INDUSTRY PEOPLE
The Springbelt is an invention which is designed to make seatbelt deployment much simpler for machinery operators. It sits at hand height
and pulls over to the catch quickly and efficiently
meeting his wife, Brenda, in 1965 and marrying her in 1967,
“Springbelt overcomes most of the difficulties for the
he knew that chances to fly would become
operator and the employer. It takes the conscious
increasingly rare. This is only because
decision out, overcomes the macho bit and makes “It takes the conscious
decision out, overcomes Brenda knew the risks involved in flying and
compliance more certain and predictable.”
We are at Don’s family home in Auckland. The the macho bit and makes that the couple were embarking on a new
business he has a stake in, Seatbelt Sales, is compliance more certain family.
situated in Christchurch and they deal in all types and predictable.”
“I got back into it in 1978, the year that
of belts for all types of vehicles, the Springbelt
we started the business. I met a guy who
being just one part of the operation.
showed me this little airplane called a Corby Starlet. I said
“I’ve got to have one of those”. I found one that was partly
Modes of transport are Don’s jam; he also flies a Corby
built, the young fellow couldn’t afford to finish it. But first
Starlet, and recently embarked on a flight with his son
myself, Brenda and the children had to do a campervan trip
David from Kaitaia to Lord Howe Island to Port Macquarie,
around the UK and Europe as Brenda was born in the UK
commemorated in a self-published book Across The Ditch.
and in order to earn brownie points, we did this 10-week trip
Don Wilkinson has strapped himself into adventure all his
with three kids aged 4, 7 and 10.”
life.
“Then she didn’t see me for a year and a half. I worked on
From a young age, he remembers seeing Corsairs fly up
the plane at night mostly. It’s been an absolute love affair.”
Hutt Valley. He was four or five and thought “I want to fly
A Corby Starlet would later cross the Tasman, containing
one of those.”
father-and-son duo Don and David, but not before several
“It was just after the war, and my parents weren’t wealthy
long-winded negotiations with Brenda ensued.
by any stretch of the imagination, and my mother handed
me an air ticket to Christchurch. That was my first ride in an
aeroplane and it really set me alight.” “After starting calculations and overload fuel tanks I dropped
the idea in the name of sanity,” Don explains.
Later, he clocked up enough hours to fly solo, but after “The forgotten dream was rekindled when my son David,
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CAM October 2018
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