PILOT’S'CAPTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1933, Page 6

PILOT’S'CAPTURE

BIRDS SJ >D AEROPLANES

COLLISION WITH WINDSCREEN. SYDNEY, April 13. ■ Experienced Sydney airmen agree that, in capturing a sm |.| bird in midair while. Hying over Mascot on Sunday afternoon, Air Goya. Henry, a well-known pilot, accomplished a thing that is extremely in the aviation history of this Shite.

It is not uncommon, it is s’id, for a hut-moving aeroplane to be hit by a b'rd flying in fTi? opposite direction, but the. result is, in most cases, disastrous for the bird, prirtjcnlarly if it happens to bp a small one. Hardly a day passes without an aeria! collision of this kind, in which smafl birds, .such as pigeons, swal'ows or gulls, are stunned or killed outrjght on colliding with different parts of the machine.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, on his Inst flight from England to Australia, hit a kite while flying ove r India. This bird, measuring eight feet across the wipers, came into contact with the under-carriage, the impact being sufficient to cause the whole machine to tremble violently, ,"/.though no actual damage was done. In making th. e first flight to A tralia, .Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith encountered a huge kite when flying off Calcutta. The bird was caught in the machine’s propeller and was cut

to pieces. Air Goya Henry said that airmen often found it diverting to chase flocks of birds migrating to other lands, 'he custom being recognised as a great sport in America, wher e migratory birds, like terns and swans, are pursued for miles.

The bird that Mr Henry caught, although something like a pigeon, is genthought to be .a snipe. It is recovering from the shock' it received when hitUng the aeroplane’s windscreen, and is hopping about at Mr Henry’s hom e rtf, North Sydney, whore it will stav .until. quite well again, when Air Henry intends to restore its freedom.