RECORD FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1934, Page 11

RECORD FLIGHT

ACROSS THE TASMAN

KINGSFORD SMITH ARRIVES

SPLENDID fcAYIGATION

doited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—CoDScifibt. SYDNEY, March £9. Sir Charles KingsforcT Smith's arrival in the Southern Cross at 3.15 p.m. was wholly unexpected, and his reception at Mascot Aerodrome consequently was comparatively quiet. However, 50,000 people at the Eoyal Show, when made aware of his presence overhead at 3 p.m. by means of amplifiers, gave a hearty cheer and expressed the greatest admiration for the famous airman. ; After making a perfect landing in ideaT weather.from among a group, of escorting aeroplanes, Sir Charles received his baby son from his nurse and, in response to repeated inquiries' by pressmen and others, said: "I have done the trip so often now that there was very little of interest. We had a nice trip to Lord Howe Island, but not so good after that." The crew stepped from the "old bus" and began to handle the mails— 25,000,35 few Zealand letters—in a most casual way, after which they went home.. The Southern Cross was in constant wireless communication' throughout the trip r with Sydney and the Wanganella, on which. Lady Smith was a passenger. The time of the journey was estimated ■at 13 hours 25 minutes, breaking the previous record by 35 minutes. Interviewed later, Sir Charles said that the Southern Cross passed close to the Wanganella, but ■ was nnable to see her owing to bad visibility; A feature of the trip, ho added, was the splendid navigation of Captain Taylor, which enabled them to hit Lord Howe Island dead centre, later striking' Sydney Heads exactly in tho middle. "If we had not flown over Lord Howe Island we could have accomplished the journey in under 13 hours," he said. ' Unfortunately the New Zealand letters missed the Thursday afternoon delivery here, and axe consequently • held up until Saturday owing to the > Good Friday holiday intervening.