TASMAN FLIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 4, 5 January 1934, Page 5

TASMAN FLIGHT.

ULM'S RETURN TRIP.

LEAVE FROM NEW PLYMOUTH?

I NEW RUNWAY NEEDED. The Faith in Australia, Mr. C. T. P. Ulm's tri-motored monoplane, is to arrive at Wellington to-morrow, and after three days at Rongotai will continue the Dominion tour, and will leave for Sydney carrying the first official New Zealand - Australia mail about January 20. The point of departure is not yet decided upon, but apparently the decision lies between Blenheim and New Plymouth. There are distinct possibilities that the Faith in Australia will take off from New Plymouth on the return flight, says the "Taranaki Daily News," but before this is likely certain work will have to be done in the preparation of a new runway independent of the existing aerodrome. The point raised is an interesting one, for if ever New Plymouth becomes the terminal of a trans-Tasman air service some provision will have to be made, apart from the aerodrome, for taking off. j A machine of the size of the Faith in | Australia or the Southern Cross, fully loaded with fuel for a long ocean flight, requires from 1500 to 2000 yards runway for a take-off if full allowance is to be made for safety. It can be done in 1000 yards if there is no obstruction for some distance after the machine leaves the ground at the end of its thousand yards run, and the Faith in Australia actually took less than a thousand yards run when it left Richmond aerodrome at the commencement of its recent flight to New Plymouth, but it was not fully loaded with fuel. Under 1000 Yards. The New Plymouth aerodrome, even in its completed state, will give a run of only 800 yards, which is easily sufficient for all ordinary needs. In fact it

J would be uneconomic for any civil aerodrome close to a centre of population to maintain an aerodrome with a runway of 2000 yards lying idle most of the time. Even in England, where aviation is developed much more fully than in New Zealand, airmen setting out on long distance ocean flights are compelled to use beaches or similar long stretches of level surface as a starting point, for the largest aerodromes are not able to accommodate them.

Suitable Area of Land,

The question arises, then, whether New Plymouth can supply a suitable runway for the Faith in Australia to take off on her return flight to Australia. In the opinion of the experts there is one, and only one, suitable area of land. It is privately owned property, quite close to the aerodrome at Bell Block. This property can provide a runway of from 1500 to 2000 yards, practically due west, from which direction the prevailing wind blows.

Before the runway is suitable, however, two or three fences and a boxthorn hedge must be moved, power lines temporarily removed, and certain levelling work done. In addidtion a haystack stands uncomfortably near the line the machine would have to take if it is to miss a line of trees further along the route. It is possible that either the trees or the stack, or both, would have to bo removed. When Mr. Ulm was in New Plymouth he observed from the air the land referred to, and it was he who first made the suggestion that it might be utilised for his take-off on the return journey. Later he inspected the area in company with Flying-Officer lan Keith, pilotinstructor of the Western Federated Flying Club, and subsequently the New Zealand Aero Club had a detailed plan prepared of the area. There the matter rests at present. It is understood that the essential clearing work required could be carried out at a cost of less than i £50.