28/10/2021
This scholarship is in recognition of Lew Day who instructed at Southern Districts Aero Club in the early 1960s. Lew was born in Invercargill and had lived in Gore in 1925-28 and again in 1939-41.
In October 1942 Lew joined the RNZAF and after flight training both in New Zealand and Canada, was based in the UK flying Sunderland flying boats for the remainder of the war. In 1946 Lew returned to New Zealand and unable to obtain a job flying enlisted with the RAF and returned to the UK flying Sunderlands again. Lew then served in the Malayan and Korean wars where he was awarded a DFC.
Back to England again in mid-1952 he became an instructor at CFS Cranwell and then a flight commander for his last eight months at CFS. Following a non-training stint, Lew found himself commanding No. 1 ANS Squadron, operating Vickers Varsities in a training operation, in navigation, bomber, maritime and air transport roles, flying all over Europe and as far as North Africa.
Lew and his family returned to New Zealand on 1 January 1962. Ready to start civil instructing, he sent all his 5000-plus hour logbooks to Wellington, but his application for an ALTP license was turned down because he didn't have the RAF equivalent.
Following appropriate instructor training with Auckland Aero Club he then went back home to Gore, to become the Southern Districts Aero Club's first full-time instructor. Starting with an Auster and a Tiger Moth, the club later bought a Cessna 172, Victa 100 and a Mooney with membership climbing from 90 to more than 300 in in 2 years
Lew returned to Auckland and continued flying as an instructor and then in a corporate aviation role. At 77 years old, he retired from flying having completed 57 years of enjoyment in 23,257 flying hours as a pilot. The last nine years included 478 Air Ambulance flights and another 171 Child Flights, 12 Search & Rescue and another 17 flights on Helicopter Es**rt. In 1191 Lew was awarded the Paul Tissandier Diploma and in 1997 was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In November 2015 Lew was awarded the Masters Trophy by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots.
