BYRD’S EXPEDITION

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 November 1929, Page 5

BYRD’S EXPEDITION

CHANGES IN WEATHER •w PLANE-LOAD PROBLEM (By Russell Owen, . Copyrighted, 1929, by the New York Times Company, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. All rights for publication reserved throughout the • world. Wireless to New York Times). . . I (By Cable—Press Assn. —Copyright.) BAY OF WHALES, November 24. Gould’s geological party laid depot No. 5 at latitude 82.35, which is 275 miles south of- Little America. . The party had a hard slow trip from Depot Four, where they picked up an additional load for the mountains. They received radio messages from the ’plane in the flight. On the next trip, Byrd plans to drop aerial photographs of the mountains, which will help Gould in determining the method to approach them for geological data. The fair weather, which lasted a week and made flying to the mountain base possible, ended in a stiff blow. Clouds began to gather last night, as the wind shifted, and in the night, the wind hauled round to the east, and blew so much drift along the surface that it covered the windows of the houses.

Contrasts in the weather here are astonishing. It is always uncertain, and clears or gets thick as the cold air shifts out from the interior, or warm air blows in from the sea. There seems every prospect of several days of overcast weather, and strong winds from the east, a point from which come most of the blizzards that strike Little America. The period of whiting, however, has advantages as it permits necessary work to be done on the big ’plane. LOAD ON ’PLANE. X

The causes of the heavy gasoline consumption on the recent flight which brought about the forced landing, has been found and remedied , and in a flight test yesterday, the consumption was found to be normal. Nevertheless, getting the ’plane over the mountains and back to the base will require skilful handling, because of the fuel load and the added weight of mapping the apparatus. Altogether 6001bs. have been added to the load.Byrd’s original plans, based on known performance of the plane, provided for a pilot and radio operator besides himself, and the load which could be carried to the necessary height to fly over the ten thousand foot plateau. The value of the mapping camera became apparent on the aerial survey of the Rockfeller Range last year, and pictures of the mountains obtained on the flight last week have increased everyone’s appreciation of their geographical importance. It is evident that on the Polar flight some remarkable results may be obtained. Enough has already been learned from the aerial film exposed on the base-lay-ing flight, to indicate that mountain ranges and lands lie in different positions from what had been supposed, so that an entirely new conception of the land to the east of Axel Heiberg Glacier may be gained from a careful study of the mapping photographs. Consequently,-Byrd has decided to add to the load on the trip to the Pole, by providing for this aspect.