LONG FLIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 187, 9 August 1941, Page 5

LONG FLIGHT

BRITAIN TO EGYPT N.Z. PILOT'S EXPERIENCES (0.C.) LONDON, July 19. Ferrying of fighters across the Channel before the fall of France; flying a Hurricane fitted with longrange tanks from England to the Middle East and return to England by way of Rhodesia, Capetown and St. Helena, are among the expert ences of a New Zealand pilot. Flying Officer R. W. H. Carter, of Feilding Later he had to swim for his life when the engines of a Wellingtor j cut-out over Scotland and he crashec I in a loch. | In describing his flight in th< Hurricane fitted with long-range i tanks, Flying-Officer Carter said-his first stop was Marseilles. Fron there he went to Corsica, from whicl he and his companions had difficulty in getting away. The heat begar to play tricks, such as expanding tin points of the magneto, and an addec complication was a bombing attacl 'by some Italians. However, tin . enemy dropped their bombs 01 . everything but the aerodrome. Thi , Hurricane was next flown to Tunis where difficulty was experienced ii getting petrol. There followed s [ two or three days' stay at Malta, an< , then the plane was taken to Mers; > Matruh and Heliopolis. After Flying-Officer Carter hai flown a Blenheim to Ismailia, he hai six weeks' leave in Suez. Whei France fell it was difficult to ge back to England by ship througl the Mediterranean, and he was ir structed to go to Capetown. Wit! another pilot he boarded a small shi ibut got tired of it at Mombasa, s • left it there and went on to heac > quarters at Nairobi. There they ha J an old Vickers-Valencia which wa ; to be delivered to Rhodesia, so h i and the other pilot made a three fjday flight. "At the end of our first hop w ) landed at a small aerodrome on th t lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjare - We spent the night in little mud hut with circular roofs, and were kep

awake by all the popular jungle 'noises off' of the films. Later a landing was made to refuel at some of the small fields used by Imperial Airways. "After we had left the aeroplane at Broken Hill we took a train to Johannesburg and stayed at Living- • stone to see the Victoria Falls. We then continued to Capetown, where we had to wait ten days for a ship. We finally got back to England three (months after we had taken off for .jEppt."