"THIS TASMAN BOGEY"

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21941, 16 November 1936, Page 10

"THIS TASMAN BOGEY"

MR CLARK’S OPINION FLIGHT FROM SYDNEY NOT THE WORST LEG “With a reliable machine, the Tasman flight is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, I think that it has been a good deal over-rated as a dangerous feat,” said Mr Ernie Clark, the Canterbury farmer, who last evening completed his flight from England to New Zealand, when he landed at Wigram aerodrome at the end of a 14-hour flight from Sydney to Christchurch. Although a great crowd had tried for an hour to convince him that he was a hero, Mi Clark firmly refused to have his flight, and particularly the Tasman crossing, described as anything but, an ordinary one. Mr Clark mentioned, that on his arrival at Blenheim he had such a big reserve of petrol left that it was not necessary to refuel for the rest of the trip' to Christchurch. He made his landfall, he sa'id, at the point he intended, it having been his aim to make land along Cook Strait, so that he could fly across the northern lip of the South Island and avoid the ranges. Actually he saw land first at Capo Farewell, so was more or less on dead reckoning. Hard First Hour Mr Clark, when asked to compare the Tasman crossing with other difficult “hops” during the flight out from England to Australia, considered that the Tasman was by no means the worst leg, although the take-off in darkness from Richmond aerodrome, and tho first hour of blind-flyin" gave him one of the worst experiences in the entire trip. The take-off was in cloudy weather, without a star, and with no horizon. The machine was fully loaded and even the wind was against him. Mr Clark said that he had been advised that the winds would be generally favourable, but actually he had had to chug against winds for most of the trip. The flying became easier when the load had decreased and he had daylight, but in the conditions, he believed that he would have been better off flying the other way. Otherwise the weather had treated him fairly well. The flyer’s mascot was a tiny modelled monkey, given to him, he said, by a girl just before he left Richmond, aerodrome. “She was a pretty girl, too,” Mr Clark added with a smile. He concluded his interview with another reference to what he described as “this Tasman bogey." It was really not a bad flight, he said,, although it had often been described as one, and the general opinion appeared to be that it was a dangerous feat of flying.