Did my father fly with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in Temora in 1932?

My father, John William (Jack) Hingerty,  always claimed that his first flight in an airplane was with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in his Southern Cross plane in which 'Smithy' had made the first-ever trans-Pacific flight to Australia from the mainland United States, a distance of about 11,670 kilometres (7,250 mi), in 1928.

My father claimed that Smithy had visited Temora and had taken people up in joy flights in the Southern Cross.

Was my father telling the truth?

My father was born in December 1923.  Sir Charles Kingsford Smith did visit Temora 1932 when my father would have been nine years old. In fact he visited at least twice in that year.

On Friday 3 June 1932 the Sydney Sun newspaper reported that Smithy would be leaving Temora later that afternoon en-route to Canberra to be presented with a knighthood.

Sydney Sun 3 June 1932

Then again on 4 October 1932 the Sydney Telegraph newspaper reported that Smithy had just arrived in Sydney from Temora after a two hour flight.

The Narrandera Argus of 4 October 1932 outlined the type of program Smithy seemed to have followed when visiting country towns.

A short mention in The Land newspaper 1 July 1932 told a similar story of Smithy's visit to Canowindra.

So could my father have taken a joy flight in the Southern Cross as a young boy?

Yes indeed.

Did he actually go up in the plane? 

We will never know for sure- but he was always very adamant that he did!

Did his twin brother Tom also take a joy flight? and did that spark his lifelong interest in building and flying model airplanes?

If you or your Hingerty relatives have had a 'brush with fame'

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Note: Newspaper articles were all found on TROVE- the free data base of Australian Newspapers and Gazettes operated by the National Library of Australia. trove.nla.gov