IN ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1929, Page 6

IN ANTARCTICA

(By Russell Owen— Copyrighted 192 F by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world Wire'ess to New York Times.) GETTING A PLANE OUT. ,

[United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.]

(Received this day at 9.40 a.m.j BAY OF WHALES, Nov. 6. The three-motored Ford ’plane emerged from its hole in the snow yesterday. The men pulling ropes, its wide thick wing lifted slowly over the snow until it stood perched on top, like it pre-historic bird of this continent.' Now it lies beside the small Fairchild, looming above it, and this floating hunk of ice on the edge of the wilderness begins to look like an aviation camp. Getting out the Fijrd, which is named Floyd Bennett, after the man who flew with Byrd over the North Pole, and who would have been his pilot in. this Polar flight if he had not died in the. attempt to rescue airmen of a. transAtlantic flight, was a two day job.It was buried in the show hangar until only its wing showed above the surface and puppies played up and down in the sun and _ slept- there basking in the warmth. When it was first put away last fall, with the centre section and wing motors in place, a deep hole was dug, and a wall of snow blocks built around the edge and the top covered with canvas. ’There it lay safely all the winter up to its neck in a- snowdift. The day before yesterday everyone in the camp who could be spared began to shovel snow- from, the ..front. of. the ’plane a ramp, up which it could he taxied ..to the , ~surface. .Forty-one tons of snow, were.... dug out in one day. The snow was sawed into blocks, weighing, fifty to a hundred pounds, and then hauled on sleds to the surface and dumped. It. reminded one of the picture, of Egyptian slaves quarrying stone for pyramids, hauling blocks uir> ramps with ropes over their shoulders. It was tiring and monotonous work but forty-one tons were moved and then the front vail of the hangar was torn down and the blunt, aggressive nose of the ’plane was exposed. A blow torch was put under the pendulous sack from the motor covering to heat the centre motor. While it was being warmed a trench was dug ahead and a block and tackle rigged from this to a bridle on the landing gear of the ’plane. By the time 'this was done the motor, was ready to. start and at the first impulse of the starter i turned over and purred rytlimutically ns if it had been in use every day. instead of lying idle waiting for this day for more than a year. It "HI soon be ready for a trial flight. BACK IN CAMP. (Received this dav 'fit 9.40 a.mO BAY OF WHALE‘S, November 7. • • The three men who- started off in a snowmobile, n fortnight”agin iff pother attempt at mechanical Transportation in'the Antarctic are hack in camp. They walked back eigllty miles, having left the snowmobile, parked in a drift with its rear end ’broken from the bucking of (the soft snow. They made 80 miles’in eight clays, one of which was spent jn their tent during, a blizzard and were greeted with streamers from the radio towers, signal rockets, and much good-natured razzing. •The experience gained on this trip leads Commander Byrd to the opinion that a specially-designed snowmobile would work—a long low flexible machine with very wide and carefully designed treads. The returning trio had a fairly rough trip. An overcast sky made visibility very bad and frequently they could not see thirty feet in front of them, partie-’’ ■v, bn the wind kicked up a lirM drift. They frequently had difficult v in picking up the flags on the trail and sl« b-e -and snowmobile tracks were almost obliterated. They would keep one., flag ip sight behind them until they would see another ahead. Sometimes the one ahead would not show up when it should and one would leave the group, and keeping them in sight would limit round until ho found a marker, sometimes .away off down one side 1 , showing how easily one can wander from a straight line over these snowy wastes. Visibility played n .queer pranks. Sometimes a flag would jump out at them before they expected it and other times they would see one apparently only a short distance ahead and then walk -miles apparently before reaching it. They could see water and sky at the seaward edge of the barrier after they got about half way back to the camp and steered on the corner of that.