HAWKER'S FLIGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17690, 30 July 1919, Page 8

HAWKER'S FLIGHT

AIRMEN'S $JX>RY OF GREAT ADVENTURE. "LANDING" IN THE ATI;ANTIC. (Daily Mail Special.) INVERNESS, May 26. Mr llairy Hawker and Commander Ivlae-kenzie-Grieve, R.N., arrived at Thurso from 11.U.5. Revenge this morning, and had a great municipal welcome. They have since made a triumphal progress tlirough tile Highlands en route to London. At every little Highland station they were cheered and men clung lo tho moving traiu. In minutes between Mr Hawker gave me this plain tale of adventure. "Everything," ho said, "went well at tiie start. We had a very difficult ground to rise from on the other side. To got in the air at all wo had to run diagonally iicross tho course. Once we got away wo climbed very well, but about 10 minutes up we passed from firm, clear weather into the fog of tho Newfoundland Banks. We got well over this, however, and, of course, at once lost- sight of tho sea. The sky was quite clear for the iiist four hours, when ttio visibility lip came very bad. Heavy cloud banks were encountered, and eventually we Hew into a heavy storm, with rain squalls. Trouble did not begin until wo were 5£ hours out from St. John's. Then tho temperature of tho water in the radiator began to rise. That did not mean a great deal at that moment, but we could see that something was the matter with .the water circulation. It was part of my job to watch. Grieve was busy taking sights. 0 It was about 11 p.m. Greenwich (midnight, summer time), and tho clouds were exceptionally thick. We had not seen the water since we wero 10 minutes out from St. John's. Our height was about 10,000 ft, and there wore many cloud peaks up to 15,000 ft, making a very bad horizon; there being no moon, it not having risen by then, and having to go round the clouds, it was difficult to steer a good course. "NOT COLD A BIT." "We wore very comfortable —not cold a hit, but it was freezing hard. On we went, and the water temperature in the radiator rose from 163d0g to 176deg (212deg is boiling point) in a few minutes, and maintained that for a couple of hours or more. We were now looking for a cause, and I came to the conclusion that something had got into the' water filter between tho radiator anci water pumps, and the only thing wo could do was to stop the motor, put the nose of the-machine down stec-ply with the hope that this would clear tho refuse in tho filter, and this was successful. But it

was again choked in the next hour, and this brought us to about 800 miles out. Tho weather v.-;is still -very bad, and the clouds very high, and several times wo tried to clear, but unsuccessfully, and doing this meant losing- height .it every attempt-. Each time after climbing the water boiled badly. That meant wasting- water—i.o., tho water for cooling tho engine—and after getting to 12,000 ft, again we docidccl to stop at this height for tho rest of tho way. We had not yet doubted being successful in getting across. We were then above most of the clouds. Tho moon was up, and we were keeping a good course, although we had to close the throttle and" go a little lower wj keop the water temperature below boilingpoint. BLACK CLOUDS. "Wo ccmtimicd on this -until 121 hours out. Then we came to clouds again, very, very high, I should Bay about 35,000 ft, very black, too, almost impossible to fly through. Each time we tried to climb

above them wo boiled b?,dly. So 1 decided to go beneath them. Coming down to about "6000 ft we found it Waoker than ever. Everrt.ually I got to 1000 ft above the water before we could see to fly. Wo started on our course again with the sun just getting up, but could not keep the temperature below boiling "Then it was we reached the fateful decision to play for safety. We decided to fly diagonally south-east a-nd then southwest across our coarse to see if to could find a ship, for we knew we could not go on indefinitely boiling our water awa.y. This we did for about two and a-half hours before we found a ship, the sea being very rough below njid we getting knocked about very badly at times. The wind was blowing from tbe north-east at half a gale. "At last I sighted a ship close to us. on our port (left) bow. We were both fairly in the fog with the clouds low, a,nd we were almost on top of her before we saw her. "We flew alongside her at 400 ft. fired three Verey distress signals, a.nd waited some time flying rcross and across until she got some men up on deck. A VERY GOOD "LANDING." "Then we went aheiid about two miles and landed in front of her. We made a very good landing, and the machine floated on an even keel well out of the water.

" ' And that's that,' we said, and watched the steamer approaching. We put our own boat out and stood by in case the machine should break up and sink, which it began to do rapidly in a heavy sea. The sea was running up to 12ft, and breaking right over the machine and us. Our life-saving suits kept us dry, and for an hour and a half wo watahed the crew of tho Mary trying to launch a lifeboat. She vT-as" only 200 yards away. After much difficulty she succeeded in getting to us, and we boarded the lifeboat and were pulled to the ship by a line. Owing to the heavy sea it was impossible to salve anything at all. When we got to the ship we were without boots or caps, and Grieve without a r:oat. We were very sorry to lose a lot of valuable instruments and mail.

" Altogether beforo being picked up we had been 14g hours out from Newfoundland. We were picked up at 8.50 a.m. on Monday, Greenwich time (9.50 British summer time). MET BY DESTROYER. "On climbing aboard we lound that Captain Duhn spoke very go'od English. He had been afraid we should go down beforo his boat reached us. Another hour,' he said as he went on the bridge, ' and you would have gone down.' He | thought wo were Americans, and we were struck by the cas.ial manner in which ne took tho whole business, as if it were an everyday occurrence to take airmen out ot tho Atlantic. "We immediately asked him his bearings and what likelihood there was of meeting a ship that day or tho nest and being i-i the main route of shipping. At that time ho :hought there would be a very good chance of seeing a ship, with wireless, at any moment. "That night tho storm got worse, and ho. had to heave-to, making only about a knot in a northerly direction, this taking us off the shipping- route and lessening the _c i:

chance of meeting another ship. " We slept, or tried to, most of the time, drank tea, and read the captain's English books. Wo saw St. Kilda., but it* was not until the Butt of Lewis that we could communicate. " Off Loch Erribol we were met by the destroyer Wools ton and conveyed to Scapa Flaw, where we had a splendid welcome home from Admiral Fremantle and the men of the Grand Fleet. " What wo want to emphasise is that the fault was not. due to (.ho motor, which waf in every way reliable, running satisfactorily from start to finish; even after boiling all the water away the motor was still running merrily, though red hot, when we alighted in the water."

GRIEVES STORY. FEEBLE WIRELESS. ""Comuiaiide-r Griavo says the wireless was not a great, success. " '11k; first wireless fitted was tried during our trial flight at St. John's, when the exciter of the generator burnt out owing x to the too great speed of the small a:rcirivcn propeller. This sot was then discarded, «and a small ' Boy Scout' plain aerial set was installed, which was designed to givo a radius of about 25 miles. Owing to the long delay we had time to roccivo a new r.ot from England of a pattern different from tho first. A trial flight to test this was impossible owing to the danger of risking the mnchinc on the limited aerodrorno space. On starting- .ths flight tlio spark was found to be very feeble, and only a small ainpca-ago oouid_ bo obtained. This was due to the undersized propeller used to drivo it. " In my opinion, wo should even bo ha.vo obtained a range sufficient to communicate with any drip* sighted, and mraSßagos were sent out continually, but no roply was received. I was Bending messages every halfhour. Any ship in hearing would havo replied. " My chief objaet was to let them know wo wore still m tlio air. During tho last few hours, when the engine was throttled, th'.' spood of the iTjachmr> was Mrt snffieient lo dfrivo the wirelces, end no spark ooald be generated. But I made an S.O.S. every quarter of an hour on ths off-chance"of tho spurlc operating. " From the navigating 1 point of view I plaosd no reliance on the wireless other than as a moans of asking -positions of such, ships as we might, pass over. Ships had previously besn asked by wireless from St. John's to make known their position if

the>y saw ua by day, or if wo fixed red I Veroy lights by night. As wo saw no vessel no light was fired. Tho Samnanger may hav.o soon tho rod glow of our exhaust. ''I preferred to navigate chiefly by celestial observations, and my position by tho stars when picked up was practically correct I used a cloud horizon instead of the. sea horizon, as tho sea was hardly visible, at any part of tho timo we -wore ill tho air. Kor tho first four hours after leaving wo woro passing orar fog banks, and the clouds below wore like the sua, giving a perfect horizon. I had only to judge our height above thorn- and tak» the sun, as on a seti horizon, and about, 7 o'clock Greenwich moan time- I saw tho sea for a few seconds through a hole in tho fog and cloud batik. FIGHT WITH A GALE. "I obtained the drift of the machine by noting the breaking waves through tho drift indicator, and we were then at 4-OSOft and climbing. Tile drift was lOdeg to tho right of our course, which I had already allowed for on starting, owing to tho northoast wind then blowing from St. John's. Up to 10.15 p.m. (Greenwich) wc steered to make a. true east course, not a magnetic cast. During that period I took sights every hour, and at 10.15 I made her 400 miles from St. John's. " I then altered our courso to north 73 east true, to keep in the track of ships, which wo should just have entered a-t that time. The clouds got badly broken up and made sights impossible until about 1.30

a.m., when I managed to get a Pole star down to a flat piece of cloud, and was surprised to find we were about 150 miles south of our course. I immediately altered a little to the northward to counteract this drift. From a further sight obtained half ! an hour later I found wo were still setting to the southward, and realising that a very strong northerly gale must have been blowing, I made a- decided alteration up to the northward, and worked the machine up to lat. 50deg north, and into the track of the ships. "At 5 a.m. I got a good by two stars, and found that we were on tho direct course and about 950 miles from St. John's. Further sights were impossible owing to being- in the clouds and the approach of daylight. "At 6 a.m. I made our position 50deg north, 29deg 30min west. We then came down low to look for ships, making a bit to the northward to get in tho track." Mr Hawker used 170 gallons of petrol out of the 340 gallons he had started with. Commander Grieve says further navigation in the air undoubtedly lies with directional wireless, when, this is perfected. A £5000 PRIZE. The attempt made by Mr Harry Ilawker and his navigator. Commander Grieve, R.N., ended at_ 6.30, when the timo limit of 72 hours expired. Desiring, however, to recogniso the determined nature of their effort, which has filled their countrymen and women with admiration, the Daily Mail decided to award them a consolation prize of £5000, which was doubtless divided between them in the proportions upon which it is understood they had agreed with regard to the £10,000 prize.