www.rnz.co.nz interview on Sunday
Another Day Like Yesterday is a collection of rollicking
tales – some tall, most true – from Guy Clapshaw’s early
days flying for Air New Zealand.
Back in the mid-1960s, the airline had just begun to expand from Tasman Empire Airways, a tiny three-aeroplane regional airline into Air New Zealand, the international giant it is today.
Much like the airline itself, this book flits around New Zealand, sweeps across the vastness of Australia, island hops around the Pacific and then heads for the hustle and bustle of Asia.
Set at a time when air travel wasn’t just another mode of transport, the book’s pages hum with larger-than-life characters, tricky customers, sticky situations and laugh-out-loud scenarios.
Guy Clapshaw learned to fly in the post-war Royal Air Force, before going into civil charter flying. Four years spent flying antiquated, badly maintained aircraft and being expected to bend the rules when bad weather grounded the competition, persuaded him to join a respectful scheduled airline - Air New Zealand - where aircrew were properly trained and paid regularly, and the planes were modern and well-maintained. Now in his eighties, Guy is working on his next book and can't wait to see how it ends.
Paperback
360 pages