The Veterans' Stories

Cheng Tin Gai
In the 40s, the Far East Flying Training School sent out a small airplane every morning to navigate across Hong Kong. What do you think it was doing?
Bob
To patrol Hong Kong water for the Marine Police?
Lee
To check over railways in the British territory for the KCRC?
Albert
To guide the landing of seaplanes on Kowloon Bay for the Civil Aviation Department?
Cheng Tin Gai
Well, it meant to collect meteorological data for the Observatory…
The Far East Flying Training School's meteorology flights
The Far East Flying Training School sent out “Met Flyer” (meteorological flyer) every morning to collect meteorological data for the Observatory. The flight instructor of Far East would fly at different altitudes to collect data on temperature and humidity; then, after he came back to the airport, he would call the Observatory to report. I was having flying lessons at that time, and while I flew the plane the instructor would jot down the data. Once when I cycled to the airport I found that the instructor had brought his girlfriend along. Since she was on the plane, I couldn’t fly (because there were only two seats). How sly he was to have flown just one round and made up the data!  He landed when I was cycling across the runway — almost caused an accident!