made him a less than perfect instructor. He could not readily accept how a pupil could misjudge a gliding angle or allow the aircraft to slip slightly during a turn. "Instructing was not something he enjoyed but you could learn so much from him." Nancy had first met the aviation legend when he visited Wingham, west of Taree, New South Wales, on a barnstorming tour in 1933. She had already tasted the joys of flight and, with the barnstormers in town, headed for the airfield with her helmet and goggles hoping to have a flying lesson. Kingsford Smith was quick to recognise the enthusiasm and suggested she come to Sydney and take flying lessons. And so it transpired, with 200 of savings, she arrived at Mascot on 11 August 1933, having walked the last mile of the journey from the Post Office to the Aerodrome and had her first lesson with Kingsford Smith. "Then I went out there every weekday until April 1935." By now Smithy, already with a string of 'firsts' behind him, was working on plans for an attempt on the England to Australia solo record but his major achievement had been the flight which has gone into history as one of the greatest aviation accomplishments of all time -the crossing of the Pacific from America to Australia in 1928. Flying at Mascot in those days was anything but complicated. Flying instruction didn't include any syllabus. "Things like radio etc. didn't exist. You passed an aeroplane on the