Two Of Our Viscount Fleet on Ndola Airport Apron.
For nearly 10 years, the C.A.A. office was situated in very small premises in St. Patrick's Road. In later years, it was affectionately (?) called the 'Black Hole of Ndola'.
Ndola had been somewhat a Cinderella and it was with a sigh of relief that we took possession of the new Terminal in Broadway during May 1958.
Ndola had been somewhat a Cinderella and it was with a sigh of relief that we took possession of the new Terminal in Broadway during May 1958.
The Ground Floor Passenger Booking Office is pleasantly decorated in pastel colours with modern, light wood chairs, tables and counter. A writing desk and private telephone for passengers' use are added features. Behind the counter the Cashier has a glass screened office. Stairs lead to the Space Control unit on the first floor. This consists of a large room for control board, enquiries desk, central revolving table for correspondence, charts and files, and typist (with Phillips type P.A.B.X. telephone system controlled from s desk). A separate telex room and additional office for Reservations Superintendent and Area Sales Representative complete the 1st floor set-up.
Present staff consist of following - (Reservations)
Mr. J.K. Bone - Area Sales Rep. N.R
Mr. S.E. Hall - Reservations Superintendent
Mr. H. Hanson - Deputy Reservations Superintendent.
Mr. R. Frank - Senior Clerk (Counter)
Mr. W. Dean - Regional/Domestic Control and Correspondence.
Mrs. T. Simmons - Regional/Domestic Control and Correspondence
Mrs. D. Valentine - Regional/Domestic Control Correspondence.
Mrs. D. Andrade - Regional/Domestic Control Correspondence.
Mrs. V. Haslehurst - New Bookings and Pre-flight
Miss C. Kinsley - New Bookings and Pre-flight
Mrs.M. Browne - Typist/Telephone
Mrs. W. Scheepers - Cashier
Mr. Hanson ('Horace') has served since Imperial Airways days in Airlines with B.O.A.C., WAAC, and C.A.A. for a total of 20 years. Syd Hall is next in service with 7½ years in BOAC in Operations (ground radio), Traffic and Sales Divisions. He has been with C.A.A. since May 1951, making a total of 15 years in airlines.
The Ndola reservations unit covers the entire Copperbelt and therefore caters for Ndola, Kitwe, Luanshya, Mufulira, Chingola and Bancroft. A number of bookings are also effected for Broken Hill as well as out lying districts in the Northern Province. Expansion in air travel has been tremendous the past years and there are now 15 travel agents in the area covering all IATA carriers.
At the Airport, where a large variety of freight is handled including, we learnt recently, lottery tickets!, Station Supt. Mike Eksteen and his staff have not been so fortunate in obtaining new working premises, nevertheless they manage to keep what they have in reasonably spick and span condition.
The staff at the Airport consists of the following: -
Mr. M.C.C. EksteenThe Ndola reservations unit covers the entire Copperbelt and therefore caters for Ndola, Kitwe, Luanshya, Mufulira, Chingola and Bancroft. A number of bookings are also effected for Broken Hill as well as out lying districts in the Northern Province. Expansion in air travel has been tremendous the past years and there are now 15 travel agents in the area covering all IATA carriers.
At the Airport, where a large variety of freight is handled including, we learnt recently, lottery tickets!, Station Supt. Mike Eksteen and his staff have not been so fortunate in obtaining new working premises, nevertheless they manage to keep what they have in reasonably spick and span condition.
The staff at the Airport consists of the following: -
Mr. C. Lillycrop
Mr. H.L. Armstrong
Mr. P. Tidman
Mr. Hill
Miss Watson
Miss Jones
Miss Van Dyk
Miss Kokkin
while the Freight Office in town is manned by:
Mr. D. Coleman
Mr. Cowley
Mrs. Le Versha.
The Engineers are:-
Mr. A.N. Wawn
Mr. W.J. Rheeder.
The Senior Station Engineer, Mr. Wawn, has been with us since September, 1946.
Behind the scenes at C.A.A.'s Ndola Sales Office
End
Extracted and recompiled by Eddy Norris from the Scaaner publication of April 1959 which was made available to ORAFs by Dave Vermaak. Thank you Dave.
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Ref. Rhodesian Aviation
Mike Hamence (Rhaf Writes:-
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see under 'Engineering Staff' Mr WJ Rheeder. This must have been Bill Rheeder who was an Aircraft Inspector with Africair, Bulawayo, in the early '60s and later went with Barry Phillips & Harry Holdcroft to Airwork Salisbury.
Zia Browne Writes:-
ReplyDeleteIt gave me great pleasure to read the article about the CAA in Ndola, at that time my family and I lived in Ndola and my sister, who is mentioned in the Staff list, Mrs M. Browne was employed by them. She was married to a medical Doctor, Tony Browne, who I am sure some people will still remember, he was a keen golfer and had played Test rugby for Ireland against the visiting Springboks. Sadly they and my parents have all moved on. My husband Peter Browne, no relation to Dr Tony Browne, and I were married in the Anglican Church in Ndola, so I have many happy memories of the area.
Those days in Ndola were happy ones to remember and all of us there will remember the Ndola airport building being crammed with refugees during the sad Congo uprising.
Thank you for all the newsy items so regularly printed,
Dave Hann (RhAF) Writes:-
ReplyDeleteThe Air Rhodesia article
re Ndola a point of interest the mentioned engineers Mr A. N. Wawn (Andy) and Mr W. J. Rheeder (Bill) both were employed by Affretair, Andy was the Chief Store Man and a damn good one at that, incidentally he cycled to and from work daily no matter what the weather was. And Bill Rheeder was the Chief Inspector - Bill ended up here in SA working for the DCA he still might be traceable there.
Just a point - hell history comes back and bites you!
B=Nick Baalbergen (Intaf) Writes:-
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see the name 'Philips' mentioned in the context of the article. Philips had a prominent presence in the country, which was maintained thoughout the sanctions years (a decade or so later).