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The father and son glider pilots killed when their aircraft crashed on a South Island mountain were flying a plane which made a historic flight from Britain to New Zealand.
The bodies of Englishman Owen Truelove, 69, a hugely experienced glider pilot and his son James, 37, from Queenstown, were found yesterday in the wreck of their glider on the rugged slopes of Mt Prospect near Lake Hawea.
The pair had been competing in the South Island Regional Gliding Championships at Omarama, which began on Sunday.
Bill Walker, a spokesman for the competition, said the bodies were recovered about 5pm and brought to Omarama.
The men were flying the Stemme 10V motor glider which Owen Truelove, a former RAF Air Commodore, flew 25,000km from England to New Zealand in 2004.
He took 2 1/2 months and 48 stopovers to reach New Zealand, a flight thought to be the longest ever made by a glider of its type.
A motor glider uses its engine to launch itself. Once sufficient height is reached, the engine folds into the fuselage.
Owen Truelove was experienced in the flying conditions in the Omarama area.
He was elected president of the Omarama Gliding Club about a year ago and flew from Wanaka to Omarama for gliding events.
On his flight from Britain, his wife Jenny ensured he had room for three good-luck charms - a teddybear, a St Christopher necklace and a cap bought in Omarama two years ago.
When he arrived in Wanaka in February 2005, he told the Otago Daily Times he was still wearing the charms.
He made landfall in New Zealand in Whangarei at the end of November 2004 after island-hopping from Australia - he kept his glider's motor running to maintain altitude over expanses of sea.
He left the craft in Whangarei while he returned home to Britain for Christmas, then came back in February last year to complete the fund-raising trip.
He had collected about $18,000 in donations for the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, for families of former servicemen and women.
James Truelove shared the final leg of the journey with his father from Christchurch.
The father and son were last heard from at 5.30pm on Wednesday, about four hours after taking off from Omarama, 120km northwest of Oamaru.
Flying conditions were difficult, but there was no indication yet of what might have caused the glider to crash.
"It was a particularly rough day with extreme conditions," Mr Walker said.
He understood that Owen Truelove's wife was at the couple's home in Cornwall.
He said James Truelove, who operated a paragliding company in Queenstown, left a partner and a 3-year-old son.
Two Civil Aviation Authority investigators will arrive in the area today to start their investigation.
Owen Truelove is believed to be the first person to make the journey from England in a glider.
Mechanical problems held him up in India and Indonesia while he awaited replacement parts from Germany and he had a dice-with-death night landing in his glider, which had no lights, at Dubai.
James said at the time it had been a long two months, wondering if his father was going to make it.
"As we said at the start, if anyone could do it, he'll do it, and he's done it."
- NZPA, OTAGO DAILY TIMES
