Dash for the Pole

Evening Star, Issue 20346, 30 November 1929, Page 15

Dash for the Pole

Commander Byrd Takes Off Progress Reports from Plane All Going Well

Specfcfl : £o Press 'Association from the Byrd Expedition by By Russell Owen. (Copyright.).

BAT OF WHALES, November 2S. Commander Byrd sent the following message to the personnel of the City of New Tork and the Eleanor who remain in New Zealand:— 1 * As w© take off for the flight to the Polo I send the best of good wishes to yon and to Mr H. L. Tapley. I want yon afl to know that you are playing just as important a part a« any one of ns down, here.” The flight started at 3 o’clock on Thursday morning, Antarctic time. In addition to the commander, the crew inclnded Balchen, who is acting as pilot, June at the radio, and McKinley. Gould, of the geological party, reported good flying conditions at the edge of the polar plateau. "FLYING WELL" BAY OF WHALES, November 28, That Commander Byrd’s flight is going well is indicated by four bulletins each of which is signed by June, who’is in charge of the radio. A letin at 4 a.m. read as follows: ‘ On the trail. Flying well. Just passed the forty-five-mile depot. Motors fine.” At 4.25: “ Flying well. Passed snowmobile.” At 4.50; _ ‘ Flying well.” The fourth bulletin read: M Flying well. Motors fine. At crevasses at 5.30.” IN VICINITY OF POLE MESSAGES FROM PLANE VANCOUVER, November 20. (Received November 30, at 8.55 a.m.) A message picked up. this morning .tated: “Flying well. _ Motors fine. Headed south in the vicinity of the South Pole.—Byrd. Soon after the plane reached the neighbourhood of the Queen Maud Mountains there was an hour or two during which Jane’s signals faded _so badly that the Little America station could not hear. The plane must have risen 10,000 ft to 12,000 ft, clear of the mountains. This apparently affected the radio. Then with the coming of daylight in the zones north of Little America there was some fading, as is customary in messages at that hour. At 5.15 a.m. the New York ‘ Times ’ again got a clear message from Little America saying that the plane’s signals had not been heard for an hour. Before 8 o’clock (New York time), however, Commander Byrd reported himself going fine in the vicinity of the South Pole. MESSAGES FOR GEOLOGICAL PARTY Commander Byrd carried radio messages for the geological party on the plane, and it was planned to drop them with a parachute. In the package of messages there was also a packet of photographs of the mountains of the Queen Maude range, which it was hoped would help Gould in his geological work, THE START DESCRIBED SCENE NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN [By Russell Owes.] BAY OF WHALES, November 28. (Received November 30, at 9.0 a.m.) To-day’s start from Little America was a scene never to be forgotten. Furred and bulky figures climbed into the plane, the door was slammed, the pilot waved his hand and opened the throttles wide to break the plane loose from the snow, while the mechanics, with the snow whirling about them so as almost to conceal them in its smother, loosened the skis of the heavy machine, and it jerked forward. It slipped smoothly over the ground, carefully turned, and taxied up to one end of the field. The flying field lies in a sort of hollow, long, and fairly level. The surface is scattered with materials of the camp, and on its one side are the snow-buried houses and on the other a> long slope. This was apparently at one time an indentation in the hairier, a sort of bay, and it has been built up through the years until now it is 30ft above the water, but still some distance below the top of the barrier.

At the end of the runway beyond where the plane leaves the ground is a line of haycocks.

The whole field gleamed under the sun, dappled in patches of grey and cream colour, where the snow lay soft or blown hard and crushed by the wind. A few little ridges, only inches high, ran across it, throwing grey shadows in the line of the general wind direction.

At the end of the field on the side of the slope up to the edge of the barrier, the plane was turned about, and the pilot opened her up. The motors hurst into a crescendo of sound from a low growl to a deep, tearing note. The propellers flashed in circles of fire as the sun hit their invisible blades. The plane began to move, and the group of men standing on the snow, oblivious of the cold, watched like statues. Faster and faster the great machine shot forward, its wings dipping slightly as the skis met the inequalities in the surface. It seemed an age—although it was but a few moments—before it was sliding with terrific speed and so smoothly that almost imperceptibly the skis lifted, and a small space showed between them and the snow. Then the big ship leaped into life, and despite the heavy load was soon lifted high above the field and the hill beyond. There was a slow turn, and the great wings grew smaller and the sound of the motors became a mufflled ■ hum out of the sky. The plane diminished rapidly against the clear blue above it, and became a thin dark line, graceful as a soaring gull, and then, ns the eyes strained after it, it vanished into the silent south.