CRUISING BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 55, 8 March 1929, Page 6

CRUISING BY AIR

A WONDERFUL YEAR

LADY BAILEY'S PERFORMANCE

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.)

V .LONDON, 18th January. After ilying. alone for 15,000 miles, Lady Bailey- lauded in her Moth aeroplane atOoydon Aerodrome yesterday. She flow the last stage of her journey from Berek, near. Boulogne. Alighting sldlfully oii tho si>ow,,slie immediately taxied towards the aerodrome buildings, as if fleeing from'the crowd which swept across tho field to greet her. '

She came to a stop on the tarmac, and in an instant she and her aeroplane were lost to view in the crowd. Curiously enough, when she left ■ England last March the country was under snow, and sinco that time she has crossed the Equator twice and accomplished an aerial "ramble" of a kind never before attempted by a woman pilot.

The first to greet Lady Bailey was her mother, Lady Rossmore, her two daughters, and her brother. The Air Council was represented by Mr. F. G. L. Bertram, who warmly congratulated her in their name.

; Lady Bailey left Stag Lane on 9th March last in her own Cirrus-Moth. Her route outwards was via Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Naples, Catania, and Malta. From here she was escorted for 100 miles by B.A.I 1, machines, and then she went on to Benghazi, Aboukir, Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan. From Aswan to Wady Haifa she flew through heavy sand storms and intenso heat.

Atbara, Khartum, Malakal, Niiuule, and Tabora were the next places, and at Tabora sho crashed badly, but without injury to herself. A new machine was procured, a Cirrus-Moth of the same pattern as her original one, and she went on to Broken Hill, Livingstone, Bulawayo, Pretoria, and Beaufort West, reaching. Capo Town on 30th April; Her historic greeting to her husband, Sir Abe Bailey, was: "I am afraid I am a bit late." , For the return journey Lady Bailey chose tho largely unsurveyed West Coast routo because the Sudan authorities refused her permission to fly over tho Sudan. She left Capo Town on 12th May, but instead of flying straight home, she spent some time on tho way visiting places she wished to see. She flew over British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish territory. '' There was never any question of getting lost*'' said Lady Bailey. "For the Congo region excellent maps were given to me by.. three Belgian airmen. Beforeireaching the Congo, however, I had, only small-scale maps for a time." ;;;.\-,BfiUABXLIT.T'OF, ..MACHINES. ;;; She'denied that she: had flown over uhexplorod-territory. / "There were, however, large streWhes of dense forest over which it was necessary to fly by compass. One gets to rely upon one's engine. My;longest stages were about six hours', but they were exceptional..",, ,; Asked whether she hud to give much mechanical attention to her 'piano and its engine, she said: "Very little Just one or two things I had to do myself, ■and here 'and there T helped when necessary." Lady Bailey replied with a decided afiirmativo to the question whether she had enjoyed it and had found it interesting. She had flown alouo bocause it was necessary to fix an,.oxtra tank where tho passenger usually sits; but I never had to camp out alone. Of course, if you were walking through Africa you would; in an aeroplane a 000-mile stage is common. The weather is nearly always good, and the visibility wonderful. The forests were the worst parts." "The log of her ten months' journey," aays the "Morning Post,'' '' should offer a myriad episodes to thrilj the blood of those earth-bound Dianas who still await tho opportunity to take wing in the Air Age, of which Lady Bailey is so noteworthy a pioneer. From the day in early spring last year when she decided to pay her husband a visit by air, her weeks were crowded with adventure, often hazardous, sometimes merely vexatious. We recall how, on the homeward journey, when she was refused permission to fly unattended over the Sedan, she airily altered her course and flew alone for ten days over untracted forests, landing triumphantly at Loanda, on tho West Coast of the African Continent, a thousand miles from her starting point. Taken, as- a whole, this flight is n pioneering achievement which will long hold high rank in the annals of British aeronautics,"