ACROSS THE TASMAN

Hokitika Guardian, 19 April 1933, Page 8

ACROSS THE TASMAN

SOUTHERN CROSS’ RETURN

WING TIP STRIKES WAVE

DUNEDIN, April 15.

“The only (excitement. off the trip occurred when the Southern Cross wns taking oil from Ninety-Mile Boacli,” said Mr H. M. McKay, of Dunedin, who returned from Sydney yesterday. Mr McKay was a passenger in the famous monoplane on the flight made across the Tasman Sea hy Sir Charles Kingsford Smith on March 26.

When the aeroplane took off from the beach, he said, it was; almost dark, and ran into a fog bank. The tip of one wing dashed into a wave and spray shot over the machine. A sharp turn of the aeroplane indicated to himself and Captain P. (1. Taylor, the ec-pilot, that something unexpected had happened. The port wing tip went perilously near a sand dune, but by masterful manipulation Sir Charles was able to correct the course.

“Immediately after this crisis',” said Mr McKay, “the machine overtook a motor-ear on the beach. Nothing could be seen but the red tail light. The car was between us and tlie water,, and underneath the starboard wing. We reached it before we realised the obstruction was there, but the aeroplane passed over the top of it.” None of these incidents would have occurred had it not been for the fog and darkness early morning. Captain Taylor, was navigator as well as co-pilo!, busiest man on the trip, and had few idle moments. Sir Charles was very attentive to every detail, and frequently scanned the navigator’s calculations, .as a check. He also paid frequent visits to the wireless cabin. Mr McKay said lie had the pleasure of spending an hour in the cockpit, with Sir Charles. The journey itelf was uneventful.

“I was very much .-.urprised hy two facts,” he said. “Tho first was .that there was no semblance of monotony, and tlie second was that T. did not feel tired at the' .finish, which goes to show the absence of. any nerve, strain.”

Captain Taylor, who also arrived by tlie Monterey and left again on a visit to Pago Pago, said the wind ..and weather were favourable for the flight and everything went according to plan. He hoped to go to England in August as a member of the Southern Crocs crew, and probably to revisit New Zealand in the Southern Cross toward the end or this year or early next year.