CAIRO TO CAPE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1920, Page 5

CAIRO TO CAPE.

STORY OF THE FLIGHT. REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES. By Telczraph.—rress Assn.—CopjpTlcht. Capetown, March 23. The .official log of Colonel van Rynevelcl shows his total flying time to he 10!>J haul's. He left Cairo on February 10, but a radiator leak obliged him to tnake a. forced landing in the dark, irreparably damaging Hie machine. The engines ivere intact, and were conveyed to Cairo and re-fitted in a new machine, and the flight resumed on February 22 for Khartoum, where he discovered leaks in the water jackets, necessitating a change of cylinders. On the stage from Khartoum to Mongolia he encountered the raost extraordinary experience of the trip. At one time he lost height to the extent of about 1300 feet in a little more than a minute. On another occasion he had a like drop of 2000 feet, which he attributed to passing alternatively over large patches of burnt and unburnt grass country. Flying across Uganda he encountered dust devils, s»me of which rose as higli as 8000 feet. He was forced to land at Shirati through engine troubles due to climatic conditions. After leaving Abercorn, 3500 feet above sea level, where he discarded everything not indispensable in order to rise easily, he had an anxious time en route to Ndoln owing to interruption of the petrol supply, the machine gradually losing height. He was flying over dense African buslv, and matters looked black, but owing to loss of weight through the consumption of petrol a level course was maintained to Ndola and Bulawayo was eventually readied. Leaving on March 5, the machine failed to rise in a dead patch of air, and was completely wrecked. The Union aeroplane Voorttrekker was sent to Bulawayo, and the aviators resumed th? flight to Capetown, encountering en route a thunderstorm, which badly chipped the propeller and completely tore off the blinding. The propeller was replaced and the journey completed. Tile Government has awarded a prize of £OOOO to be divided between van Rynveld and Brand.—Reuter Service.