PERILS OF THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1919, Page 7

PERILS OF THE AIR.

TARANAKI AIRMAN® THRILLING EXPERIENCE. Writes a Taranaki man, who ia now in the Royal Air -Force and served with distinction in the war, to a New Plymouth fritnd:— Ostend, Jan. 27, 1910. Here wo are by the grace of God after a beautifully thrilling trip yesterday in a snowstorm courting deatli the whole way from Paris-' I made a grave mistake in attempting the trip and risking my pasesnger in such a gamble, and am punishing myself to-day for overestimating my capabilities, although my chief is more inclined to praise rather than curse me when I admit my blunder. At the present time I am special pilot to Major-General Sir P. H. Sykes, chief of the Air Staff, and am engaged in flying the general to and from the Peace Conference. We went over to Paris in filthy weather on Thursday afternoon and left yesterday (Sunday) at 1.15 for London, or as far as we could get on the road. It had been snowing steadily from 8 am., and the prospects were just about as bad as possible. About 20 miles from Paris we were just above the trees, and the storm got so thick that we could not see more than 100 yards ahead; so I climbed through the clouds ti 9000 ft. and kept on for two hours without seeing anything, and going east of my course in order to And a thin patch. Then I came down and reckoned I was inland from Dunkirque, and steered W.S.W.

The stonn got thicker as we neared the coast, and the general told me to choose a field and land. While looking for a field the engine stopped, and we were so low that I had to land right away. We just missed some telegraph wires by going under them and pulled up in a ditch, breaking the propeller and a strut of the undercarriage Well, here was a bit of a mess! The general must get to London, and the Huns had not left any horses or cars behind them, and the Belgians were not in favor of us, except one old lady, who made us a cup of coffee. It took us hours to secure transport, and when it did arrive it was a miserable ass and a big cart. To my disgust, the whole blessed family climbed into the cart, too. T soon jumped out and walked slowly beside, watching the ' donkey's harness, which was mainly odd bits of string, and remarking to my chief that I considered flying safe compared with such a turnout on a slippery road and with a ditch on either side- Well, in this manner we covered at least 500 yards in twenty minutes, and then the driver refused to go further in such weather (being a Belgian), and the donkey twisted one ear round and noddc-d in the affirmative. We decided to foot the remaining six miles in the darkness, so I became the ass and carried my travelling and flying kit on my back, a suit case in one hand and a despatch case in the other, eo did not feel the cold. This tramp through the darkness was not exciting. We had two halts of five minutes on the way, when I lighted a cigarette and sat in the snow.' At last we arrived at Ostende and found the Naval Salvage Headquarters. So got a message through to Lon don and then dined. What a dinner! The best possible after a fast of 11 hours- It was not a regular mess, hecause these fellows who are raising the Vindictive are billetted in a hotel; therefore, althpugh we were the guests of the Silent Navy, it was quite in order for my chief to call for champagne all round. The ranga-tira has a wonderful brain, and has such a modest and kindly manner that to know him is to love him.

I managed a shakedown on a tiny sofa in the nival commander's room, and before our light was out the dear Dover patrol rang up to ask why the (something) he hadn't let them know the general was «afe, because they had been searching the Channel for hours. We were up before the lark, feeling faiTly fit, except for blistered feet. I saw mv chief off at 7 a.m. on the smart cross-Ohannel steamer which runs daily from Ostende to Dover, and then a Royal Air Force called for me and we went to see the machine. We could hardly believe that a machine could land in such a place, and had grave doubts about flying' out. Anyhow, the luckiest thing was that we were only 1% miles off from 11 Aircraft Park—which, by the way, was Christe'lle aerodrome, the hoppingoff place for Gothas when they bombed England. Well, 11 AP. sent to St. Omer for a' propeller for me, and in two days I attempted to fly out, getting a party of mechanics to hold the machine back to let her rev. up; but, as luck would have it, they held one wing back longer than the other, with tihe result that she charged into a willow tree on the bank of a canal, jumped the canal, and turned upside down in a ditch on the other side, more or less a wreck. This gave me an interesting trip by car through No Man's Land next morning to Dunkirque, and thence to Dover by destroyer, where I caught a train for town and arrived at Hendon at 7.30 p.m. The trip to Dunkirque by road takes one through the flooded area, which was flooded by the Belgians during the war in order to hamper the Huns, and a more dreary place in mid-winter would he hard to imagine. The trenches are just as they were left on both sides of the river, and the villages are completely knocked to pieces, with portions of a wall standing here and there, and heaps of bricks and tiles showing where homes or a church stood before the war. We saw the remains of two aeroplanes in the swamp, and wondered what chance the pilot would have if he was compelled to come down in such a place. T have got a new machine and am standing 'by for the next trip.. My paseenger is in Paris aglin, but may ■send for me any dayWe have hsul some heavy falls of snow latel" followed "bv cold easterly winds, and have had 25 derr. of frost at Hendon, with water-pipes bursting everywhere. The English climate is unpleasant at this time of the year.