AVIATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1927, Page 2

AVIATION.

GTLES RETURNS. CONFLICTING REPORTS. 'Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22. It is reported that Giles has returned owing to storms at sea, and has landed at San Simeon, California.

A message from San Luis Abispo, reports as unconfirmed the rumours that Giles landed near San Simeon, and telephone inquiries failed to locate any one 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, Dewing, two hundred miles out, and the liner, Dlanoa, 270 miles out, reported that the plane was unseen at the time it was scheduled to pass their positions. Both vessels reported Hying conditions ideal over the Pacific, hut stated the possibility of low cloudbanks may have obscured the plane. The weather bureau officials to-night stated there were no storms or disturbances over the Pacific route. Paterson had received no word o' a forced landing in Southern California, and said he could not understand how Giles could possibly have reached 250 miles south of San Francisco. LATER. An Associated Press message states that Giles returned, and landed at Sail Simeon, near the ranch of AA’illiam Randolph Ilearst. Telephoning to the San Francisco

“ Examiner,” Giles said lie had flown five hundred miles towards Honolulu, when the machine became quite beyond control, and went completely “ shaywire,” spinning into a rain-drenched air pocket and finally turning upside down, scattering charts, toods and instruments into the ocean. T hen in a magnificent exhibition of airmanship, Giles turned the damaged plane right side up, and making a wild guess as to direction, turning her roaring back into the mainland, making a safe landing one mile south of the Hearst Ranch.

“ I never expected to make it,” said Giles, “my centre section bracing wires had snapped. 1 had dumped my main gas tanks to lighten to strain on the broken plane, and the chances were just about zero, but luck stayed with me and I hit the coast sixty miles north of where I landed. 1 had to keep the ship in the air all that distance, before 1 finally found a landing place.” When asked wliat he planned to do now. Giles replied: “ AATiy I am going to try again. 1 will fix the ship and fly her back to San Francisco. Then as soon as the moon is full and new charts arc obtained, 1 will fly to Australia, and by George I am going to do it.”

Over the telephone, Giles sounded breathless and seemed to he trembling, signs of nervousness remaining in his voice after his harrowing experience, perhaps one of the most lerriiying any aviator had ever undergone.”

Continuing his comments, Giles said : “The weather was fine until 1 got about three hundred miles out, their it started getting had. It was cloudy with rain squalls and 1 began to feel those air pockets they have out there over the Pacific. The same thing that must have spelled ‘curtain’ for Frost, Erwin, Peddlar and Miss Doran. I figured I could get through but my luck was out or maybe it. is in. I ran into utterly foul weather 480 miles out. The clouds were very thick and low, and there were incessant rain squalls. There was not much wind, but the pockets were awful. One more thing I think my experience will solve definitely, is the mystery as to what happened the Dole racers. 1 had a biplane and it was only by the sheerest luck that I survived wliat 1 went through. A monoplane is much less stable than a biplane and a monoplane would not have had any chance in the weather that turned me over. You can see what must have happened to them.”

GILES INTENTIONS. (Received this day at 9.30 a.m.i. SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 23.

Giles is expected to return here today by automobile. Ho notified his backers by telephone that the plane was unsafe for flying and he was having repairs done before lie could bring it here for another take off for Honolulu.

Peterson refused to comment on the possibility of another attempted flight, until Giles’ arrival. Peterson declared it depended entirely on the extent of the damage done to the plane.

Giles told attendants at Hearst Ranch that lie would go to Sail Francisco to procure the necessary material to repair the plane and then fly it to San Francisco and make another attempt as soon as the weather permitted.

WEATHER BUREAU DOUBTFUL. (Received this day at 10.15 a.mA SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 23. Violent weather conditions reported b.v Giles “were simply impossible, and it is unreasonable to think they could have existed,” declared the United States Weather Bureau officials today, adding that ships scattered along the route reported calm seas and light winds.