PACIFIC AIR SERVICE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 59, 2 December 1937, Page 7

PACIFIC AIR SERVICE

Press Association.'

No Night Flying in Auckland Area MR. GATTY'5 OUTLINE

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^ . r .WELLINGTON, Last Night. ] ! An btitline of the proposed operdtion' of Pan-American Airways' flightS from San Eraneiseo to -Neft Zealand, with, particular xeference .to the mbtbbrological problems to be f aced, Was given; by Mr. H. C. Gatty, the company 's New Zedland repfesentative, at the meteoro-. logical conference fet Wellington, r "At. the beginning of tfiese flights which Pan-Axnerican Airways Will make down here, they will 0onixe8t at Eonolulu With the throxigh servije to CMna,,, he said. ".They Will not be running from San FranCisco to NeW Zealand, but froxn Honolulu, connecting With the service to China. The reason for that is that we will Be USing the Sikorsky 'plane, which is not capable of making the flight from Honoluixi to Sdn Fraiicisco cafrying a payload, until we get Boeings on the run. The service wili be a connection from Honoluiu to Auckland. A second factor is that, when we como on to Kingman reef, we have no real difficulties thex'o from the point of view bf the weather, unless we get any violent westeriy winds, which inay drise ocCasionally in Deceihber, Janiiary and February. The next ttagb is Pago Pago, which is not the easiest place to get in and out bf it. Thete are bays on the other side of the is'land which can be used in dn einefgehcy, biit therb are certainly difficiiltie3 ih. that we cannot land or take off in a northwesterly direction — that is, up the harbour, because we have an 800ft. ridgb to clear. The weather forecast is vety ifnportant, because it means that, ih three months of the year, if we arb * liable to get north-we'Sterly winds, we Will have to go outside the harbbur to take off. "We will hot fly at night ih the Auckldhd area, That is 4 dbfiniti TUle the edmpany has lai ddtiwn. My cbm'"pany Considers this a hufricane arba, and it. ihedns we will have te make Our lights in ddylight between Pago Pago and Auckland. It' is an 1850-mile Qight. We have to take off before tlawn in Pago Pagd and land at Auckland around 5 o'clock in the dfternobn. That Ltime will be defihitely within An beur Oi; tWo' of the tixhe Of ldndihg xn Auckland. We have .tp Stay abdut two days in Auckland for checkihg ahd miUor OVerhdtil, ahd theh start back^ taking off from Auckland before davrn to enhble the lhnding ib be jndde in Pago Pago harbo'txr befbrb dark. There irill be no difficulties about jtjie take-off, ts lights will be strung out on the tarboiir ih the direction bf jthe wind. "We plan to use Rixssell as an emerjency base and to have a wireless itation^at Russell, purely for the puroose of guiding the plane in to the joast by direction finding. The reasoii for that is that the high islands ontside Lticklands are hazardons. It would be iangerous to coine in by directibnInding in bad weather past Rangitoto, 3reat Bhrrier and the Other islands. tSTe have put in mborings at Russell so fcfaat in cdse Aucklahd is closed iit, Vve ian hahg on to the inobflngs at Russell nntil it clears at Auelilaiid, or iintil Saylight. "Although we do not know yet what 5ay of the week we will be running, we tvill xrun a round-trip every two weeks at the start, leaving San Franeisco on the 15th and getting down about the 19th, and thereafter every two weeks. We eipect to be running every week Withln a few months after starting. It i will setile dowxx io a weekly service, and by April we hope to have a Boeing r(50-passenger boat) on the job and rilnning a .wOekly service. ' 1