GOOD START.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1936, Page 7

GOOD START.

MISS BATTEN'S TRIP. Kent to Brindisi on First Day Of Flight. SPEED AVERAGES 150 M.P.H. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 0.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 5. Miss Jean Batten, the famous Auckland airwoman, who is on a flight to New Zealand, has arrived at Brindisi, Italy. She will depart for Cyprus to-morrow morning. Miss Batten took off from Lympne aerodrome, Kent, at 4.10 a.m., in brilliant moonlight. It is reported that the weather is favourable as far as Italy, where there was heavy cloud at 1000 ft. "I wish I could have stayed for the presentation of the Johnston Trophy," said Miss Batten before she left, "but it would have delayed me a month and obliged me to fly through the monsoon. I hope to fly back to London for the' Coronation." Miss Batten climbed into the cockpit clad in a heavy brown coat and white flying suit, under which she wore a green juniper, which she describes as her lucky colour. She had earlier packed aboard the machine a full wardrobe of frocks and a number of sets of dainty underwear, carefully stowing them away from contact with grease and oil. The airwoman reached Marseilles at 8.20 a.m. She had averaged 150 miles an hour. She resumed her flight at 9.3 a.m. and hopes to reach Athens at 4 p.m. From Cyprus she will follow her former route to Australia.

KEAS' AIR JOURNEY. EIGHT FOR BERLIN ZOO. (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, October 5. For the first time in history eight out of nine keas from New Zealand, a gift from Herr Bruno Beyer to the Berlin zoo, survived the voyage to England, whence they were sent by air to Berlin. CRASH IN ORCHARD. ENGINE TROUBLE AS CAUSE. LONDON, October 5. The New Zealand entrant in the South African air race, Flying : Officer A. E. Clouston, crashed in the darkness in an orchard some distance from Bulawayo, says "The Times" correspondent. He was unable to find the landing-place which he was seeking owing to renewed engine trouble.