A Natural Wonder
The Zambezi River
The Victoria Falls
Formation of the Victoria Falls
People of the Victoria Falls
Enter the Ndebele
Discovery of the Victoria Falls
In Livingstone's Footsteps
Development of the Railway
To the Banks of the Zambezi
Development of the Falls
To The Congo
Development of Tourism
Development of Victoria Falls Town
Recent History
Further Information
Collectables

    
Discover the Victoria Falls with the Zambezi Book Company

To The Victoria Falls

Development of the Victoria Falls



Spencer Airways

Edward Herbert (‘Ted’) Spencer was initially posted to the Falls in 1923 after joining the British South Africa Police. He soon saw the potential of a motor garage and car hire business, establishing Spencer’s Garage and Service Station, strategically located on the corner of the Falls Hotel’s access road, to service the growing numbers of visitors arriving by motor vehicle.

In July 1935 Spencer purchased a second-hand de Havilland Puss Moth aircraft, ZS-ACB (re-registered as VP-YBC), and employed the services of a recently qualified young pilot Jack McAdam, to offer game viewing and charter flights. Operating under the name of Spencer’s Garage and Air Service (later simply Spencer Airways) flights were serviced from the Victoria Falls Aerodrome. In early 1936 Spencer acquired a DH.83 Fox Moth biplane (ZS-ADH, re-registered as VP-YBD), in which he trained and soon also qualified as a pilot. Spencer is recorded practising aerobatics and amazing his ground-bound African spectators - so much so that ‘Spensaar!’ became a locally adopted exclamation of amazement (Whitehead, 2014).

Spencer's Fox Moth ZS-ADH
Spencer's Fox Moth ZS-ADH over the Falls

Details from McAdam’s log books, flight notes and diary were posthumously collected and published in 1982 as ‘On Wings of Fabric,’ reproduced in Stirling and House (2014). McAdam records that game viewing flights were hugely popular with visitors to the Falls:

“These game-viewing flights, of about two hours’ duration, were a popular attraction. Leaving the Victoria Falls, the route generally followed the Zambezi to Kazungula where the boundaries of four territories meet at a single point and a 360° turn would carry the aircraft in rapid succession over South West Africa [Namibia]... and the countries then known as Bechuanaland [Botswana], Southern Rhodesia [Zimbabwe] and Northern Rhodesia [Zambia]. Then, flying in a westerly direction, roughly parallel to the Chobe River, the aircraft flew across the eastern extremity of the Caprivi Strip where a variety of wild animals, particularly lechwe, could usually be seen. Then, turning south and crossing the Chobe River near Kasane, the route continued to Kazuma Pan and thence back to the Falls. (Sometimes, by way of variety, the reverse direction would be flown.) So plentiful was the wildlife that Ted Spencer would offer prospective customers a guarantee: ‘No game - no pay.’ Never, to the author’s knowledge, was a refund claimed.”

Smith, Spencer and McAdam
C J Smith, Ted Spencer and Jack McAdam

McAdam records many interesting aviation adventures and incidents during his time flying for Spencer’s Airways. Not all flights were pleasure trips, with McAdam assisting in the unsuccessful search for a missing American visitor in September 1935:

“The body of Mrs Mary McKee, a 70 year old American visitor, was found two days later under a tree with dense foliage (which probably explained the failure of the air search). She had evidently wandered off into the scrub, lost her way, and died of exposure, not more than half a mile from the boathouse on the south bank of the Zambezi.”

McAdam also recalls flying many distinguished guests from the Falls Hotel, including Lady Baden-Powell in April 1936 (a regular visitor) and members of the Siamese (Thai) Royal Family in December the same year. Flights were not without the occasional problem, McAdam recalling an incident in October 1936 in which his engine cut-out whilst flying over the Zambezi and he thought he would have to attempt a crash-landing on an island in the river.

“Having dropped some passengers at Livingstone after a game trip, was half-way between the two landing grounds when, over the Zambezi, the engine slowed down and clouds of smoke poured out. Seriously considered attempting a landing on Long Island, but carried on and just made it into the Falls airfield. Upon inspection it was discovered that two of the four pistons in the engine had seized up in their cylinders due to defective lubrication caused, in turn, by a loose oil pipe connection between oil tank and pump.” (Stirling and House, 2014)

de Havilland Puss Moth over the Falls, 1930s
de Havilland Puss Moth over the Falls, 1930s

On another occasion in early 1937 McAdam recalled the propeller came off the single-engined Fox Moth mid-flight over the Falls and a hasty forced landing was made in the bush, incredibly without serious damage!

Spencer became something of a local legend in the Falls, and it is popularly believed that he was the first to fly a plane under the Victoria Falls Bridge, although McAdam is on record as discounting this story. There is, however, a photograph of him flying incredibly low over the Devil’s Cataract.

“It is a part of old Falls legend that he was the first person to fly under the Victoria Falls Bridge early one morning in July 1938. However, there are some who say that [Noel] McGill, a bush pilot from Livingstone, was the first man to do it.” (Meadows, 2000)

Spencer’s Fox Moth (VP-YBD) was featured on an 2014 postage stamp.

Spencer's Fox Moth ZS-ADH

Next page: Power from the Falls

Recommended Reading

Flight Magazine (Jan 1947) Sporting Offer. 16 January 1947. p.71 [Online source: www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1947/1947%20-%200083.html]

Flight Magazine (July 1947) The Spencer Crash. 17 July 1947. p.67 [Online source: www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1947/1947%20-%201181.html]

McAdam (1969) Early Birds in Central Africa, Rhodesiana. [Online source: http://www.rhodesia.nl/Aviation/early.htm]

Meadows, K. (2000) Sometimes when it rains: white Africans in black Africa. Thorntree Press.

Stirling, W. G. M. and House, J. A. (2014) They Served Africa with Wings. E-book Edition (First published 2002).

Further Reading

Roberts, P. (2021) Footsteps Through Time - A History of Travel and Tourism to the Victoria Falls. Zambezi Book Company.

Footsteps Through Time - A History of Travel and Tourism to the Victoria Falls


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Discover the Victoria Falls with the Zambezi Book Company

'To The Victoria Falls' aims to bring you the wonder of the Victoria Falls through a look at its natural and human history.

This website has been developed using information researched from a wide variety of sources, including books, magazines and websites etc too numerous to mention or credit individually, although many key references are identified on our References page. Many of the images contained in this website have been sourced from old photographic postcards and publications and no infringement of copyright is intended. We warmly welcome any donations of photographs or information to this website.

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