LONG FLIGHT ENDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 21

LONG FLIGHT ENDS.

UNIVERSITY FLYERS. (Photograph in this Issue.) Mr P. G. Fairbairn (Melbourne) and Mr H. Shenstone (London), undergraduates of the Cambridge University, who left England in a Simonds-Spartan plane, powered with a Gipsy Mark 11 engine, on February 18, arrived at Esscndqn (Melbourne) after an unspectacular flight. The Vacuum Oil Company Pty.. Ltd., who made available supplies of Mobiloil, advise that on arrival at Essendon Aerodrome, Melbourne, the flyers were met by Miss Betty Fairbairn, a sister of one of the flyers, Mr E. Chater, manager of the Aero Club, and Captain E. A. Muster, aviation officer of the Vacuum Oil Company. Mr Fairbairn said that the flight was made as a holiday flight after the completion of his studies at Cambridge, and it was almost without incident. The flight had satisfied him that there were good landing grounds for a small machine along the whole air route from Great Britain to Australia, and he considered that aerial journeys carried out by amateur pilots on holiday, and undertaking the same easy stages as they had covered, _ would one day become popular. The section between Calcutta and Darwin could be improved with advantage, and could hardly yet be considered a safe route for inexperienced pilots.