FLIGHT TO NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19114, 24 September 1927, Page 15

FLIGHT TO NEW ZEALAND.

GILES LEAVES DETROIT.

SINGLE-SEATER USED.

(by CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION - —COPIRIGET.) (AUSTRALIAN A>*D N\Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION*.)

NEW YORK, September 22

Flying-Officer Frederick Giles, the Australian airman, hopped off from Detroit this morning for Chicago, where he remains for one clay before resuming his flight to Wellington, New Zealand. He is using a single passenger Bluebird 'plane.

. Flying-Officer F. A. Giles (he has been promoted Captain by the American newspapers) is not an Australian. He was born in Norwich, England, and lie served in the Air Force in the Great War on several fronts. He was twice mentioned in dispatches for distinguished service. One of his exploits of which he is especially proud was his flight with ;i heavily-loaded bombing piano from Cairo to Omduruian, to assist a small British force in quelling a rather ugly and persistent disturbance there. It was a ilight of some danger, owing to the heavy load his plane carried, to the dangerous terrain he had to pass over, affording as it did no emergency landing places, and to the risks attendant upon such a flight through atmosphere boiling and treacherous in the extreme heat. Giles got through, dropped the bombs in the right places, and, as his reward, was transferred from the temporary list of officers (for the duration of the war only) to receive permanent rank in the Boyal Air Force. His young mechanic, chosen because of his light weight, died of sunstroke. When he left the service he came to Australia in search of fortune and adventure. His first flying job in Australia was as one of the pilots on the Sydney-Adelaide air mail. He quickly established a reputation there for getting through any sort of weather 011 time. The worst enemy of an airman is fog, and through some very thick fogs Giles always managed to find his way to Sydney and to the aerodrome. It was said that sometimes he took risks, but he got through. He is certainly a skilful and fearless pilot. 'PLANE SHOT DOWN. • (AUSTRALIAN AJJD N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, September 22. The Riga correspondent of the "Daily News" says that the Soviet frontier guards on the Kusso-Polisli border, mistaking in the fog a Soviet aeroplane for that of a foreigner, shelled and brought it down. The pilot was seriously injured. The guards officer has been arrested. TWO KILLED IN SMASH. (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z AND SUN CABLE.) 1 BEKLIN, September 22. An aeroplane crashed at Blankenburg, the pilot and a woman passenger being killed and two other women'seriously injured.