MYSTERY OF GILES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19166, 24 November 1927, Page 9

MYSTERY OF GILES.

. PACIFIC FLIGHT BEGUN REPORTS OF FORCED LANDING. (BT CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION— COPTBIGBT.) (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z CABLE ASSOCIATION.) Captain Giles hopped off from San Francisco for Honolulu on Wednesday morning In good weather. Some hours later it was reported from San Simeon, California, that he had been forced to land there. The cables give no indication of what has happened to him. One message gives an account of a message supposed to have been sent by Giles himself to a newspaper, but later messages assert that efforts to locate him have failed. SAN FRANCISCO, November 22. Captain Giles hopped off for Honolulu and New Zealand at 7.24 o'clock this morning. It is estimated that it will take 26 hours to completo the first stage of the flight, via the Great Circle route. Twenty ships scattered along the course have been requested to report progress. The weather conditions are fair. The Marine Depart it and the San Francisco Chamber oi Commerce have received a message that Captain Giles passed over San Francisco Lightship 19 miles out at sea 16 minutes after hiß departure. Ho was flying at an altitude of approximately 1000 feot. Captain Giles spent the night at the flying field. The United States Weather Bureau issued a favourable report on conditions, after which preparations were immediately made for hiß departure. Captain Giles, long before dawn, was in the highest spirits. The sky was clear and a light wind was blowing when he left. His machine Wanda made a splendid take-off, rising into the air after going down the runway for about 1500 feot, which is a much shorter distance than his previous attempt, despite the muddy runway. Captain Giles's 'plane gained elevation rapidly. He travelled south for a short distance and then swung round and followed the shore line toward the Golden Gate. Barely a hundred persons were present at the field at the time of his departure, due to the early hour. Captain Giles carried four sandwiches, a pint of milk, six quarts of water, and also condensed army rations. As on his previous start, he left the rubber life raft behind to save weight, but took a life jacket and hack saw, with which to cut away the motor if he dropped into the sea. He is also able to empty his petrol tanks in two minutes with emergency valves, after which it is believed that the 'plane would stay many hours afloat. Captain Giles thanked the Mills Field officials before leaving for the assistance they had rendered him. Captain Peterson stated that if Captain Giles reached Honolulu safely he would leave on the first boat. Captain Giles will be out of touch until he reaches Honolulu, unless he is sighted by one of the ships which are reported at present to be on the Great Circle route. These are: Manoa, Ventura, Ondo, Tenyo Maru, and President Garfield. Captain Giles is expected to fly at a speed of from ninety-five to one hundred miles an hour. He appeared jubilant before the takeoff, and showed no nervousness as he climbed into the cockpit and waved farewell to his friends, who were gathered at the side of the runway. He flew without helmet or goggles. He threw the helmet that Captain Peterson had brought for him out of the 'plane just before it started' to move. He said he would fly at a moderately low altitude unless he encountered bad weather, in which event he would try to climb above the storm. He carried with him a picture of Wanda Hess, a sister of the designer of the 'plane. There are reports that Captain Giles is engaged to Miss Hess, but Captain Giles refused to make any comment. Half a dozen bulbs on the instrument boards will furnish lights during the night. He has planned to fly low if he sights a vessel on the trip, and to drop a message on its deck. Captain Voortmeyer, a member of the San Francisco Airport Commission, prepared elaborate charts for Captain Giles, showing approximately the positions of the ships at sea and the times Captain Giles should meet them. MESSAGE TO NEWSPAPER. HARDSHIPS RECOUNTED. (AUSTBALIAN ANT* N.Z- CABLS ASSOCIATION.) (Received November 23rd, 8.20 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, November 22. The Associated Press message states that Giles has returned and landed at San Simeon, near the ranch of William Randolph Hearst. Telephoning to the "San Francisco Examiner," Giles said ho had flown fivo hundred miles towards Honolulu when his machine became quite beyond control and went "haywire," spinning into a rain-drenched air pocket and finally turned upside down, scattering his charts, food, and instruments into tho ocean. Then, in. a magnificent exhibition of airmanship, Giles turned his damaged plane right side up and making a wild guess as to direction, turned her roaring back into the mainland, making a safe landing one mile south of the Hearst ranch. "I never expected to make it," said Giler "My centre section bracir • wires had snapped. I had dumped my main gas tanks to lighten the strain on the broken plane, and my chances were just about zero, but luck stayed with me and I hit the coast sixty miles north of where I landed. I had to keep the ship in the air all that distance before I finally found a landing place." When asked what he planned to do now, Giles replied: "Why, I am going to try again. I will fix the ship and fly her back to San Francisco. Then, as soon as the moon is at full and new charts are obtained, I will be off again. I have started to fly to Australia, and, by George, I am going to do it." "Oyer the telephone Giles sounded breathless a-.Ji seemed to be trembling, signs of nervousness remaining in his voice after his harrowing experience, which is perhaps one of the most terrifying any aviator has ..ever undergone. Continuing his comments, Giles said: "The weather was fine until I got about three hundred miles out, when it started getting bad. It was cloudy with rain squalls, and I began to feel t .ose air pockets they have out there over the Pac' c. the same-things that must have spelled 'curtain' for Frost, Erwin, Pedlar, and Miss Doran.

figured I could get through, but my luck was out, or maybe it is in. T ran into utterly foul weather. Four hundred and eighty miles out the clouds were very thick and low. and there were incessant rain squalls. There was not much wind, but the jpocket* were awfuL I

think my experiences solve definitely the mystery as to what happened to the Dole prize racers. I had a biplane, and it was only by the sheerest luck that I survived what I went through. A monoplane is much less stable than a biplane, and a monoplane would not have had a chance in the weather that turned me over. You can see what must have happened to them."

REPORTS QUESTIONED. NO AUTHENTIC INFORMATION. (AUSTBALIAH AND N.Z CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received November 23rd, 8.55 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, November 22. Messages from San Luis Obispo report unconfirmed rumours that Giles landed near San Simeon, but telephone enquiries failed to locate anyone who saw the landing, and all other efforts at verification were unsuccessful. Twelve hours after the hop-off no word of Giles being sighted had come to San Francisco. The freighter Dewey, two hundred miles out, and the liner Manoa, 275 miles out, reported that the aeroplane had not been seen at the time it was scheduled to pass their positions. Both vessels repor f ed that flying conditions were ideal over the Pacific, but stated that possibly low cloud.ianks obscured the aeroplane. Wjather Bureau officials to-night stat ed that there wero no storms or disturbances over the Pacific route. Mr Paterson had received no word of a forced landing in Southern California, and said he could not understand how Giles could possibly have reached 250 miles south of San Francisco. NEW AMERICAN SEAPLANE. (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLB ASSOCIATION.) NEW YORK, November 22. , The Washington correspondent of the "Sun" Bays that the United -States Navy is secretly building a seaplane with a cruising radius of 3000 mileß, which will attempt to fly across tho Pacific in 1955. . Tho seaplane will bo ready for trial flights within two weeks- If successful it will go to San Francisco, and thence to Japan or the Philippines, via Fonolulu, with the possibility of then continuing on a flight around the world. M'INTOSH AND HINKLER. (AUBTBALIAN AND N.Z- CABLB ASSOCIATION.) WARSAW, November 22. > The President, M. Ignace Moscicki, has arranged for an official re eption to. Captains Mcintosh and who are discussing a plan for continuing their non-stop flight from Warsaw to India. ..NEW FLIGHT PLANNED. (AUSTBALIAN AND »•«• O^ ll ASSOCIATION.) (Received November-23rd, 11.45 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, November 23. Captain Giles, on his return here, plans a new flight to Australia. ATLANTIC FLIGHT. 'PLANE PUTS BACK. (AUSTBALIAN AND ITJt- CABLB ASSOCIATION.) (Received November 23rd, 11.35 p.m.) LONDON, November 22. Junker's flying boat, D 1230, left the Azores to-day for Newfoundland with Lille Dillenz, the Austrian actress, as a passenger, but later turned back on account of being over-weighted.