Double Air Race Dash

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 15

Double Air Race Dash

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, May 7. : A Massachusetts travel agent yesterday completed the first* nonstop round trip from New York to London and back in the £60,000 transatlantic air race sponsored by the “Daily MaiL” Mr Vladimir Kazan, flying a single-engined Piper Com- • anche aircraft, left the Emi pire State Building about 8 a.m. local time on Sunday ; and returned yesterday about i 4 am., having stopped only . for a cup of tea at the Gen- . eral Post Office tower in London and for four hours of I sleep at Shannon Airport, in , Ireland. Mr Kazan, who is 45, made • the first leg of his trip in . 23 hours 35 minutes 58seconds, the fastest time so far , in the light-aircraft-male cate- . gory. His return flight, inI eluding his four-hour respite . at Shannon, took slightly j longer—3l hours 32 minutes > and 19 seconds. i He was greeted on his re- " turn by Miss Sheila Scott, who had arrived the day be- :- fore from London in her i Piper Comanche. Miss Scott 1 is the leading woman contensider in the ligbt-aircraft-sl female category, having rei corded a time of 26 hours 54

minutes and 11 seconds from London to New York. Miss Scott and Mr Kazan both followed the same flying pattern, keeping at an altitude of about 4000 feet and making refuelling stops in Shannon and Gander, Newfoundland.

A New Zealander, Mr Neil Campbell Stevens, suffered a set-back in New York yesterday when word was received from London that a friend had crashed his Tiger Moth while testing it and smashed its propeller. Mechanics are working to repair it, and Mr Stevens is reported to be hoping to set out today.

A 20-year-old British Army cadet tried to ignore a temperature of minus four degrees Fahrenheit In his nightmare crossing. After a 44-hour flight in which everything had gone wrong, Cadet David WynneDavis described it as “a fabulous experience.” Setting out from the Empire State Building on Monday, he expected to land his single - engined aircraft in England early yesterday, but in Reyjavik, Iceland, the aircraft was grounded for seven hours with generator trouble. Later the navigation and landing lights failed. The young contestant almost suffered from frostbite when the temperature inside the plane dropped to minus four degrees Fahrenheit. “I was wearing plimsolls

and thin trousers because

thought it would be good tactics for running round,” he said. “The heating equipment and generator failed soon after take-off from Greenland and my co-pilot and I soon began to feel the cold. We blocked up most of the ventilation holes, but it was very uncomfortable.” After leaving Iceland, bad weather forced them to land in Scotland, where they waited for an hour before continuing to London. The smallest competitor in the race arrived in New York yesterday tired but elegant in a silver suit and matching shoes.

She is Tina, aged five, a 3ft tall West African chimpanzee and television personality on both sides of the Atlantic. Tina was unperturbed by a rousing welcome and a battery of flash blubs as she reached the eighty-sixth floor of the Empire State Building to clock in with a time of Hine hours 52 minutes. Tina had travelled to London Airport by Rolls-Royce, where she was bundled into the hold of a Super VCIO jetliner for the flight. At Kennedy Airport she rapidly dispatched six bananas and four cups of tea, served from a golden tea-pot, while the immigration authorities cleared her. After clearance she was raced to the Empire State Building in a chauffeur-driven limousine.