IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 2 August 1929, Page 5

IN ANTARCTICA

COMMANDER BYRD’S PROBLEMS. I United Press Association.—By Electric ieiegrupu.—«^up,yngiit.^ v (Received this day at 10 a.m.; (By Russell Owen —Copyrighted jy22 by tne New York iinies company, anil •St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights lor publication reserved throughout ,ne wond. Wire'ess to. New luiK ■ lines.; BAY OF WHALES, July 31. A man in a grey shirt with an eye shade shielding' Ins gaze from tne i.ignt ol ii.e lamp overhead, sits at a ta»jle littered with oddly constructed tracings, dividers, parallel roller, protractor and many pieces of paper, on which are innumerable calculations. ire is thoughtfully chewing his pencil and loaning 'back, regarding Luc problem baiore him. reis face is hidden b.v a shadow, hut ' his jaw sticks out as lie unconsciously reflects the difficulty of his tas.v. He might be an engineer, architect or scientist engaged in plotting the curves of force. His costume is puzzling, in connection with his occupation. He wears fur pants. His toot are encased in shapeless canvas hoots wound with cord. This is a picture of Commander Byrd, considering the makers of food, clothing, proper sleeping tents, dogs, navigation, personnel and a dozen things, eaoih w,th manifold , ramifications, which occupy the mind as' they have the thoughts of other;' leaders who have made an Antarctic stoiy. Travelling fifteen hundred miles afoot as the southern party plans to do to accomplish their geological work in the distant mountains, involves being aw'ay from the Ibase three months. Every possible contingency must he provided for before the teams start, but in addition to all these matters, there are very different problems connected with aviation to which Commander Byrd must give his attention.

Tlie flight to the Pole, for instance, is not a simple flight of eight hundred ■ miles inland and back again. It is a flight of hundreds of miles over a rolling barren surface, then a rampart of mountains fourteen thousand ‘ feet high, over which the plane must climb before continuing its journey over a plateau ten thousand feet above the sea level.

The factors of low speed, horsepower, rate of climb, and many engineering problems which enter into such a flight make it very complicated. Added to these innumerable cnisideraMons are matters of the weather, the question of route and bases, ancl the possibilities of their refilling, if necessary, at an inland base at some stage of the journey, navigation problems and a thousand things which must be discussed and solved. i

Last night a group of pilots stood about the Commander for two hours, while they talked over various aspects of the trip. Should certain things be dono this way or that. What would be the best method consistent with accomplishing the purposes oi the flight. Question after question came up.

There are many of these, conferences formal and informal, at which pilots, all of them experienced in many kinds of flying, give their opinions, hut it is Commander Byrd who must decide. Upon him rests the responsibility of seelecting the plan which promises to give the maximum of results, with the greatest safety.