ATLANTIC FLIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 7 October 1936, Page 2

ATLANTIC FLIGHT

WOMAN’S ACHIEVEMENT COURAGE OE MRS B. MARKHAM LONDON, October 5. The daring challenge of Airs Beryl Markham to North Atlantic weather earned success for a flight which, in a single-engined aeroplane unequipped with radio, must remain an adventure even when the sunshine and the air is calm. Eighteen hundred miles of open sea separate Ireland from Newfoundland along the route she followed. She flew through storm after storm. Hoad winds held her back, and forced up tbe fuel consumptionShe was obliged to fly low instead of at the more economical heights several thousand feet up. Finally, after passing over a fog shrouded Newfoundland, Airs Markham, with fuel at the point of exhaustion, make a heavy landing in a clearing at Balein, on tho north-east shore of Cape Breton Island. She had pulled off a 500 to one chance. In doing so she accomplished the first westward solo crossing of the North Atlantic b.v a woman and set a new world record for the longest feminine solo non-stop flight. In all, she flew about 2700 miles from Abingdon, England. The flight was magnificent, but in 1936 it is not aviation. North Atlantic waters will not thus he conquered for the air mail and the passenger aeroplane. Vet the courage of the pilot, the skill with which she kept a perfect course across the ocean in spite of appalling storms, and the determination that kept her going on when still within easy range of Ireland and a. safe return, compel admiration. Once again too, a pilot lias shown bow the modern British light aeroplane and its engine will respond to the most extreme demands.