Round The World In Single-Engine Plane

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28728, 28 October 1958, Page 5

Round The World In Single-Engine Plane

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

NEW YORK, October 26. Captain Charles Banfe today completed a round-the-world solo flight in a single-engine aeroplane. He had hoped to do the job in eight days. It took 50. “Boy, am I glad to be back.” said the 30-year-old pilot as he climbed wearily from the orange and black aeroplane into a cold, drenching rain at New York’s Idlewild Airport. He arrived there from Chicago on the last leg of the 22,000-mile flight. Captain Banfe’s flight was reminiscent of the early days of aviation, when hardy pilots fought weather on the idiosyncracies of their machines along almost every mile of their journey. He spent more than 200 hours in the air, bucking a monsoon, a typhoon, rain, fog, ice, and a desert dust storm in hit 180 horsepower, low-wing monoplane. He made a crash-landing and 11 forced landings because of engine trouble. He flew from New York to Corsica and then on to Greece, Lebanon, Oman. Pakistan, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Okinawa, Japan. Alaska.! aigd across the United States. J

His original flight plan called for six stops in six countries. He wound up making 18 stops in 12 countries, including the crashlanding in Corsica. Captain Banfe„ an airllpe pilot on leave of absence, said he was a “physical wreck” as he stepped from his little aeroplane. He was shoeless, explaining that his socks gave him better control of the foot pedal instruments. “I flew through sub-zero temperatures with severe icing conditions over both the North Atlantic and the North Pacific,” he told reporters. “I flew through temperatures of more than lOOdeg over the Sahara Desert with silt, salt, and fog up to 9500 ft. “I flew through a monsoon between Karachi and Calcutta. I flew through winds of neartyphoon velocity between Bangkok and Hong Kong. “Hong Kong advised me to turn back. If I had I would have had to land on the Communist island of Hainan I wanted no part of that, so I landed in Hohg Kong with the ceiling almost zero. “The worst part of the flight was being alone. My only two | friends were my engine and i prayer.”