HAZARDOUS TRIP

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 70, 15 December 1932, Page 10

HAZARDOUS TRIP

Flight in Damaged Plane AIRMAN’S GOOD LUCK Broken Propeller Blade Dominion Special Service. Auckland, Dec. 14. A flight from Matamata to Tauranga, a distance of 25 miles, by air, with a broken propeller and a hole in the fabric of one wing of his machine, was made last week by a private owner, Mr. 11. L. D. West, of Whakatane. Mr. West owns the only Comper Swift machine in the Dominion, a tiny sin-gle-seater high-wing monoplane. Immediately he took off from Matamata Mr. West noticed that his little machine was not climbing at its usual . rate, and was at a loss to account for-its indifferent performance. He experienced difficulty in gaining altitude and managed to clear the Kaimai Hills only by a small margin. In spite of the poor performance of the Comper, the pilot decided to continue his flight, but received a rude shock when, while crossing the Kaimai Hills, he noticed a gaping hole in the fabric of one wing. Crossing the Kaimai Hills. As a landing on the Kaimais was quite out-of the question, Mr. West was obliged to carry on, in spite of the fact that the hole in the wing fabric was growing in size at an alarming rate. Under the circumstances there was nothing he could do but hope for the best, and after a nervewracking trip the pilot made a safe landing at Tauranga. On making an inspection of bis machine, Mr. West was astounded to find that the tip of each propeller blade was missing, and that one blade was split almost to the boss. It was then apparent that in taking off from a comparatively rough field at Matamata the propeller had struck the ground, snapping the tips from the blades and splitting the airscrew. The hole in the fabric was evidently due to a piece of broken propeller striking the wing. The Comper is fitted with “Doughnut” type landing wheels, and on an uneven field there would be little clearance between the tips of the propeller blades and the ground when the machine was in flying position.