AVIATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 September 1928, Page 3

AVIATION.

TASMAN FLIGHT.

' (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) . CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 11. Continuing his narrative of the fly, .. Flight-Lieutenant Him stated: 'A lot of rain was forced into our cockpit, and I do not think either of us have ever been so cold before. At 12.15 am. we appeared to be ) through the worst of it and for a few minutes had neither rain nor lightning, so glided down to 5,500 feet, and in this brief spell we both agreed that these electric storms were even worse s than the ones we had experienced on ‘ the Suva, to Brisbane hop. At 12.20 a.m. ws ran into another very severe rain and lightning storm and at times our rate of climb metre was registering downwards and retimes upwards with bumps at the rate of 3000 ft. per minute, and wo climbed to 7000 feet. Continuing his interview, Flight Lieutenant Ulm isnid:—lee on the Jf windshields became thicker, and in very .severe bumps wo were eventually forced down to 2000 feet, and we were both fearful that the electrical disturbance might affect our magneto l sufficiently to stop the operation of ' tho motors. This last spell was of short duration, and at 12.30 tho stars were peeping out again, but it was frightfully cold. At 12.3-5 a.m. we sighted a very big rain cloud immediately ahead and nt 12.40 a.m. we were again flying blind : s in heavy rain and bumps, At 1 a.m: w© were up again to 8000 feet, but our windshields were completely covered with thick ice and it was bitterly cold in the cockpit. ■For tho next 20 minutes we had another bout of blind "flying in heavy rain, which drove us down to 6000 feet.

At 1.45 a.m. we wore out of rain, but only a few stars were out. Our altitude was 6000 feet and no soemor did we wipe tho ice off the windshields than they coated up again. We. were both just chilled to tiio bone.

For the next li hours we experienced very bumpy weather and ran throng several smaller rain storms. At 3.30 a.m. the moon began to show up ahead of us. From 3.30 onwards the weather was fairly clear and I relieved Smithy at the controls, practically all the time until we got to Christchurch, except " for a few spells, as lie bad had to do practically tho whole of the flying in bad weather during the night. From 3.30 onwards we had a pretty fair visibility, but were never able to get below 6500 feet, on account of the particularly thick cloud banks below. At 5 o’clock w© saw what appeared to he two mountain caps covered in snow protruding above the .clouds far away on the starboard beam. - At 5.20 was the first time for hours that we were <aolo -to see through the clouds and then only a small opening was available to us, . but we glided " through it to find a very pretty harbour below us. We cruised around for about five or ten .minutes and eventually located this place as the northern part of tho South Island. At 5.45 wo were in Cook Strait, and decided to call in, as we were early, and say “good morning” to Wellington on our way through. We flew at about 1000 feet over the city and suburbs of Wellington for ten minutes. At 5.55 w© turned away from Wellington across Cook Strait and down the east coast of the South Island to Christchurch. We followed the coast lino and experienced very humpy weather and it was still very cold at 3000 Hfeet.

At 7.45 we were met by an escort of

four New Zealand Air Force planes and Vivrat.7,so a-.m. (Sydney time) we landed .— : at Wigranr (Christchurch) aerodrome, to be greeted by tlie most enthusiastic ' crowd we had yet met. . Immediately upon arrival wo were handed congratulatory telegrams from the Governor-General of New Zealand ' and Prime Minister and other representative citizens. We were sorry to disappoint yourselves, and probably thousands of radio listeners-in, by the failure of our radio equipment. As yet we hare been unable to detect the original cause of the short wave transmitter failure, but McWilliams worked on it for four hours, and just when he had it all apart and felt that he could re-assemble it and start work, we ran into some of the worst «\ bumps wo had ever experienced, and ' his loose equipment was scattered all over the floor of the navigating and wireless cabin.

119 MILES AN HOUR. ' FOB THE WHOLE JOURNEY. Uhu continued: “We would have i operated on long-wave for both receiving and transmitting, but /before our aeria,! could be wound in. when we struck the flrst severe lightning storm, the lightning made contact with the aerial and burned out some of the coils in the set, thus rendering it practically useless. However, towards the latter end of the flight, by dint of very hard and uncomfortable work, Alac was able to get out a few short messages, and we hope everybody listening was able to receive them. Loth Smithy and myself are commisserating with Mac over the failure of the equipment, which was, of course, no fault of his. Wo cannot say enough in praise of LitchflelcTs navigation. Under particularly adverse conditions for both flying and air nav-

igation,’ he set a course for a very small point—that is, Cook Strait—and / brought us there most accurately. All i four of us are fairly tired, and even the tireless Mac is in bed, and is not going to have a look at the trouble with the radio equipment until tomorrow.

The total flying time for the trip, the actual mileage of which was 1600 miles, was 14 hours 25 mins, which averages out at about 119 miles per hour. Thjs means that we had an average following wind throughout of about 2S miles per hour.”

THE WREATHS. We lmd sad duties to perform in the. dropping of two wreaths, one of which was brought over by Mc-Wil- ■ Earns from the people of New Zeai land, and one which we dropped on ' behalf of our crew, in memory of the two gallant gentlemen who set out on Pf tile flight we have just completed. At the request of New Zealand, we dropped the New Zealand wreath,, as near . as we could estimate, 150 miles from the New Zealand coast line, and ouiv own wreath was dropped about L)0 Jar miles from the Australian const Due. In view of the particularly bad weather, including as it did rain. bail, ice and lightning, we are jolly glad that wo equipped our machine with three new Nicarta' propellers, generously given to us by the Westingbouso Cov. The old propellers had had a b? ) .-had doing on the Pacific flight, and on Y' our Melbourne to Perth flight, and we both doubt whether they would have stood up satisfactorily to what the new propellers bad to go through last night. We have not yet had time to fullv examine the new blades since ' our' arrival here, but, from a cursory glance, we arc quite satisfied that they will carry many scars from last night’s battle with the elements. Our threo motors, thanks to tho attention given to them by “Hoc

Maidment, functioned as usual, perfectly throughout. Wo were fearful nt times that lightning might seriously'affect tho magnetos, hut, in view of what tho bus came through last night, wo arc quit© satisfied that these three Whirlwinds, when properly fuelled, oiled and eared for, will go through any weather anywhere.

AIRMEN WELCOMED. PROPOSED TOUR OF DOMINION. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 12. Kiiigsford Smith and other members of tho crew of the Southern Cross were officially welcomed to Christchurch l>y a huge crowd in Crnmnor Square nt noon. Mayor Archer spoke' on behalf of tho city and Sir Heaton Rhodes on behalf of the Government. Later tho flyers were entertained at civic luncheon.

Kiiigsford Smith and Ulm will make a tour of New Zealand before they hop off again for Australia. On their Dominion tour they will not use tho Southern Cross hut ono of tho Air Force machines from 'Wigram aerodrome. The date on which tho flight round tho Dominion will take place has not yet been decided.

Replying at the civic reception, Kiiigsford Smith said it was to ho regretted that they could not have gone around the aerodrome yesterday, _ hut on landing they were swept along in a wave of New Zealand humanity and finally found themselves at the hotel. He thanked the Government for their wonderful gift. “We didn’t fly across to New Zealand for the sake of two thousand quid, hut , to link up two hitherto unlinked outposts of tho Empire.” He referred to the deaths of Moncrieff and Hood, stating tho present flight was not “an I-told-you-so ” gesture to those men, but was made in justification of a brave adventure. The flight was a united effort by four men, each indispensable to tho other, and proved that co-operation between a crew was essential. He paid a tribute to the ability of Lieut. Ulm, whose organising pulled them through dark days in America. Lichfield, the navigator, had hit the coast within approximately a mile of where he intended to. It was unfortunate for McWilliams, the wireless operator, that they had struck the worst time ever experienced in the Southern Cross, but'it was a tremendous tribute to him that he lay on his hack while the machine was being tossed about, and got the wireless working so that he could receive something. \

Lieutenant Ulm said they hoped the flights were achieving their object, namely, to give tho public more confidence in flying. They believed the flights were tho forerunners of properly organised air mail services. Special machines were needed but Australia and New Zealand had tho money and men to run those services. H© thanked the New Zealand Air Force officers for the help given. ' ■ , Mr Litchfield said some thanks were due to the staff of the Richmond Aerodrome (Xcw Soutli (Vnles), jind to the Lands and Survey Department, who had sent some very valuable maps of New Zealand. Air McWilliams said as a radio operator he had hoped to carry out his duties in a manner which would reflect credit, on the Dominion, but tho elements were against them.

INVITED TO BLENHEIM. . BLENHEIM, Sept. 12. Squadron-Leader Kingston! Smith and party have been invited to fly the Southern Cross to Blenheim, by the Marlborough Aero Club, and Blenheim Corporation. A safe landing ground nt Marshlands is believed to he the only one apart from .Sockhurn in the Dominion suitable for tho rise by a big plane like the Southern Cross. Negotiations for the visit are afoot and the club has reason to hope it will eventuate.

SOUVENIR FLAGS. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 12. The container bolding souvenir flags brought from Sydney to New Zealand by the Southern Cross has been handed to the Chairman of,the North Canterbury Hospital Board. The flags for tlie other three centres will he f< rv,aided to 'Wellington for distribution by tlie Premier. Ono suggestion is tiiat the flags should be raffled instead c'f being public auctioned.

PARTICULARS OF CRASH

SYDNEY, September 11. Anderson lias telegraphed from Pine Creek, Northern Territory, that he exptrieuced trouble all day with a hot ladiator. He landed near Windmill and re-filled the radiator, but about 30 miles north of Katherine the radiator again boiled.- It was a ease of a forced landing. “ I decided to try and save the- engine and I pancaked the O’d Pioneer into some trees. This broke our fall and ‘ then we crashed rather heavily. 1 called out to Hitchcock: ‘Are yen all right,’ and be replied, ‘Yes.’ He bad a deep cut on the bottom lip and strained bis light shoulder. I escaped unhurt. The machine was badly damaged, although the engine is O.K. Owing to the heavycost of freighting tlie machine must now be written off. We are extremely disappointed and will be heavy loseis. AVe are anxious to return to Sydney to get icfiCtlier machine. The police Imre a e tirating us generously.” : ACROSS AMERICA FLY. OTTAWA, Sept. 11. A message from Prince Rupert states Godfrey was unsuccessful in bis flight, from Ottawa to Vancouver. The flier should have reached there on Monday night-, but there was no word of him at” noon to-day. it is believed lie has landed somewhere on account of heavy rains.

MISSING AIRMEN. VANCOUVER, Sept. 11. Reaches of Pacific, between Prince Rupert and Vancouver, remained silent during tho late afternoon, regarding the whereabouts of the transCanadian fliers. Orders have been issued to the Air Force to prepare three seaplanes for a search early to-morrow morning. In tho meantime coastaT vessels are being asked to keep a lookout. PROPOSED ARCTIC ELY. COPENHAGEN. Sept. 11. ' Undeterred by Nobile’s dishster fPoter Frenchmen, announces m tlie newspaper “National Tidewle” that ho and the veteran explorer Nansen will make a dash to the North Pole in March or April, using a Zeppelin which is being built at Lake Constan carrying a crew of thirty-five and fifteen scientists. Frenchmen who was lost in the Polar regions fo Eire years from 1920 managed to aßvo by shooting seal, walrus and reindeer. He eventually was found on an Islet at Banff Island and tho hardship temporarily undermined n. health. ...