieutenant of Stirlingshire and Falkirk, and representatives of Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen, St Margaret's Primary School, Highland Reserve Forces and Cadets Association and Cowie Bowling Club. The first Everiss scholars travelled together to Scotland in 2023 after their trips were delayed by Covid-19. The 2025 Everiss scholar, Maddie Simpson, at February's service, read the poem High Flight, which was written by Royal Canadian Air Force pilot John Gillespie Magee. He was also killed on a training flight in 1941 in England.
