Seventh heaven...

Found these piccies of ZK-BFU yesterday.
The pilot was Jim Thorne.
And he never bent it once!
He used to take me  for rides when the time was right.
sometimes in the front seat and at others in the little hatch at the back behind the hopper where the compartment had no safety belts and nothing to hang onto except a metal flange where the leather fairing met the metal of the hopper.
It was exciting times for a boy.
I got to see a lot of the Wairarapa.
ZK-BLL was Clive Thornes mount.
Apparently it was the fastest of the trio of 180's owned by
Air Contracts at the time.
They were rugged utility aeroplanes and boy did they do some work on the hill country going in and out of strips that were no larger than a postage stamp but Jim could put that plane down on a dime and then slough off the airspeed on the rise.
amazing flying.
It was a great privilege.
And when the summer was in full heat you could go down to the end of Hood Aerodrome to the Waignawa River and have a swim in a pristine pool or at the right time of the year catch a good size trout.
those were the days.

"Don't It Make You Want To Go Home"

Don't it make you wanna go home now?
Don't it make you wanna go home?
All God's children get weary when they roam
Don't it make you wanna go home?
Don't it make you wanna go home?

Oh, the whippoorwill roost on the telephone poles
When the Georgia sun goes down
Well, it's been a long time but I'm glad to say
That I'm goin' back down to my hometown.

Goin' down to the greyhound station
Gonna buy me a one way fare
Good Lord's willin' and the creeks don't rise
Watch it for I'll be right there.

Don't it make you wanna go home now?
Don't it make you wanna go home?
All God's children get weary when they roam
Don't it make you wanna go home?
Don't it make you wanna go home?

But there's a six lane highway down by the creek
Where I went skinny dippin' as a child
And the drive in show where the meadow used to grow
And the strawberries used to grow wild.

There's a drag strip down by the riverside
Where my grandma's cow used to graze
Now the grass don't grow and the river don't flow
Like it did in the childhood days.

Don't it make you wanna go home now?
Don't it make you wanna go home?
All God's children get weary when they roam
Don't it make you wanna go home?
Don't it make you wanna go home?

Don't it make you wanna go home?
Don't it make you wanna go home?...