ABOVE THE TASMAN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 305, 22 November 1934, Page 7

ABOVE THE TASMAN

WHITEHEAD AND NICHOLL. A HAZARDOUS FLIGHT. FEW NAVIGATION AIDS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received November 22, 10.20 a.m. SYDNEY, Nov. 22. Flying-Officer R. Whitehead and Mr R. Nicholl took off from Gerringong Beach on their flight to New Zealand at 1.55 this morning. It will be an unlicensed flight. With the assistance of flares and car headlights the machine made a perfect takd’-off.

For a moment the machine was silhouetted against the full moon and then lost sight of. . The airmen are attempting the l&S----man crossing without either a certificate of registration or a certificate of airworthiness. Both of these certificates were cancelled when the department heard of their proposed flight a week ago.

The compass and an ordinary aircraft chronometer are all the fliers have for navigation. Their destination will be New Plymouth and they hope to break the record for the journey.

A moderate south-east breeze prevails along the coast, but it is expected that tli© fliers will encounter some bad weather half-way across the Tasman. NO RADIO CARRIED.

Only one seat remains in the ’plane, the other two having been removed to make way for a petrol tank. Whitehead and Nicholl have to share a small cockpit. The ’plane carries 120 gallons of petrol, sufficient for twenty hours’ flymg. No wireless gear is aboard owing to the limited space available.

TESTS BY ULM.

FLIGHT IN CANADA

MONTREAL, Nov. 20

Tli© necessity for overhauling some of the ’plane’s instruments prevented Mr C. T. P. Ulm from making full load tests at Montreal to-day, delaying the announcement until Wednesday of plans concerning the Pacific flight. ATLANTIC SERVICES.

FORTNIGHTLY SCHEDULE

LONDON, Nov. 21

The Daily Mail’s Berlin correspondent says that Dr. Hugo Eckener announces a fortnightly transatlantic service between Germany and America The fare will be £6O, and the journey will occupy 48 hours eastward and 55 hours westward. The Zeppelins will carry 50 passengers and 20 tons of freight.