Trevor Hunter

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Trevor Hunter
Trevor Hunter.gif
Born
Trevor Balfour Hunter

(1915-01-25)25 January 1915
Whanganui
Died8 May 2002(2002-05-08) (aged 87)
NationalityNew Zealander
Spouse(s)James Colway
Aviation career
Flight license1933
Air forceRoyal air force
RankFirst officer

Trevor Balfour Hunter (25 January 1915 – 8 May 2002) was a New Zealand aviator. She accompanied Ted Harvie on his record-breaking flight from North Cape to Bluff in December 1933. She was the first of five New Zealand women accepted to fly with the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II.

Life[]

Hunter was born in Whanganui on 25 January 1915 to Alice Elsie and Douglas Horatio Dale Hunter. She was named Trevor as her mother was sure that the baby would be a boy. She was a member of the Whanganui Aero club and gained her 'A' license in 1933, flying solo at age 16.[1]

At the age of 18 she flew with Ted Harvie on his flight from North Cape to Bluff which, at 1880 km, was the longest recorded flight in New Zealand at the time.[2] The record lasted 28 years. She was also one of the four female pilots who escorted Jean Batten on her arrival to New Zealand following Batten's solo flight from Britain in 1934.[3]

She joined the ATA in 1941. Like other women from New Zealand who joined she had to pay her way to Britain to be examined. She was enlisted in the Ferry Service and flew planes from their factories to squadron bases. In this time she clocked 1200 hours of solo flying and flew forty-two types of aircraft including, Spitfires, Warwicks, Mitchells, and Wellingtons.[4]

After the war Hunter was employed as a commercial pilot. In 1950 she married journalist, James Colway, who became the editor of the Whanganui Chronicle from 1964.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ Colway, Trevor (20 May 1993). "Interview with Trevor Colway". Interview with Trevor Colway | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  2. ^ "The magical Moth". New Zealand Geographic. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  3. ^ "First flight from North Cape to Invercargill". nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  4. ^ Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Winstone, Jane". teara.govt.nz (in Maori). Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  5. ^ Fortune, Gabrielle (31 March 2021). "'ATA-girl': The Fab Five of New Zealand Aviation". Auckland Museum. Retrieved 3 September 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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