U.S. Naval Flight To Antarctic Postponed

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28099, 15 October 1956, Page 10

U.S. Naval Flight To Antarctic Postponed

The seven aircraft of the United States Navy VX6 Squadron, .which are now waiting in Christchurch to take off for the Antarctic, will not fly south today. A spokesman for the weather office of the United States Antarctic expedition in Christchurch said last evening that it would be at least tomorrow before winds were favourable for the 2090-mile flight. The spokesman said the reason for the delav was winds which were unfavourable for the squadron’s four Dakotas, for which no head winds and a little helping tail wind were desirable. Today “a little head wind” is expected over the route of the flight. | The commander of the Naw squadron. Captain Douelas Cordiner, said last evening that the long-range forecasts for tomorrow looked good. Yesterday a rubber de-icing boot was fitted to the leading ed rt e of the left after stabiliser of the Skymaster in which the commander of Task Force 43. Rear-Admiral George Dufek will fly to the Antarctic. When Captain R. A. Hudman, of the United States Marine Corps, who is search and rescue officer for the sauadron lumped from the aircraft on Thursday afternoon at the R.N.Z.A.F. station. Wigram. the peak of his parachute fouled the de-icing boot (a strip of rubber which is pulsated with compressed air to break off ice particles) and tore a section off.

When a United States Marine Corps logistics Skymaster arrived at Harewood yesterday morning without the de-icing boot, which it was expected tn be carrying, the equipment was re-

moved from the logistics aircraft itself and transferred to the Navy Skymaster.

Captain Cordiner said last evening it had been expected that the operations of removing the boot and fixing it to his squadron’s aircraft would each take about five hours. It had. however, taken only about an hour to remove the boot from the aircraft at Harewood, but the task of fitting it to the Navy aeroplane had occupied about eight hours and was not completed until about 6 p.m. Captain Cordiner said that the replacement, which had been ordered from United States Navy Air Station at Barbara’s Point. Hawaii, would be fitted to the logistics aircraft.

The Globemaster. State of North Carolina, under the command of Caotain Wallv Malone, will today flv south to the destroyer escort, tI.S.S. Erourh. which is on station between Campbell Island and the pack ice for the. flight of the Navy aircraft to McMurdo Sound. The Globemaster will be on a 2400-mile routine training mission on which it will be away from Harewood for 12 hours. A spokesman for the United States Air Force said last evening that, the mission would give the crew of the aircraft an opportunity to become familiar with procedure, and the navigator an ooportunity to use the facilities that he would be using on the flight to the Antarctic. The Globemaster, which is due to take off from Harewood at 7.30 a.m.. will make a turn round the Brough and then fly northwards, probably as far as Auckland, before returning to its base.