Page 114 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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race-course he made a turn and flew directly towards the grandstand. “ ……… never
did the machine appear so like a bird in her movements. There was the graceful

sweeping descent, and then the Bleriot came to the end of a remarkable mission. The
cheering that followed was spontaneous and hearty.” (Cape Times, 28/12/1911). (Figs.

3.16 & 3.17).

The weather continued to interrupt the scheduled flight times and crowd numbers

dwindled to the few hundreds. On 29 December Driver set a new altitude record of

4,800 feet. On the evening of 2 January he took mails to Muizenberg, arriving there at
7.56 p.m., but the failing light decided him against making the return flight that day and

he left the Bleriot at Oldham’s Field. He set off the next morning but ran into fog so
thick before reaching Kenilworth that he could make out no land details, and so returned

to Muizenberg, chilled to the bone. He had been the air for 35 minutes and had flown

perhaps 40 miles. This flight effectively marked the end of the Aviation Fortnight. The
number of cards that had been posted totalled 2,597.

A week later the aviators were the guests of the Mayor and other civic personalities at

the Banqueting Hall of the City Hall. There were speeches of appreciation from all

quarters and presentation of mementoes, and the visitors later left for exhibitions in
Johannesburg and Durban.

Paterson and the Hydro-plane

The African Aviation Syndicate was liquidated in September 1912 and the partners split

up. Paterson remained in South Africa and early in 1913 was contracted by the City

Council of Cape Town to give a series of ten hydro-plane demonstrations in Table Bay
– the first-ever in South Africa. He carried these out between 6 and 20 February in his

now-rebuilt plane, with self-designed floats attached to the ends of the wheel struts, and