SEARCH FOR AVIATOR

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 16 August 1935, Page 5

SEARCH FOR AVIATOR

PLANES COVERED 35,000 MILES DIFFICULTIES OF OBSERVATION THEORY AS TO WHAT HAPPENED

HASTINGS, Aug. 15. An estimated aggregate distance of 35,000 miles, which is equal to one and a-half times the circumference of the world at the equator, was down by the twenty machines and thirtytwo pilots engaged in tlie search for Mr Hamish Armstrong, the Hawke’s Bay airman, who was lost on the Ruahine Ranges on July 21. The aeroplanes used 2002 gallons of petrol besides a large quantity of oil. The total area over which the search by aeroplanes was conducted was 9000 square miles. In a report prepared for the Director of Air Sendees by Flight Lieutenant A. G. Gerrand, pilot-instructor to the Hawke’s Bay Aero Club, it is stated that after Mr. Armstrong’s aeroplane had been found near the toil of the Ruahine Ranges one pilot several times led two others, each flying separately, over tho spot where the wreckage was lying, yet although the two pilots who were being guided knew what they were seeking, and although both knew where the aeroplane was lying, neither of them saw it. The point of this observation as worded in Flight Lieutenant Gerrand’s report is that because of the snow that covered it and also because of its green and silver colouring, it would} have been the greatest luck if the wreckage had been seen from tho air during the search, especially when it is remembered that throughout the whole time the tops of the ranges were covered either with mist or lowlying clouds, and on several days there was heavy rain to add to the difficulties of observation.

Interesting comment is that Mr. Armstrong quite probably altered his course to go out to sea so that he could follow the coast, line, but that he failed to reach the coast owing to westerly drift. If that was so it would account for his having been heard over Puketitiri, as several quite credible reports stated. There was wind from 30 to 35 miles an hour at an altitude of 4000 feet on the day when Mr Armstrong was lost, but hardly any ground wind. “He would he forced to fly along the valleys under the clouds. He would not attempt to climb out through the clouds because he would see steep mountains on either side of him. It is possible he followed various valleys under these conditions until he crashed near Maropea Peak.”