MISS BATTEN'S STORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 18, 19 October 1936, Page 11

MISS BATTEN'S STORY

WHEN THE BRAKES WENT

WRONG

fro PLANS FOR FUTURE

~--.>■ (By Telegraph.) '»"■•' (Special to the "Evening Post.") "; ' AUCKLAND, This. Day. *■■■;■ The weirdest experience, and one that might have been disastrous, that befell Miss Jean Batten on her flight from England was at Darwin, when she landed with defective brakes, but, very fortunately for her, with the en- •• gine off. The fluid that is the basis of the braking action had oozed from one brake, and the other had jammed so that when she touched ground the aeroplane, under its great momentum, began to run in. circles. "I was just going to land," she said in describing the incident, "when the jammed. There was nothing .4or it but to go up again and circle. ''.As I touched to land again I switched "-off the engine. Had the propeller not —been 'dead' I would have been whirling round still. As it was, -the aeroplane began to run in circles, and hundreds, of perscons on the ground must "riave imagined that there was a limp *■ 'tic fainting young aviator at the con•;:jtrols I did what I could to remove "that 'impression, yelling in a most unladylike way at the top of my voice for 'someone to rush up and hold the aero-j "plane, but no one moved. All I could •^do was to yell. I did not realise it then but the inaction of the crowd r Swas because of the quarantine regula- - lions applying to arriving aircraft. " " "Then one man ran forward, and 1 screamed at him to grab the aeroplane. Finally he understood and caught the wine and pulled it up. He was the one man to-that crowd with authority to . lav a hand on the aeroplane, although "T "did not discover that until later. -"He was the quarantine doctor."'

BELL ROCK AND BELL BLOCK. '■A trickle of'water on Miss Batten's ""chart as she approached New Zea-land-on her Tasman flight was respon- , for the error in her naming of an island she first sighted ofE the , coast and which was on the line ot her objective. The island is the Sugar--loaf, but she named it on her log as "Bell Rock" and so described it in her copyright account of her flight which was cabled to England and Australia. "Because of a damp chart I appear to have misread 'Bell Block,' which is the name of the New Plymouth aerodrome as 'Bell Rock,' and I thought it referred to the island." she confessed. #1 am sure I don't know what to do about my mistake." The Postmaster-General (the Hon. 11.I1. Jones), who was present, made a gallant suggestion to overcome the difficulty, "We will have to alter the name of the island on the maps to 'Bell he said. ~ NO FLANS FOR RETURN. "'£, "I-do not expect to fly back across ■ |he Tasman, but really I haven't any -'■plans at the moment," said Miss Bat- ■ ten. "There seems to be a tendency "to regard the Tasman flight as a stunt, but I have never regarded it as that. To me the crossing of the Tasman from "Australia represented merely the last hop of my flight from England and .there: does not seem to be any reason •just now to fly across it again. "Actually I was very surprised when I arrived in Australia to find an agitation existing against ,my crossing. There were newspaper headings such as 'Will Jean Batten fly the Tasman?' and 'Perils of Tasman Crossing.' Months before I left. England I .had made up my mind to fly to my home i"ih New Zealand, and-I had collected all the meteorological' "data and other ■"information available',about the Tasman. In view of the feeling I found "'& Sydney I interviewed Sir Archdale "Parkhill and pointed out to him that the classification of "my machine in England, which-had permitted me to fly the Atlantic, entitled me to undertake a flight from Great Britain to New Zealand, and that the authorities must be perfectly aware that they had no power to stop_ me. However, I told him that if it was their honest opinion that the attempt would cause .any international complications and the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Lyons, made a request that I should not fly the Tasman,-1 was prepared to fall in with their wishes. T am very, iratefulto Sir Archdale Parkhill for '";fyhat followed. He gave me every "fccility to continue my flight to my yde'stination." i- MARGIN OF FUEL. Miss Batten's reply was emphatic ">vhen she was asked what was her ■mental reaction when she discovered -about two-thirds of the way across the "♦Fasman that the port centre section 'petrol tank was leaking badly. ■"' * "I hadn't any reaction," she declared. "The machine carried plenty of petrol, enough for fourteen, hours' flight and - 4,he section was self-contained. Of 'course, the Atlantic flight was a longer one, but on that occasion I was aiming at a continent, and if I had gone a few miles out of my course it would not have mattered much, but New Zealand is an island and navigation has / to be so much more exact. My relief, therefore, when 1 sighted the islands off New Plymouth and knew I was dead on my course was much greater than when I sighted the South Ameri'•can continent. Visibility was bad off ":New Zealand and Mount Egmont, the "'white hope' of Tasman flyers, was ■-covered with dark clouds when I ap--1 -proached it. Only a few hundred yards ■• 6E its lower slopes were visible. ."""I never felt more relieved than ""when I turned the ignition key at Man- •• ■gere Aerodrome at Auckland. I had ;made the longest Empire flight in the (■aeroplane which had also carried me ■across the Atlantic to Brazil and down to Argentine, and when I turned that key I stopped an engine that had never failed me on that long trip from England. I then felt more satisfaction than I had experienced at the end of any other flight, and yet, not until I woke about 2.30 n-sxt morning, as I had wakened on so many mornings with thoughts of the task ahead, did I experience the full significance of what had happened. I could lie abed and sleep again. I had nowhere else to .£y to. I was at the journey's end."