FIVE DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 48, 25 August 1931, Page 8

FIVE DAYS

AI STIfALIA TO (>()\l)().\

KINGSFORD SMITH'S PLAN

MOLLISON—TiII-. MAN (From "The Post's" Roproscnt.-itivc.) SYDNIiY, Kith AiikiiM.. Australia, barely recovered from the. | surprise, occasioned by .1. A. Molli.-ion '<.'. record Hi^ht, to Kn^land, is now wondering how soon it will bo before Air Commander Kingsl'ord Smith set- out in an attempt to establish even bettor lime. ilc^lias not, yet arrived at any decision, but should lie make the atlempl. lie will use: a. light 'plane, similar to the Avia.n with which he made the previous record of 10 days 2 hours from London to Australia.. He is convinced that with a high-powered engine the journey could be accomplished in five days, and as he says the weather conditions will become unfavourable after October, he will have to make up his mind very soon. Ho will have to order a special 'plane from England, and it will take at least two months to deliver it here. He admits that if I In: had the time and the money he would not. hr.-sitatn, but pays thai in tln.-sc hard times one must think twice before spending £1300 on the machine alone. ■lames Alan Afollison, who put up such a rcm.irkarjlc performance, setting a tremendous task for Kingsford Smith or anyone else, is just 25 years of age, and if. may be said of him'that he has never been anything else but an air pilot. He was born in Edinburgh, but I any of: his friends will tell you that he | has a strong "Oxford accent." In fact ho is thoroughly English in his dress and in all his manners. At the age of IS he joined the Royal Air Force in England, and quickly secured his "wings" and the rank of pilot officer. Before long behold him enjoying himself thoroughly on active service on the frontiers of India, where certain tribesmen indulged in the luxury of a rebellion. In those adventurous days —a few years back —Mollison used to fly low over the enemy's country, and take pot shots at their cattle. That used to bring the insurgents to heel more- quickly than anything eke. When at length he left the R.A.F., Mollison held the rank of fiyiug officer, and he was regarded as one of the most capable instructors at the Sealand Flying School, near Chester. Following a brief spell of commercial flying on the Continent, Mollison in 1929 went to Adelaide to take up the position of chief instructor at the Parafield aerodrome for the South Australia Aero Club. Mollison has been aptly described as' "the life of the party" at Parafield. Nothing could shift the smile from his fair chubby face. As a stunt pilot, tracing dizzy patterns in tho blue, he was unsurpassed, and his aerobatics were the bane of the commercial pilots' existence. He used to wait until they were about to land or take off, and then frighten them into 'fits by pretending to be on the edge of a collision, but his keenness was always infectious. He was never happy unless he was thinking, touching, or watching aeroplanes. His friends at Parafield remember, too, some of his little peculiarities— his love of baths so hot that they would almost parboil the average man, the massive gold band of his wristlet watch, his jovial voice when he sang tirelessly at parties or to keep himself company while zooming through space. He is not a big man—only about sft 7in in height—but his record flight has shown that he is tough. In March last Mollison left Adelaide to become one of the commercial pilots for the Australian National Airways, ovith which firm he remained until his first attempt to fly to England about two months ago. For more than a year-he flew regularly over the Syd-n,ey-Melbourne and Sydney-Brisbane routes, his flying hours on the giant Fokker machines totalling 1300. Altogether he has .flown nearly 4000 hours. Not .long ago he did splendid work in the tireless search for the'lost Southern Cloud. The tragedy of that lost machine came home to him. the more because the pilot, T. W. Shortridge, had been one of his fast friends and his co-partner in much trick and stunt flying. Mollison is not the sort of man to get a swelled head over the success of his flight, but there is one woman in Scotland who will be very proud'and happy, and that is Mollison's mother.