Byrd Safe at Base

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 827, 22 November 1929, Page 9

Byrd Safe at Base

THRILLS OF FORCED LANDING Flight to Queen Maud Range WONDERFUL MOUNTAINS NEAR POLE • . Kern■ i \ eil ! 1 > P.m. BAY ok WHALES. Wednesday. CO-M.MAXDKK I>\ KM) and his companions, who were forced down in the stiow while returning from the Queen Aland •• 1 • ’ '■ ' ' back to camp about midnight, after a day sp'-nt in Mrtigirling with the airplane's refractory motors, and <_re’t ng thoroughly tired cranking and lifting oil in and out of the engines.

They finally lifted the big Ford out of the rough snow-ridges—the landingfield in which it had sat. down —and on the tail of a 50-mile wind they blew into tump with the speed of a pursuit ship. They were a sight when they stepped from the plane, splashed with oil and blistered from the cold, wearv

"hu n u nuiii me emu, w ear> and bedraggled. “Our troubles began soon after we left,” said Byrd. “After flying for an hour, it. was noticed that’the gas c onsumption was unusually high, and a small leak was finally found by Harold June in the hand-pump behind the pilot’s seat. He packed it with chewing gum and taped it. “An hour and a-half later, all three motors coughed anil died, as the two • outer tanks unexpectedly ran dry be- ; cause of the rapid consumption of petrol. June jumped for the valves, and switched on the other tanks, and ! the engines again picked up; but it I was one of those moments which one ! remembers in flying.” SLEDGE PARTY PASSED They saw the crevassed pressure region about 200 miles south of Little America, while they were nearly 100 miles away, sticking up like haycocks ! in the great plain of the Barrier. Their ! next landmark was the geological party, whom they passed beyond the 200-mile depot. “It seemed like a crime to watch them plugging along down below,” laughed Harold June. “They' just weren’t moving.” Dean dropped a message to them from friends and relatives of the trail party at home, which had been received by radio —an unique mail de^very. A course was then set by Byrd for the mountains, and about 40 minutes after passing the geological party the peaks began to show ahead, lifting out of the horizon like hummocks of snow or distant pressure ridges. Much to everyone’s surprise, they showed 1 up first on the right of the course, in- | stead of on the left. They were magnificent, said Byrd, and June also [ said it was the most wonderful group of mountains he had ever seen. Some were covered with ice and snow, and some had great bare patches of rock.

Some were dome shaped and others were peaked. The plane was headed directly foi ilie mountain in front of Mount Nan sen, and there a place was fount where a base could be established The surface was far from smooth being of hard snow, with shari ridged edges. DANGEROUS LANDING

“It was like furrowed flint.” said Dean Smith, who flew the plane. “In landing, the skis took tlie ridges all right, but if you made many landings there you would cut them right off, so hard and sharp were these irregularities.” While the commander was taking sights, Captain McKinley, who had been taking pictures with his mappingcamera all the way, began to make pictures of the mountains, while June was busy shifting cans of oil and gasoline, and bags of food out of tlie plane. A pile was made of fuel and oil-cans, When the time came for the takeoff. Dean taxied up to tlie slope, and got off nicely, despite the rough ground. They climbed 5,000 ft and flew parallel with the mountains toward the south-east for 15 minutes, so that McKinley could make pictures of them. Then they went back to the base, front where they took their departure on a course for Little America. The wind forced them to follow a course slightly to the west of that taken on the way out. They sawcrevasses while they were 100 miles away, and hit them right on the course, so that they were able then to follow the dog-trail home. SIGNIFICANT SPLUTTER Byrd, who had flown while on the way out, and for about 45 minutes «0n the way back, had just turned the controls over to Dean when the motors began to pop and splutter. “f was never so surprised in my life,” said Byrd. “I never expected to have all three motors quit at once, and although we knew the gas was low, it seemed strange. I looked down, and saw we were right over the worst part of the Astrugi, the one place where the men on the trail had told us we could not land safely, and T remember thinking, ‘Here’s where we get it.* I never expected that we would land safely, hut we did.”