A PERILOUS FLIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1920, Page 6

A PERILOUS FLIGHT.

ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA. PARER AND McINTOSH. ' THRILLING TALE OF ADVENTURE. The flight of Lieutenants Parer and Mcintosh from England to Australia was one long series of misfortune and thrills. The following story of their exploit is written by an Australian pressman from the narrative of the aviators after their arrival at Darwin: — It has to be remembered that Sir Ross Smith had already demonstrated to the world that flight to Australia was possible, and had won his great Commonwealth prize of £IO,OOO. Parer and Mcintosh found little encouragement from anybody 'in England. The London Times turned their project down, and even the firm who supplied the machine ■ a de Havilland No. 9, refused to assist, and would not even install a larger benzine tank when requested to do so. However, determined Australian is ft creation unto himself, and they were not to be thwarted. They financed themselves and bought the bus, and with this business completed, £4O between them was the joint capital they could raise. ' " ' Permission was then refused them' to leave England, it being thought by the town control experts that the idea was foolhardy in the extreme, owing to the fact that 4e de Haviland was an old type of bombing machine, used in the early stages of the war, and altogether unsuitable for a long, sxistained flight. A good friend in Mr Peter Dawson, gave, some monetary assistance, which made things a bit easier, but still the authorities we're adamant about allowing the two to leave England. So they escaped. Quietly, on the morning of January 8, they went down to Hounslow, where their machine was 'installed, and, as Mcintosh says, they '"tuned up the old bus and buzzed oft', tandthe old birds haven't seen us since." The weather reports of that morning showed that a GO-mile gale was raging at an altitude of 2000 ft, but it was blowing the right way, and rapidly climbing to that height the 'plane sailed at a terrific pace crossing the English Channel in 12 minutes, bound for France.

'Ere long the avaitors ran into a blinding fog, which forced them to descend, and in landing they br6ko one of the wheels of the undercarriage. Being practically deserters fr,om England, they feared to announce, themselves, but by stealthy foraging within five days they managed to get an old wheel in the district, to alter it slightly, and to adjust it to the machine and make another start.

Arriving at Taranto, in Italy, they heard that official permission had been granted them to leave England, but, as they smilingly say, they beat the bell by a good many weeks.

ATTACKED BY ARABS. Full,of daring, they flew straight over the crater of Vesuvius, which was smoking ominously over the blue waters of the Bay \>i Naples, and this very nearly ended themselves and the whole project. At a great height over the crater the current of hot air upset their equilibrium, and the machine fell isut of control, vertically, for nearly 800 ft. Every stay in the plane creaked find groaned, and" >it seemed as if the machine would simply crumple up, but luckily it withstood the ordeal. As Mcintosh said, they cut volcanoes out of their future programme. A flight of over 200 miles without maps across the Mediterranean Sea was safely negotiated, and then they flew over the Holy Land and across the Arabian Desert, where, owing to engine trouble, a forced landing became necessary. ' Here they were attacked by a band of nomadic Arabs, but a few bombs which the aviators carried in the plane were thrown, and their assailants disappeared across the blazing sands. A REGULAR MENAGERIE. Three months after leaving England Parer and his mate reached India. By now they were in straitened financial circumstances, but the happy inspiration came to them of giving a stunting exhibition in Calcutta during race week. The prospect was heartily taken up by the authorities, and as a result of their enterprise these two Australians netted £3OO for their 1 afternoon's work. They started passenger flights, and in eight days took over £IOO, but, aa they tell, all that and more went to defray the expensive cost of their four crashes in different parts of the Malay Peninsula.

Somewhere in Burma they came across the Frenchman M. Poulet, who having temporarily abandoned his flight to Australia, was doing well by giving exhibition and passenger flights throughout the East Indies. In these tropical parts, Parer says, the plane was a regular menagerie. They were presented with all sorts of mascots, including a young Malayan sunbear, which went a-sailing for three days, and then, because while in a playful mood, it tried to make a meal off Parer's thumb, it was returned to earth, and was left behind in Malaysia. NARROW ESCAPES. A run of bad luck then dodged both men and machine. They crashed in the jungle, the plane being badly broken. But Australian ingenuity surmounted all difficulties, and with roughly-hewn wood, la9hed up with bits of wire, the D.H. No. 9 was soon coaxed towards distant Australia.

At Sourbaya the machine crashed again, and the airmen are full of thanks for the assistance rendered them by the Dutch, as the result r»f which within three days the plane was fit for the aerial track again. Soon after leaving Sourahaya perhaps the most startling experience of the whole trip took place. The plane, at a height of several thousand feet, was overtaken by a violent thunderstorm, and a huge hole was blown clean out of one of the wings. With difficulty a landing was effected safely, and with but a few days' delay the flight was resumed once more.

Eventually Timor was reached, the landing-place being at Andipopo, at the western end of the Island. Here the final touches were put to everything for the hazardous dash from Asia to Australia, across the heaving Timor Sea. Long before dawn Parer and Mcintosh were up and breakfasted on a couple of eggs and a cup of Dutch coffee. A ride of seven miles on ponies to the aerodrome followed.

Testing the machine, preparatory to starting, they found that a rubber connection had fouled the filter in the benzine tank. This necessitated two hour*'

work, and it wag i) a.m. before they pushed off for Australia, over 400 miles to the south-east. They expected to sight' Australia in a four hours' run, but actually it was nearly six hours. NO PETROL LEFT. It was a cloudy day and the shadows of elouds thrown on the ocean far below, while making an unforgettably beautiful picture, rendered it extremely difficult to distinguish land from vapour. For a long weary hour they sped towards a something which ever seemed to be moving awuy, but before long their hearts were delighted beyond measure when it proved to be the hazy outline of Melville Island—a great, lonely sentinel sprawling in the ocean 50 miles to the north of Darwin. An hour later the feed indicator showed that.there was barely a pint of petrol left in the tank, anil ten minutes' afterwards when they landed not enough remained to run the plane up the ground. This was a veritable change of luck from that which had dogged Parer and Mcintosh since they started their adventurous; flight, just seven months ago.