Sharing notes on the old bird

BY MICHAEL BERRY

Two Marlborough Boys' College old boys dropped in to their old school yesterday.

Well, they did a few laps of the field and a hovered over the goalposts first.

Royal New Zealand Air Force Squadron Leader Oliver Bint and Royal New Zealand Navy Sub-Lieutenant Wicus Marais have been involved in helicopter training exercises in the Dip Flat area near Lake Rotoiti, and flew to town with an Iroquois helicopter yesterday to visit the college.

Sub-Lieutenant Marais was at the controls for his first visit since leaving in 2004.

Although he is in the navy, he has been attached to the air force's No3 Squadron at Ohakea for 18 months to train.

He enjoyed catching up with his former teachers yesterday, and took time out to show the helicopter to students.

Year 13 student Scott Morgan, 18, sat in the captain's seat while Sub-Lieutenant Marais talked him through the instruments and how the helicopter worked.

Scott has applied to join the navy at the end of the year and is waiting to do an aptitude test and an interview.

The visit had made him "more pumped" to join the service and to learn to fly, he said.

"I wanted to be a pilot from about primary school, but flying helicopters, just in the last couple of years."

Squadron Leader Bint was head boy at the college in 1994 and was the instructor in the co-pilot's seat yesterday.

The visit linked to a careers evening in June, giving students a chance to see the helicopter and talk with the servicemen about the armed services, he said.

The idea had grown among college old boys in the helicopter squadron to raise interest among students.

"I can't remember this happening when I was going through college," he said.

"I was surprised how little I knew about the air force [while at school], even though Base Woodbourne is so close."

- The Marlborough Express