TASMAN FLIGHT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 443, 30 January 1933, Page 2

TASMAN FLIGHT

i navigator's work | • • . ";V ' ! HOW SOUTHERN CROSS WAS | STEERED IN RECENT ' j « FLIGHT. 1 CORRECTING DRIFT. 1 (By Jack Percival Junior, "The SunI day Sun" Representative aboard the | Southern Cross.) I The true story of the remarkable I fli^hfc of ' 'the ' '.Souther h' Cl-osg s f ro!rn 1 Gerringong Beach to New Plymouth | is contained ; irr ihe log- hook'- of the I ship, kept' by thd navigator, "Cap1 tain Taylor. Taylor was an A.N.A. pilot, flying mails to Brisbane and' Melbourne. After considerable persuasfon, he explained the log book to xne. The following is 'hi's 'st'ory.' " •' " » • ■ The first job on taking off was to get a back bearing on' the land. This was done with the aid 'of 1 the headlights of the cars on the beach. It was a difficult job, 'be'caUse the I cars were all over the beach'. A I flare, lit by pi-evious arrangement, fixed things up." A drift sigKt ' was taken, and the' machine, b'eing drifted 15. degrees south of its true course by the wind, the course was altered to check the drift expected, owing to the north-east wind prevailing. After ■ half an bour's flying, another drift I sight was taken. This time the instru- | ment was sighted On' the white horses 1 beneath, where bright patches of I white showed in the murk. | Drift Sights. I : Drift sights were taken every 45 I J minutes. As the aerop'lane was carI I rying a heavy weight, it was " riot ' adI j visahle to' climb and' impose stress on I I the engines. If it had heen possible 1 1 to get up to a height of 7000 feet, 1 1 withoufc istressing jtltfe engjil.es, We I ' would have 'struck a favourahle northj | west wiild, which would have seflt us I along at 100 m.p.h. instead of the 55 we were then doin'g. •' As we progressed/ th'e weight lesI sened at the rate of 2201b an hour, owing to the petrol and oil cohsumption. Drift sights were taken until the time on the Ship was 8 'a.m., when it was suitahle to determine the lo'ngitude. This worked out, on Martelli's tables of longitude, was placed at 158deg. 14min. east. Drift sights were taken at frequent intervals until .30 a.m., when the position of the ship was found to he 161deg. llmin. east longitude. A lititude sight, taken at noon, placed the ' ship slightly south of the track along which it was estimated to he proceeding, according to dead reckoning. In the intereSts of'safety we decided not to alter the course, as the deviation to the south ■ indicated by the sight was slight, and provided a safety margin in the right direction. Noon Sight Vital. So far, a 30 degree drift allowance had been made on the compasses'. Th'is drift allowance could have quite easily placed the machine far| to the north of the most northly po'int of New Zealand, had there been any great error in the observations. The noon Sight was looked upon as the most important, as it fixed the latitude without involving considerations hased upon dead reckoning. Drift sights cohtinued uhtil 2.40 p.m., when another longitude sight placed the machine 168deg. 27min. east. At 2.40 p.m. observation showed we were 240 miles from land. Shortly afterwards Stannage reported we were close to the Maunganui. He knew the ship was not far away, beeause of the magnitude of the signals he was receiving. Wind Eased Off.

At 1 p.m. the surface wind over the sea eased off. This, comhined with the altitude of the sun, caused a glare on the surface of the ocean, and pTevented accurate observation. Aluminium powder bombs had been taken on the flight to overcome this difficulty. Experiments had heeii darried out, using glass and paper coiitainers, but it was found the glass eontainers hurst long before they hit the surface of the water. I remember throwing out a heer bottle and seeing it burst into fragments 500 feet below. When the sight was obtained by the aid of the aluminium bomb, the drift was found to he reduced from 30 degrees to'5 degrees, owing to the slackening off of the force of the wind. The course was altered to allow for the ehange of drift. ' : Land was sighted at 5 p.m., New Zealand time. It was estimated the coast was 100 miles away when land was sighted on the 'starboard bow.' ' We continued to proceed thr'ough the haze until Cape Farewell was identified. The course was then altered to north-east, bringing us in direet line with' Mount Egmont. Very soon the mountain appeared on the skyline, the snow-capped peak seen piercing the clouds. The flight took exactly 14 hours 10 minutes, which, considering the ad verse winds encountere'd throughout, was highly satisfactor^. ' Many people believe that th'e job of the navigator was to direct the machine, so that it would strike New Zealand anywhere. This coheeptiofl of navigation is totally wrong; the real ohjective was' to fly the "'ship in a direct line from Gerringong to New Plymouth'. ' For most of the flight all that could be seen was white, fleecy clouds. For hundreds of miles we flew sandwiched "between the' cloud banks and the bright blue ceiling. There was no trace of life, not even a! bird in the air.