BACK AGAIN

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 24 November 1927, Page 5

BACK AGAIN

GILES HAS BAD LUCK.

’PLANE TURNS TURTLE.

A SPLENDID RECOVERY.

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22.

An Associated Press message states that Captain Giles, who -set out on a flight to Honolulu and New Zealand, returned and landed at San Simeon, near the ranch of William Randolph 1 Lears t.

Telephoning to the “San Francisco Examiner,” Giles said he had flown 500 miles towards Honolulu when- the machine became quite beyond control and went- completely “haywire,” spinning into a .rain-drenched air pocket, and finally turning upside down, scattering charts, food and instruments, in the ocean. ‘ . Then, in a magnificent exhibition ot airmanship, Giles turned the damaged plane right side up and, making a wild guess- as- to direction, turned her roaring back to the mainland, making a safe landing one mile south of the Hearst ranch. ‘“I never expected to make it,” said Giles. “My centre section bracing wires had snapped, I had dumped my main fuel tanks to lighten the strain on the broken plane, and the chances were just about zero, but luck stayed with me, and I hit the- coast 60 miles north of where 1 landed. I had to keep the ship in the air all that distance before I finally found a landing place.” When asked wliat he planned to do now, Giles replied: “Why, I am going to try again. I will fix the ship, fly her back to San Francisco, and then, as soon as the moon is at the full and new charts have been obtained, I will be ofF again. I have started to fly to Australia, and, by George, I am going to do it.” Over the telephone Giles sounded breathless. There seemed to be trembling isigns of nervousness remaining in his voice after his harrowing experience, which, perhaps, is one of the most terrifying any aviator has ever undergone. Continuing his comments, Giles said: “The weather was fine until I got about 300 miles out, when it started getting bad. It was cloudy with rain squalls, and began to feel those nir pockets they have out there over the Pacific, the same things that must have spelled “curtain” for Frost, Erwin, Pedlar and Miss Doran. I figured I could get- through, hut my luck was out, or maybe it is in. I ran into utterly foul weather 480 miles out. The clouds were very thick and low, and there were incessant . rain squalls. There was not much wind, hut the pockets were awful. “One more thing I think mv experiences solve definitely ; that is, the mystery of what' happened' to the Dole races. I had a biplane, and it was only by the sheerest luck that I survived what I went through. A monoplane is much less stable than a biplane, and a monoplane would not have had a- chance in the weather thatturned me over. You can see what must have happened to them.” Messages from San Luis, Obispo, report unconfirmed rumours that Giles landed near San Simeon, but telephone inquiries failed to locate anyone who saw the landing, and all other efforts at verification were unsuccessful. Twelve hours' after the hop off no word of Giles being sighted had come to San Francisco. The freighter Dewey, 200 miles out. and the liner Manca, 25 miles out, reported that the plane was not seen at the time it was scheduled to pass their positions. Both vessels report flying conditions ideal over the Pacific, hut stated that there was a possibility that low cloud' banks obscured the plane. Weather Bureau officials to-night stated that there were no. storms or disturbances over the Pacific route, Peterson had received no word of. a forced, landing in Southern California, and said he could not understand how Giles could possibly have, reached 250 miles south of San Francisco.

GILES’ FUTURE PLANS. REPAIRS TO ’PLANE. Received 10.10 a.m. to-dav. iSAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2-3. 'Captain 'Giles is expected to return here to-day by automobile. 'He has notified his hackers by telephone that the ’plane is unsafe for flying, and he will have to make repairs before he could bring it here for another take off for Honolulu. 'Captain Peterson refused to comment on the possibility of another attempt at flight until Captain Giles’s arrival. Captain Peterson declared that it depended entirely on the extent of the damage to the ’plane. Captain Giles told an attendant at Hearst ranch that he would go to San Francisco to procure the necessary materials to repair the ’plane and then flv it to ,San Francisco and make another attempt as soon as the weather permitted.