Page 103 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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During this time Weston came to grief while flying in a “nasty” south-easter at
Kenilworth. The crowd that had waited all day to see some flying became impatient by

the late afternoon and, against his better judgement, Weston went aloft around 6 p.m.
He made a couple of successful circuits at a height of forty feet but was then hit by a

gust that drove him nose-first into the ground. He was unhurt but his Bristol was very

badly damaged, the runners being driven through the wings and the propeller smashed
to matchwood. (Fig. 3.8). He was unable to do any further flying in Cape Town and set

about making repairs in readiness for the exhibitions he was due to give in East London
during the Christmas week. The general interest in aviation remained high, however,

and commercial interests spotted the advertising opportunity it offered. (Fig. 3.9).

The programme for the “Aviation Fortnight” included “straight-forward and fancy

flying”: shortest take-off and landing competitions, dropping of plaster of Paris
“bombs” onto a miniature battleship marked out on the ground, aerial switchbacks,

despatch-carrying, and passenger rides if conditions permitted. Special trains would run

from Worcester and Caledon to enable country people to attend. Because of horse-
racing at Kenilworth on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day the venue would change to

Green Point Track where, because of the limited space available, flying would be
possible only if the best weather prevailed. At Kenilworth the South African Turf Club

barred the aviators from early morning soaring as their 50 h.p. Gnome engines alarmed
the horses during training sessions.

Part of the preparations included finding a destination for the despatch-carrying
exercise. It had to be a significant destination, suitably flat, and not too distant, so that

the plane would not be away for too long. For these reasons Oldham’s Field on the

margins of Zandvlei at Muizenberg was selected. Oldham was a chemist and his field
was used as a dairy farm and sports ground. Special souvenir post cards costing one

shilling were printed by Messrs Whitehead & Morris to commemorate the occasion. A
special hand stamp for franking the postcards had been provided by the Post Office and

both it and the cards had been patterned on those used in the pioneer airmail run in