In May Henderson moved his school to
Brooklands. As well as flying training, it would provide an air taxi service at a rate of £4 per hour, the towing of advertising banners and would give joy-rides. Pratts opened the first ‘Aero Filling Station’ in the country at Brooklands just opposite Henderson’s flying school. On Tuesday 10th May a Mr Kenneth Hunter wanted his recently-bought SE5a to be made ready to take part in the Hampshire Air Pageant on the following Sunday. It had to be rigged and its engine tuned before it could gain its airworthiness certificate. It was flight-tested on the Friday, after which the engine and the rigging had to be adjusted. This done, it was flown down to the event and won both the Morris Cup and £100 in the Morris Handicap Race. Flight commented that Henderson’s mechanics (who probably included him) had every reason to be proud of their work. In order to encourage trade in June Henderson
reduced the air taxi hire charge to one shilling a mile, which was half the normal rate. In August one of his pupils, Squadron Leader Lewis Rivers Oldmeadow, wanted an aeroplane; Henderson built one for him by buying war-surplus parts from the Aircraft Disposal Company and assembling them. On 1st October, he was hired to fly a welcome home banner at Croydon Airport where the successful Schneider Trophy team was due to fly in. The poster read ‘Bravo Webster’ below the much larger Daily News lettering. How- ever, this proved to be a challenging task. As a Flight reporter noted, ‘a good deal of trouble was experienced in getting the machine to the far side of the aerodrome the ‘train’ often overtaking the ‘bride”. Moreover, every few yards, the engine would stop. Eventually the machine was placed facing the wind and the pilot gave it the gun. At practically no ground speed, the machine got into the air and then commenced a fight with the wind. The rate of climb appeared to be one foot per minute, but the pilot, brave man, stuck to his task like a good ’un, and at last he got sufficient height to turn. The machine then continued to cruise around flying its banner until the event ended’.
Henderson decided to visit South Africa and departed on 31st October 1927. He intended to raise the profile of flying there by forming a flying school, helping to organise air shows and of course giving joy-rides. This operation included pilots Captain Davenport and Squadron Leader Rivers Oldmeadow plus mechanics. In March 1928 Henderson announced that he
intended to open a Cape Town to Johannesburg service in November. It would be bi-weekly, taking nine hours with one stop. It would be run in conjunction with the Union Castle Line. The fare would be £15 each way or £27-10 shillings return. It would operate a three-engined Junkers monoplane for which he was criticised. ‘Why not buy British?’ he was asked. He replied that there was no suitable British machine available at the German price.
He and Rivers Oldmeadow decided to return home but while sailing back on the P&O ship Barrabool Henderson had a bad experience. When the ship was just south of the Canary Islands, at 2.00am, he was woken up and to his amazement he saw his old RAF friend and current Imperial Airways pilot Raymond Hinchliffe standing in his cabin. Hinchliffe appeared to be in distress, saying, “Hendy, what am I going to do? I’ve got this woman with me, and I’m lost. I’m lost”. Then Hinchliffe disappeared. Shocked, Henderson ran along to Oldmeadow’s cabin and burst in telling him, “Hinchcliffe has been in my room, eye-patch and all! It was ghastly!” Oldmeadow noted that Henderson needed three fingers of straight Scotch to calm down. Three days later they found out that Captain Hinchliffe and the Hon Elsie MacKay
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