TO SOUTH POLE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1930, Page 2

TO SOUTH POLE

The thrill of seeing Commander Byrd take off from the Barrier for his great flight over the ,South Pole is graphically described by Russell Owen special correspondent with the expedition. Before the huge machine could be got going the engines had to be warmby placing blazing torches beneath 'them. .

LITTLE AMERICA ; Antarctica, 3rd December

A huge grey ’plane slipped over the dappled Barrier, the sun gleaming on its sides, reflecting in bright flashes from its metal wing and whirling propellers, and with a smooth lifting movement rose above the snow in a long, steady glide. Once in the air, as if liberated from the ' clinging influence of earthly things, it became suddenly light, a true bird of the air, and with its three motors roaring their deep song it turned southward and was gone into the wilderness of space over a land of white desolation. Commander Byrd had started on his 1600-mile flight to the South Pole and back, a flight , over rolling Barrier, through gaps in towering mountains, where the wind whirls in buffetr ing eddies, and on over that lonely Polar Plateau, the loneliest spot on earth, where somewhere is a tiny, invisible point which, with all his navigator’s cunning, he is attempting to reach.

The flight came, as does everything here, with thrilling effoct. Hefe, more than anywhere else, flying depends on the weather, and the genius of thq winds brooding over the mysterious heights above us had been idly stirring the conflicting elements into shifting winds and clouds which blocked the way. Then, as if by magic, a deep hush spread over the rolling plain, shining oream and rose coloured under the flowing rays of a sun so bright in this translucent atmosphere that it seemed to fill half, tfye sky. , It iyas. as ’’ if " Mature 'said,' “I ‘ have done my part new; there is peace before you.” ■ln the glittering silence of such a day, for morning, noon, and midnight are all the same, men scurried busily about, intense with excitement. They knew that the moment had come for which they, had worked for more than a year, in black isolation and in bold that seared and burned, in winds that shrieked and hid the earth in a shroud of numbing and bewildering drift. There was elation in their quick movements, confidence and eagerness. If they could have done so, they would have pushed the heavy ’plane off the ground with their determination.

Mechanics hurriedly looked with skilled and careful eyes where the metal machine rested on the snow like a ponderous big confident bird. It looked so strong, so graceful, even in. its bulky outlines, so strange in their environment, as if in itself it bad the will to conquer. How different riding this machine from the way men have toiled with aching bodies and troubled minds over the treacherous surface of the snow above which this great creature soars so easily!

It is hard to believe, as it wheels in graceful curves with long sweeping dips of its wings, that it is not a conscious entity. One never tires of watching it—is it because it is so out of place .here or because in this lost land it becomes a prehistoric denizen of the ait,' this its natural abiding place which by accident we have discovered ?.

It had come through so many hazards, ■ had been watched with such jealous care. For 10. COO miles it had been transported, through tropics where the sun scorched it and the sen tried vainly to corrode its metal members.

Jt had boon lifted and dropped into holds.of ships and to docks, hauled nshoVe in sections on a crumbling shelf of ice with disaster momentarily ahead, and thou left to hibernate a long winter night while tlie cold closed in around. Then the day came when, it was brought up into Lhe light, a complete machine, put together with blistered fingers and long hours of toil and. with its engines growling a note of satisfaction had taken the air to soar in its own element. PREPARED FOR THE FLIGHT. Those watching the big ’plane, being made ready for the flight thought of nil this as they stood by. How much it .meant to all who have lived here and' worked for tills day can hardly be imagined bv those back home, who care never picture this land as it really ;is. cold, beautiful, but treacherous, and implacable in its resistance. Tins geemed the way to conquer it.

BYRD’S THRILLING START TORCHES TO WARM ENGINES 1600 MILE NON-STOP FLIGHT IN ANTARCTICA

The ’plane had been loaded for the flight long before the hour came when the word was given to start. Men had stoned away in ics big cabin food and clothing, extra cans of fuel to be poured into the fuselage tank; sleds had been tucked away in the tail for use if by some mischance the ’plane faltered on the way and sought a resting place far inland. Over all the preparations Richard Byrd watched, wrapped in his fur clothing that will keep him warm when taking sights through an open window in temperatures far below zero.

’ The tiny tables on which he will do his navigating were in place, and his instruments, the sextant securely in its case, the compass lashed in a corner where it is free from deviation.

The radio operator, his chunky figure also wrapped in fur, face smiling above the thrust-back hood with its rim of soft brown l'ur, had tested his instruments, made sure that all the means of keeping not only the anxious men here at the base, but those at home, informed of the ’plane’s movements, were in good condition. The aerial surveyor had placed his camera, with its paraphernalia, over which lie will work so rapidly from the time the ’plane leaves until it comes back.

One must work quickly and without mistake on such a "flight, mind and fingers co-ordinated perfectly that there be no hesitation or lost moments which can never be filled in. The engines were warmed by torches placed under long snouts that readied down from tho canvas casing about the entire motor. They were made during the past winter, carefully made, so that they would do the work safely and in the quickest possible time. One by one they were removed and mechanics with a long crank turned the inertia-starter, spinning it faster and faster until it whined with a shrill sound.

• They jumped back, one of them thrust home, the starting pin which engaged the motor, and with a few jerky movements of the propeller the cylinders caught and roared. Soon all three engines were turning over smoothly, and the pilot, sitting in the cockpit, his face tense and watchful, opened them wider and wider until the whole ’plane shook and trembled under their pull. He throttled them down to idling speed, slov ly tested them again at various speeds, and when not a cough or miss in the smoothly whirling mass of machinery showed that they were functioning perfectly, he nodded his head and smiled.

It was a smile of deep satisfaction; the rhvtlnn of those shrieking masses of steel and aluminium was a music which gave him an inner content too great tor words. On them his life and the lives of those with him might depend; but even beyond this knowledge there is to be noticed in all men who love the air and know their motors, a ieeling that might almost be called artistic. To them an aeroplane in perfect condition is a well-timed instrument, with a definite and true note.

KNOWN WEATHER. CONDITIONS GOOD. Everything was ready. Byrd talked for a few moments with Cyclone (William C.) Haines, the senior meterorologiot, and with the indications that the weather was fair for a long distance inland, and report from the geological party that there were no disturbances where it was, everything possible was known. What conditions might be over the Plateau was yet to he learned. That was an unknown quantity, the one thing on which Commander Byrd must gamble, although if the weather is bad, he can land at the inland base and wait for the skies over the Plateau to clear. There was a short conference between him and the crew. ‘‘Let’s go” was everyone’s feeling. They were eager to he off, every man of them showing it in his face, bis quick movements, bis pre-oeeupiod expression. There were few handshakes, for Byrd, like most pilots, dislikes lastminute farewells; pats on the hack for the others, and the furred and bulky figures climbed into the ’plane. The door was slammed.

The pilot waved his hand and opened his throttles wide to break the ’plane loose from the snow, while mechanics in the wind blast, the snow whirling about them so as almost to conceal them in its smother, loosened the ski is of the heavy machine, and it jerked forward and slipped .smoothly over the ground. Care,l ally it was turned and taxied up to one end ol the field. The flying field lies in a sort of hollow, a long, fairly level surface with the scattered materials of the camp, and its snow-buried houses on one side and on the other a long slope.

. This was apparently at one time an indentation in the Barrier, a sort of bay, and it has been built up through the years until now it is thirty feet above the water, but still some distance below the top of the Barrier.

At tlie end of the runway, although beyond where the 'plane loaves the ground, was a line of “haycocks.’ Tiie whole field gleamed under the sun, dappled in patches of grey and cream colour, where the snow lay soft, or blown hard and crushed by the wind. A few little ridges, only inches high, ran across it, throwing grey shadows in the line of the general wind direction.

TURNS, AND IS OFF TO SOUTH

At the end of the field on the side of a slope up to the edge of the Barrier the ’plane was turned about and the pilot opened her up. The motors burst into a crescendo of sound, front a low growl to a deeptearing note. The propellers flashed in circles of fire as the sun hit then invisible blades.

The ’plane began to move and the group of men standing on the snow oblivious to ' cold, watched like statues.

Faster and faster tho great machine shot forward, its wing dipping slightly as the skiis met inequalities in the surface.

It seemed an age, although it was but a few moments, before it was sliding with terrific speed, and so smoothly that it was almost imperceptible. The skiis lifted and a snvll space showed between them and the snow.

Then the big ship leaned into life, and,- despite its heavy load, soon lifted high above the field and a hill yondA lona, smooth glide outward, am. then a slow turn. The great wing grew smaller, the sound of the motors a muffled hum out of the suv. It diminished rapidly against the clear blue above it, became a tln'i dark line, graceful as a soaring gull, and then, as eves strained after it. it vanished into the silent South.