BYRD SATISFIED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 846, 14 December 1929, Page 6

BYRD SATISFIED

RICH FRUITS OF AERIAL QUEST EARLY RETURN TO N.Z. Uy RUSSELL OWEN Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York i Times" company and the St. Louis “Post- I Dispatch.’* All rights for publication re- I served throughout the world. "Wireless 1 to the “New York Times.” Received 9 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Thursday. Commander Byrd feels that the exploration work done by airplane has | accomplished the purposes of the I expedition. Indeed, these flights, in Byrd's opinion, have meant more than he anticipated, because of the new j land discovered in the north-east. He j estimated that 150,000 square miles j had been protographed with the map- ] ping camera. The best weather for flying has already gone. It has been found in the ; Antarctic, as in the Arctic, that the i best time for flying is in the spring or early summer. Since the eastern flight, the sky has been free of clouds for only brief j intervals. With the warmer weather have come fog and quick changes in ihe wind directiou aloft, which mix up the atmosphere and make an overcast sky, so that it would be like flying in a bucket of milk. Under these conditions, any accurate observations and photographs would not only be impossible; but also there would be a great danger of crashing. The day after the eastern flight, all that area was barred by clouds, and apparently the conditions which headed off Byrd last year have come to stay. So outside of the polar flight and the flight to the eastward, from a point in the southern trail about 160 miles from the camp, and a short exploration flight south-east from Little America, it seems as though work in the air is not only complete, but could not be continued to any extent. The flight accomplished, and the occasional messages from home, which show that the people think it may be repeated, show how little the flying hazards of this country have been appreciated, possibly because of the skill with which the flights had been carried out. The polar flight was made at a time when for a period of several days there was clear weather at the mountains, and, as it was, the plane reached the camp just before a storm which chased it all the way from the plateau. Since then, the geological party at the Queen Maud Mountains has reported snowstorms, clouds and variable winds, which would have made the dangerous flight through the mountains impossible as well as barren of scientific results. On this flight, it was necessary to w-ait patiently for good weather, and to take immediate advantage of it when it came. An opportunity might not come more than once or twice in a whole year, so that good fortune had to play its part. There is another reason for not I making further extensive flights. If the I plane were forced down 300 miles or i more from the camp on the eastern flight, the crew, provided they landed safely, could hardly get back to camp man-hauling the sleds, before the ships’ must leave. It is hoped that the ships will arrive here about the third week in January. The City of New York will leave Dunedin in a few days to sail to the ice pack, and the Eleanor Boling will leave early in January. They must leave here as early in February as possible to avoid the new-forming ice in the Ross Sea, which so nearly trapped the City of New York last year, and If the plane crew did not get back by that time they would be forced to stay here another year.

EXPLORER HONOURED LANGLEY MEDAL AWARDED TO BYRD WASHINGTON, Thursday. Commander Richard Byrd has been awarded the famous Langley Medal for his exploration work at the South Pole.