PIONEER FLIGHT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 January 1928, Page 5

PIONEER FLIGHT

ACROSS THE TASMAN.

ALL PREPARATIONS MADE. OBJECTS OF THE TRIP. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. SYDNEY, Jau. (i. 'Phe New Zealand aviators have completed all preparations for the flight across the Tasman Sea, and are only awaiting favourable weather conditions to make a start. The airmen realise there is an element of risk in crossing the 1450 miles over the sea in a pioneer flight, even under the most auspicious circumstances, and are determined’ not to take any foolhardy risks. They are hopeful "of getting away early* on Sunday morning, nut will start then only if the weather is perfect for flying. They are leaving early in the morning so as to utilise the maximum amount of daylight. It has not yet been decided whether Captain Right or Captain Hood will accompany Lieutenant Moncrieff. The two pilots will take turns at the ‘‘joystick,” and for two hours spell® on© will have control of the piano while the other rests. Whether the machine makes direct for Wellington will not be decided till half-way across the- Tasman, when the •bearings will be taken and the course sot for either Wellington or‘Greymouth, the proposed alternative landing place. The machine has ben put through every possible test and the fliers are confident it will prove equal to wliat it is required to do. Captain Right, interviewed by the Press Assn, representative, strongly stressed the point that he wished the public both in New Zealand and Australia to understand that there was nothing whatever in the way of a stunt or gaining personal kudos about the flight. At much persosal inconvenience and financial loss, they having received very small public support, the journey was being undertaken with the wider national objective of creating a deeper interest in the pressing question of the value of aerial defence in the Pacific zone, and drawing into closer relationship the peoples of New Zealand and Australia in their commercial and) other interests, thereby welding stronger links in. the great Empire unity ideal.

WELL CARRY RUBBER RAFT. Received 11.30 a.m. to-day. SYDNEY, Jan. 7. The New Zealand aviators, in the event of having to descend at sea, will carry with them a rubber raft which can be inflated from a bottle of compressed air in a few minutes. Wireless messages in morse will be transmitted during the flight at frequent intervals on a wave length of 33.1 and 33.5 metres.

Many airmen and other visitors who have inspected the machine since its arrival at Richmond aerodrome expressed much admiration.