Following its launching at Rochester as ZK-AMC ‘AWARUA’ on May 05, 1939 and its first flight on 09 April, the aircraft was delivered to Imperial Airways for storage until the New Zealand authorities requested delivery. S.886 had been jointly purchased by Union Airways of New Zealand and the New Zealand Government, both of whom were destined to become major shareholders in Tasman Empire Airways once the company was registered in Wellington. In view of the fact that S.886 was no longer owned by either Short Brothers (the builders) or Imperial Airways, the original registration G-AFDA was cancelled on April 22, 1939.

ZK-AMA ‘AO-TEA-ROA’ (incorrectly spelt with hyphens included) and ZK-AMC ‘AWARUA’ swapped identities completely. Please refer to the ‘Identity Change’ page which follows.

On May 31, 1939 this aircraft operated a sightseeing flight for invited media guests from Hythe to Brighton and return and during this trip, Captain John Burgess informed the invitees that he would eventually be delivering this aircraft to New Zealand and he expected to do test flying of approximately 10 hours or around 1,700 miles prior to departure. Although no firm details can be located regarding this test flying, it is highly likely that it took place ahead of the long delivery flight out to New Zealand.

For much of the next couple of months, S.886 remained in storage outdoors, with all engines and propellers missing until it finally departed to New Zealand on August 16, 1939 as ZK-AMA ‘AOTEAROA’, the first aircraft to be delivered to Tasman Empire Airways which soon became known as TEAL. The delivery crew for this epic voyage to New Zealand was made up of the following:

Captain John Weir Burgess a New Zealander who had been a commander for some years with Imperial Airways and who had been appointed as Chief Pilot for TEAL,
First Officer Bill Craig who had substantial experience on the Empire flying boats,
Radio Officer Paddy Cussans, seconded from Imperial Airways for the delivery flight,
Flight Engineer Bill Peek a New Zealander who specialised in engines and airframes with Imperial Airways,
Flight Engineer, Mr.E. MacNamara, also of Imperial Airways in engines and airframes,
Flight Steward Ray Phillips, a Tasmanian who had operated on Empires for Imperial, and who had been
appointed TEAL’s first Catering Superintendent,
Mr. Bert Knee, an expert on Bristol Engines, to become TEAL’s Chief Engine Inspector,
Mr. Sid Bradshaw, ex Imperial Airways Instrument Engineer, to become Tasman’s Chief Instrument Engineer,
Mr. Gerald Brown, an autopilot specialist on loan from Smiths Aircraft Instruments for the familiarisation of
TEAL’s aircrew with the new British, Smith Mk1A autopilot.

The flight to New Zealand was largely uneventful except for an incident that occurred shortly after making a low pass over Raj Samand Lake, en route from Karachi to Gwalior, which Gerald Brown described in his personal log of the journey as follows:

“The First Officer was in the starboard pilot’s seat and he had occasion to bend down to pick up a message from the deck. In those bulbous nosed flying boats, if the side front windows of the cockpit are slid partly open, there is quite strong suction from the opening, due to the bow wave effect of the aircrafts nose. In this case, the side window was open and suddenly there was a shout of dismay as the First Officers uniform cap disappeared off his head and shot out of the window. This caused great merriment amongst the crew.

"As I came aloft to hear all about this, the merriment changed to alarm as a large bird coming up at a relative velocity of about 200 m.p.h. hit the upper windscreen with a terrific bang and ricocheted off! There was considerable conjecture as to the species of the bird, one doubtful estimate was that it was “several feet between the eyes” and that it was bringing back the co-pilots gold braided hat that had gone overboard only a few minutes earlier. Later we thanked our lucky stars for the heavy curved windscreen which had deflected the vulture (which it doubtless was), for if it had come inboard, there could have been serious trouble.”

At Singapore, repairs had to be made to a leaking oil tank which took a day longer than planned but the aircraft was soon on its way via Sourabaya, Koepang, Darwin, Townsville and Brisbane to Sydney where it alighted on Sydney Harbour on August 26, 1939. A rest day followed, and then on Monday August 28, ‘AOTEAROA’ departed Sydney on its last leg of the delivery flight to Auckland.

On August 29, 1939 various New Zealand newspapers reported on the arrival of 'AOTEAROA' the previous day and one report read as follows:

From the time she left Rose Bay, Sydney, until she moved to her moorings at Auckland, the AOTEAROA was never out of touch with the base authorities. There was a regular interchange of information between the flying boat and the Musick memorial radio station at Tamaki, and the officials at Mechanics Bay were constantly informed of her progress.

Assisted by the most part by following winds and flying at altitudes between 6,000ft and 9,000ft, the machine experienced good weather until she approached the New Zealand Coast. This was only the second occasion during the twelve days flight from Southampton, that bad weather was encountered and, although laconically described by members of the personnel as being ’dirty’ it failed to qualify their statement that the long flight was uneventful.

"The wind was strong from the north-west when the flying boat left Sydney at 6.42am Auckland time,' Captain Burgess stated, "but at eight o’clock when the machine was flying at 6,000ft, there was a following south-west breeze. At eleven o’clock she was making 151 knots with only 520 of the total 1,400 miles left to cover. Progress was maintained until several hundred miles from the New Zealand coast, when the wind veered to the north-west.

"Approaching New Zealand, we encountered a tropical storm,” he said. “We saw the coast and, after first trying to go round to the south of the disturbance, we finally pushed on through it, flying on a wireless bearing and crossing the coastline 6-10 miles south of the city. We would have arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule had it not been for the storm that was encountered.”

The quality of the aviation radio service that was available for the Tasman crossing was praised by Captain Burgess. Meteorological data had been obtained from Lord Howe Island, he said, but it had not been necessary to make use of the Tamaki-Awarua Radio-Lord Howe ‘triangle’ to obtain reciprocal bearings.

The earlier stages of the flight from Southampton were described by Captain Burgess and members of the crew as uneventful. Excellent weather conditions had been encountered throughout with two exceptions - the first occasion being when the AOTEAROA crossed the monsoon belt between Calcutta and Penang and the second when the flying boat was near New Zealand. The machine had performed perfectly, it was stated, and no difficulty had been experienced in maintaining schedule.

The skill of many experts and the co-operative organisation of many departments of aviation were combined in bringing the AOTEAROA across the Tasman in record time with as little fuss as a cross-country flight. Long before the machine took off from Rose Bay, the Government Meteorological Office at Auckland was preparing six-hourly forecasts of weather conditions in the Tasman and, even when the flight was in progress, similar up-to-the-minute data was available.

From early in the morning the instruments at the Tamaki radio station kept up a furious chatter, and when the flying boat was approaching Auckland, the final instructions were transmitted by the Control Officer, Mr. A.C. Hill, from one of the base launches on the harbour. Connected to the AOTEAROA by radio telephone, Mr. Hill was able to give last-minute directions as to the wind, the line of the runway and the route for taxying up to the buoy.

Weeks of preparation at the base reached their climax with the departure of the AOTEAROA from Sydney. Meteorologists and radio operators had been at their posts throughout the previous day and night, and in both the weather bureau and the wireless station there was the incessant click of the teleprinter transferring weather reports and recommendations from one staff to the other over 10 miles or more of land-line.

The engineering staff at the base was also busy. There were the final arrangements to be made for berthing and the control tenders were kept active in several patrols of the harbour on watch for floating obstructions. In the administration block, officials of Union Airways plotted the position of the flying boat throughout its progress, with the result that the time of her arrival could be accurately predicted.