PACIFIC FLIGHT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19160, 17 November 1927, Page 9

PACIFIC FLIGHT.

CAPTAIN GILES READY.

WEATHER DELAYS TAKE-OFF. (BI CABLE—PRESS ABSOCIATIOK-COPTBIOHT.) (AUSTRALIA* A.\D K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received November 16th, 7.40 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, November 15. Captain Giles announces that he will hop off at nine o'clock on "Wednesday morning. He completed his final tests to-day, and the gasoline is at the field ready to be loaded. Captain Giles says he is not taking radio, because he will have no occasion to uso it. He is not going to try to lower the time of Maitland and Hegenherger for the Pacific flight, as his flight is merely a sporting proposition. He will rest three days at Honolulu and then take off for L'polu Island, Samoa. He will go thence to Fiji, Brisbane, Sydney, and Wellington. . Later. Cnptain Giles announces the postponement of his flight for another twenty-four hours, owing to an unfavourable weather forecast. At Santa Monica Captain Kingaford Smith said he would hop off for Australia at the first full moon in December.

DASH TO INDIA.

A BRITISH ATTEMPT. (aTTSTHALIAN AND S.Z. CAfiLB ASSOCIAVIQN.) (Received November 16th, 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, November 15. Captains Mcintosh and Bert Hinkler began an attempt to complete a nonstop flight to India. Mcintosh and Hinkler, if all is well, should reach a point in India more than 4000 miles distant early on Thursday morning, just before their petrol is exhausted. Few people witnessed the businesslike departure of the monoplane, Princess Xenia, from the Upavon Aerodrome in Wiltshire, The machine disappeared at a height of apparently under 1000 feet. All the newspapers pay a tributo to the magnitude of the undertaking. Major Turner, in the "Daily Telegraph," says: "Mcintosh and Hinkler have set themselves to beat the 3905 miles flown by Chamberlain and Levine. Two airmen better qualified, physically and temperamentally, could not be found in the world. Both have risen to the top of their profession by sheer hard work. Mcintosh has flown more than 500,000 miles since the war, and carried 8000 passengers. He is nicknamed 'Hurricane Mac,' in consequence of his flying in all weathers. Hinkler is of small stature and stout heart. There are few, if any, better test pilots in the country, and no wiser heads on any airmen."