Making Ready For the Trans-Tasman Flight

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1928, Page 9

Making Ready For the Trans-Tasman Flight

J HEN you set about going for a long motor drive —a trip, say, of some hundreds of miles—you don’t have to worry much about organisation. But when you contemplate a long ocean flight or a long non-stop air itrip over land, you have to make ; much greater preparations. You can leave nothing to chance. > The coming flight of Squadron- ■ Leader Kingsford Smith and FlightLieutenant Ulm to New Zealand has required careful organisation. No risks are being taken. Every conceivable detail has to be worked out.

As ( everything depends upon the condition of the engines, they are the first consideration, and the flyers went so far as to bring Mr. Maidment, the Wright Whirlwind engine expert, from America, to give the motors of the Southern Cross a thorough overhaul. The next thing Is to secure the services of a competent radio-man. The flyers, since their trans Pacific flight, have realised the vital part wireless plays in safe flying. So they have engaged Mr. P. H. McWilliam, superintendent of the Union Steam Ship Company’s wireless school. No less important than a competent radio-man is a good navigator. Here again a man who is not only skilled in his craft, but who is as fearless as his leaders, is necessary. Mr. Litchfield was chosen from a host of applicants. His trained eye will direct the man at the joystick. Navigating an airplane is not quite the same matter as ordering the course of a ship at sea, and Mr. Litch field has had to undergo a course of training in his new work. This is a very necessary part of the pre-flight organisation. He has been for some weeks with the Royal Australian Air Force at Richmond, where each day he has been aloft learning to use his instruments in the air. Of course, all kinds of appliances had to be obtained for his use —compasses, sextants, and the rest.

With a plane of the size of the Southern Cross,, it is not possible to • make a landing at any old piece of cleared ground that presents itself. When the machine is fully loaded with petrol it requires a long runway to enable it to take off with safety. The control of airdromes in Australia is in the hands of the Civil Aviation Department, which has its fingers on every suitable piece of ground for the purpose In the Commonwealth, and ever since the New Zealand flight has been projected Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieutenant Ulm have held conferences with officials of the department on the subject of landing grounds. They have been advised of the respective lawks

of Mascot and Richmond, in New South Wales, and of Point Cook and Laverton, in Victoria. - Another matter which requires careful attention is that of the posssiblc size of crowds which will assemble to meet, the flyers after a long flight; the police arrangements Io deal with them; plans of official welcome and subsequent entertainments. The exact shape and location of landing grounds have to be known. When a motorist enters a« strange town he knows that if he follows a main road it will lead him somewhere, but an airman has to know exactly the best way to approach an

airdrome. There are no aerial signposts—only the wind indicator to show him from which direction he must approach, and some flags or other marks on the ground. Already the New Zealand aviation authorities have supplied this information to the Australians.

Yet another important factor which has to be carefully gone into from the outset is the provision of weather reports, so that the flyers will be able to compile a reasonably accurate chart. They have already been in communication with the weather officials In Australia and New Zealand on this subject. These are the preliminary arrangements.

Then comes the testing of the machine, which the engineer will have put in order. The airmen will make a most thorough inspection of every inch of the ’plane from stem to stern. They will then run the motors on the ground for some hours, and if at the end of that time they are satisfied

that they are in first-rate order they will open tho throttles up to full power and take the air, to make certain that everything is all right while the machine is aloft. This test flight will last up to three hours, after which another thorough examination of the airplane will be made on the ground.

Satisfied that everything is as it should be, they will undertake a “coordination flight,” with the radio man and the navigator aboard. All the conditions of the real flight will be rehearsed, to see that the whole team works satisfactorily together.

The question of fuel and oil does not trouble the flyers to any great extent. By now they know exactly their requirements in this respect, and leave that phase to the company which supplies them. Every day a pile of correspondence awaits Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieutenant Ulm when they arrive at their office. They leave no stone unturned. Organisation. they will tell you, is almost as important as good flying.