Mountain climbing By Acrplane.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1921, Page 4

Mountain climbing By Acrplane.

(By George I). Abraham.) ! Will the High Alps be climbed by aeroplane r | Tl-e answer mist, broadly speaking, I !**- m tbe negative. J t t )i.itc at b. ill u * tit, t lirmigli mountain-! :■ ilv. ay interest v.lm'M il. was mootI cd dial an aeroplane service might be j i mi 1.0 (It,- .hingllaii ami other heights [ wbe j e vast capital has been expended [ oil cmi-l I I.ctiuti. But this was nothing j to tin- tin ill experienced by the first pilots who received sitcit a crashing tiiiil crushing reception front aloof "Pale .Maiden of the Smuts." This was on the compa tat ivcly Hat lower glacier; there i- mi cb.imc of landing anywhere near the summit of tin- .Imigf ra it. (If ciinise. l hci e will always he adventurous spirits willing to wrestle with fate and tty a fall with the giants lII' i’.c All's. Mont Blau,- (I .T.7HI 1 1 ., was the real objective ul M. Durafimr in hi- recent llight. am! a I‘tci two teats of fruitless attempts lie hail to he content wiili the Dome du Hunter (1 1.211)ft.) This milil-lniiking satellite of the Great White Mountain is crowned hy a hig. Hat. snow'v plateau which should apparently prove most Lit out able lor landing. Be do, .- mil w i-dt to repeat the experience.

Kven with io-limpler machines (aeroplanes til it go straight up without a t;i L < ■-(. ill’ I the ilillicitll ies will nut I" 1 solved. The hoiir-l.v hour conditions of* the snow above lO.UOdft. vary tremendously. At one time the suiface is 'ey haul and strong enough to carry heavy weights; at another it may he soft and yieldng enough to bury an aeroplane. Moreover, these conditions may occur and vary appallttigl\ m "II or AO yards ol distance. Ikirly morning In-fore the sun gains power will lie tin- only time when fuiily sale landings an- possible and wind lulls! Is- absent. .Most Alpinists know wliat an elusive tiling is tin- niiidition of the snow ; tin- greatest, of guides have been deceived with disastrous insults. As an aid tu real mountaineers the

aeroplane will scarcely he feasible. Hveii if a normal man is landed on the Home du (liiuter, fur instance, it is extremely doubtful wlc liter he would he physically lit to walk over the Busses to the top of .Mont Blanc. It is the giadual ascent nil font to these high levels that makes exercise thereon possible nr at all pleasutable.

Again, on heights above lo.tKMlft. Ihe rarity of the air begins tu aflect the steering and control nf the aeroplane. A l ‘JO.OOdft., pilots say that control fur landing is dniililfill, and at higher levels still, iin possible. Of enur e plane,-, have climbed, with pilots kept alive by oxygen, to over :t(i,(l(K)fl. But these have I straight up and down achievements. This is largely why the aeroplane idea I —*s been given up oil Mount I’.veicst, despite tin- fad. that the members of the present expedition have seen all apparently magnificent flat platen'', where landing might tie possible, about •1,000 feet below the summit. I’riiliah-lv ere lung we shall fly to summits under the snow line. Then several mountain railways In the Alps will lie unnecessary. Among many others of our own mountains, the loftiest of all, Ben Nevis, has a huge, Hat top, that could easily he made into a safe landing place. Who will lie the first tu alight mi the crest of Britain,