ACROSS THE TASMAN

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20920, 27 September 1939, Page 5

ACROSS THE TASMAN

STORY OF FLIGHT CAPTAIN TAYLOR’S FEAT Pioneer flights across the Tasman Sea, paving the way for the regular mail service shortly to be inaugurated, have provided many a thrill and at least one tragedy. But the greatest of all exploits was that performed by Captain P. G. Taylor when he successfully transferred in flight the oil from the tank of the starboard engine, which was out of action, to the port engine, which was running out of oil.

This “ Jubilee Mail ” flight is fully described by Captain Taylor in “Call to the Wids,” published by Angus and Robertson. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Captain Taylor, and Mr Stannage were the heroes of this nearly _disastrous flight, and Captain Taylor describes with impressive simplicity one of the most heroic episodes in the history of aviation. Captain Taylor describes, too, a series of flights undertaken on behalf of the Sydney Morning Herald. Whether he is flying Test-match pictures from State to State, pictures of the Coronation from the Netherlands Indies, or pictures of the Darwin cyclone to Sydney, he always tells a thrilling tale, modestly, humorously, and with a poet’s feeling for the romance of the air and the strange beauty of the Australian landscape.