TASMAN AIR RACE

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 17

TASMAN AIR RACE

PRIZE MONEY TOO LOW Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, October 2. (Received October 3, at 1.30 a.m.) The movement afoot at Napier, New Zealand, for a transtasman air race with prize money amounting to £5,000 is, according to the ‘ Sun ‘ causing a good deal of comment among Mascot pilots, who, while regarding the event as quite practicable, express the opinion that the prize money is too low, “DEATH FLIGHT" SUGGESTION STRONGLY CONDEMNED [PiR Unitid Prkss Association.] WELLINGTON, October 3. Under the heading “ Let Us Not Encourage Death Flights,” the ‘ Dominion ’ says editorially: “No sensible organisation should approve of the proposal for a SyducyNapier air race. Most pilots in an air race fly with a full throttle from take-off to landing. Tho result was seen in the Johannesburg race, where engines known to he thoroughly reliable when reasonably used failed, loading to forced landings. In a Tasman, race all those forced landings might be fatalities.”

After referring to navigation difficulties iu a race across the Tasman, the paper adds: “There is no doubt that New Zealand and Australia, could provide competent enough pilots, but they are too valuable to sacrifice for a ‘ stunt.’ It is certain that no aeronautical organisation would undertake the supervision of such an event.”