AVIATION

Grey River Argus, 11 May 1931, Page 5

AVIATION

LIKE FAIRY TALE Courtaulds Storv SAYS RESCUE WAS MIRACLE. (Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received May 9 at 7 p.m.) | COPENHAGEN, May 8. A description of Courtauld’s rescue in Greenland has been wirelessed from ' Anmagsalika. The rescue is described as having been a race between Captain Ahrenberg. the airman, and Watkins’s i party. The latter’s party, toiling I with its dogs and sledges across the ice, reached him first and made the I rescue. The party is now en route to I its base, Courtauld joyfully leading the way. Ho is fit and well, despite jhis privations. Meanwhile Captain 'Ahrenberg made an almost, miraculous (discovery of Courtauld’s hut. which was piled up with snow. Ahrenberg • landed on treacherous ice in the vicinity. Finding the hut was deserted, he flew dangerously low as he was following the sledge tracks, until he overtook the Watkins expedition, from I which Courtauld signalled “Everything right! I consider it a miracle,” he [said. 1 LaugeKock, the explorer, referring to the rescue, said that it was difficult to visualise what Courtauld must have gone through during the past terrible months of Arctic hurricanes and loneliness. The whole thing was like a fairy tale . Few men could have stood it.

AHRENBERG HONOURED. STOCKHOLM, May 9.

I The Swedish Aero Club awarded its gold medal to Captain AnrenDtrg, in recognition of has spare in the rescue Of Courtauld. ( — THE SOUTHERN CROSS. ! (Received May 9at 5.5 p.m.) I SINGAPORE. May 8. I The Southern Cross has left here for : Sourabaya. MAILS TO-DAY AT DABWIN. DARWIN, May 10. Pilot Tapp, in the Quantag plane, “ Happomenes,, ” has arrived to transI ship the English mails from the Southern Cross, which is expected here on Monday. SOUTHERN CLOUD TRAGEDY. SYDNEY, May 8. i A piece of floating wood was discovered in the sea at Port Kembla whereon were the following words:—“Whoever finds this piece of fuselage, torn from the wing of the Southern Cloud, we are i hopelessly lost. Compass done. (Signed) Shorty.” On the other side was: “God be with us and guide us to safety* (Signed) Shorty. Cheerio.” The message purports to come from the Southern Cloud, the lost aeroplane, the pilot of which was Shortridge.

The air mail services between Sydney and Melbourne will be modified presently. The Austral’an National Airways machines leave each capital three times weekly, but in future, only one trip weekly will be made each way. It is considered that the present traffic does not warrant a continuation of the present service. On the other hand, the service between Victoria and Tasmania is being increased from three times weekly to daily.

RELIC CONSIDERED A HOAX. SYDNEY. May 10.

The Austra’ian Airways officials , consider that the so-called Southern : Cloufi relic picked up at Port Kemb’a. is a hoax. They say the Board is not like anything used aboard the air liner. and that the inscription is so crude as to be that of a boy or an unlettered adult. VICTORIAN DERBY. I MELBOURNE, May 10. ' Major De Haviland finished first in the Aerial Derby at the Victorian Aero Club’s pageant, but he wag disqualified for cutting a corner. Major .Murray Jonas was second, but was unable to take the prize, a s he was p-'loting a Government machine. Mr J. Turner, in a Hawk Moth, was third, and wag placed first. THE DORNIER D OX. LONDON, May 8. i The flying boat “Dornier D.OX.” left the B : ssagos Islands to-day for Fernando Noronlia. * SAINT VINCENT, May 9. The flying bote, Dox, has returned to. the Bi c cago s Islands, where it is awaiting better weather. THE HAGUE. May 8. The Royal Dutch air liner completed n record flight from Batavia to Amsterdam in seven days. RUGBY, May 8. The body of Lieut.-Commander Kid stnn. in whose memory a service was held at London was entrained for Johannesburg at Harrismith. where he and Captain Gladstone met their , deaths. Arrangements have been made I for Kidston’s remains to be brought to • England for burial. SCHNEIDER CUP. RUGBY, May 8. For high speed fl : ght the Royal Air i Force, which has been stationed at Felixstowe, transferred to Calshot on Southampton Water, in training for ; the Schneider trophy race, which will i take place in September, over the Spit- i head course to the east and north side ' of the Isle of W’ght. For the present, the team will not i have available for practice, the sea ( planes of the supermarine Rolls Royce ■ 56 type, on which the late Flight Lieut. Waghorn won the Schneider trophy race in 1929. Existing craft of this type are undergoing modifications, and new machines are still under construction. ‘For the next few weeks training will bn carried on with other high speed planes. These ine’ude Napier Gloster 4. and Napier Gloster 5. with which the Schneider race was won in 1927, the I Napier Gloster 6, and 3, and somewhat | slower machines. , 1