AN ADVENTUROUS FLIGHT

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 12

AN ADVENTUROUS FLIGHT

WIRELESS OPERATOR'S STORY AMUSING INCIDENTS ON WAY TO AUSTRALIA ITHE PRESS Special Service] AUCKLAND, November 15. Confessions of Jove and showers of insect spray are among the incidentals which come the way of the epoch-making airman, according to the experience of Mr Frank Stewart, radio operator on the New Zealand aeroplane Tainui, who flew to Auckland from Palmerston North in a Moth aeroplane to-day. In recounting the details of the centenary air race flight from England to Melbourne, be recalled several incidents that were as humorous as they were unexpected. By reaching Auckland before his colleagues, Mr J. D. Hewett and Mr C. E. Kay, Mr Stewart incidentally achieved the distinction of being the first man to fly from England to Auckland. That fact had not occurred to him until it was pointed out by those who welcomed him back. "The humour of the situation was apparent to ine immediately aft-*r we got off the ground at Mildenhall," said Mr Stewart. "The domestic arrangements of the aeroplane were such that I was separated from oral communication with by companions. Three huge benzine tanks suspended from the ceiling of the cabin to within 15 inches of the floor cut off our ordinary means of approach.

Intimate Radio Talk "Radio messages, when received, were written on a page of a scribbling pad, folded, and wedged into a cleft in a long bamboo cane which served for inter-house communication. However, I was by no means lonely, as I had the radio, which pK>ved a boon companion. "I well remember the flight from Athens to Bagdad, which started at 10.30 p.m. Wc were flying high above the cloud ceiling, and I got into touch with an English radio amateur on the island of Rhodes. He was thirsting for news of the air race. When he learned that our aeroplane was a competitor, we held a chatty Morse conversation, which developed into an exchange of confidences. He said he had lived in Auckland for five years, and confessed that while in Auckland he had fallen violently in love with a redhaired girl, but subsequently he fcund that she was married. "On arriving at Jask we were taken to the Royal Dutch airline rest-house for a few hours' sleep. Before retiring, the local manager a: the Royal Dutch Company produced a 20-crown banknote for us to autograph. It rains once in three years on an average in this place. Water cans strapped on the sides of a donkey are brought to the front door, and the water is purchased in the same way and at similar prices as milk.

"Frieze of Live Lizards" "At Bangkok, Siam, wc were the guests in the officers' mess of the Royal Air Force of Siam. We were greeted at the mess by vicious squirts from an insect-gun, and showers of this spray were blown over us while we were having our evening meal. I had never seen so many and such varied insects :n one room before. When an orderly took me to my bedroom he brought the gun *along with him. After walking in between the insect netting, he sprayed everything l 0 saturation point with this evilsmelling stuff. "There was a frieze of live lizards on the wall. These lizards archighly prized by the Siamese. They say they keep the insects subdued. I took strong exception, however, to their proximity to the bed. ami poked them on the tail with the toe of my boot until they got up the wall to a reassuring distance. At Akyab, where we called for petrol, several members of a primitive tribe from the hills had camped on the outskirts of the aerodrome. They had been waiting there for several weeks, and up to that time our's was the only aeroplane to land. These women had a sort of community nursery in tents, and none of the children strayed from these tents. All they did was to poke their little black heads out to look at the aeroplane.

Greeted by Aborigine "The first person to greet us at Darwin was a huge Aboriginal, dressed in a loin-cloth and carrying a camera. At Newcastle Waters we stayed part of one night at a corrugated iron hotel. The proprietor took me to a primitive bathroom while he prepared the bedroom. While I was drying my face I heard a great clatter, and saw the proprietor dashing the head of a small snake against the corrugated iron o- v the passage way. He assured me that there were no more snakes climbing round the bedpost. "There was unconscious humour in the greeting which I received from one of mv small sons when 1 arrived in Auckland to-day. He had heard of our machine striking n fence at Cloncurry, and after waiting in vain for us at Auckland yesterday he heard of our adventure with the fence at Palmerston North. His first words to me to-day were 'How many fences did you hit altogether?' "

REPAIRS TO AEROPLANE WORK ON DRAGON k.M'IDE BEGUN (.rREbS ASSOUIATIOK TELEGK.VM.) PALMERSTON N., November 15. Aircraftsman R. Johnson, ofHobsonville. and a ground engineer of the Auckland Aero Club, flew down from Auckland, arriving at Milson Aerodrome late this afternoon to commence the work of the damage to Messrs Hewett and Kay s De Havitlancl Dragon Rapide. The work is continuing throughout the night, and it is stated that the engineers consider they have a fair chance of getting through with the job by midday to-naowow or early in the afternoon, in •"•Well case Messrs Hewett and Kay will leave for Auckland without further delay.