BRITISH AIR RACE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 30 September 1936, Page 9

BRITISH AIR RACE

NEW ZEALANDER PROMINENT.

SECOND AT CAIRO

THREE FLIERS WITHDRAW.

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 30, 10.20 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 29. The Portsmouth to Johannesburg air race started this morning. K. Waller took off at 6.30 a.m., and then at minute intervals followed Captain Halse, Lieutenant Booth, T. Rose, Flying Officer A. Clcuston (New Zealand), D. Llewellyn, Major Miller, C. W. A. Scott and Victor Smith. Dawn was just breaking when Waller left in the most powerful machine, which is numbered 13 and carries a wireless officer and passenger. Fellowofficers played a joke on Flight-Lieu-tenant (Houston, affixing a large “L” to signify learner beneath the fuselage of his ’plane. It was not seen until lie was alolt. Scott should have been last to leave, but the unlucky Smith lived up to his reputation. His engine was slow to start, so rfcott was flagged away first. However, Smith soon overtook him. Each pilot carries letters from the Lord Mayors of London and Portsmouth to the Mayor of Johannesburg. The weather was clear with a big harvest moon, and almost a complete absence of wind. A large crowd gathered overnight and spent the time dancing, singing and listening to music. Over 500 cars were parked at the aerodrome. The competitors are as follow: K. Alington and Lieut. P. Booth (B.A. Eagle machine), 21 hours 58 minutes. D. Llewellyn (Percival Vega Gull), 13 hours 28 minutes. C. W. A. Scott and Giles Guthrie (Percival Vega Gull), 13 hours 14 minutes. Victor Smith (Miles Sparrowhawk), 10 hours 34 minutes. Flying-Officer A. Clouston (Miles Hawk 6), 6 hours 25 minutes. Max Findlay and Ken Waller (Airspeed Envoy), 3 hours 13 minutes. Tommy Rose and Jack Bagshaw (B.A. 4:"Double Eagle), 3 hours 6 minutes. Major A. Miller (Percival Mew Gull), 72 seconds. Captain S. Halse (Percival Mew Gull), scratch. Rose arrived at Linz at 11.6 a.m. He landed owing to shortage of fuel, and resumed at 11.27. Halse arrived at Belgrade at 12.8 p.m., being the first to reach the compulsory station. Smith arrived at 12.42 p.m., Clouston at 12.42 p.m., Waller at 12.50 p.m., Alington at 2.4 p.m., Scott at 2.8 p.m., and Llewellyn at 2.23 p.m. Rose circled the field and signalled that he was not landing, but later returned for a weather report and departed at 2.37 p.m. FLIERS DROP OUT. Miller arrived at 4.33 p.m. He said he was retiring from the race, having landed at Ruma, 25 miles from Belgrade, owing to lack of petrol, which took him 4) hours to obtain. Smith also announced that he had abandoned the race after a forced landing at Scopije owing to oil trouble.

A Berlin message says that Alington is out of the race. He made a forced landing at Regensburg, in the south of Germany, owing to running short of petrol. The occupants were uninjured, but the undercarriage of the 'plane was damaged. Halse averaged 202 miles an hour. He and Waller complained of the intense cold over the Alps.

Clouston, who is a New Zealander, from Motueka, was only thirteen minutes at Belgrade before resuming.

Fifteen minutes sufficed for most of the competitors to refuel. AH the competitors continuing the race left Belgrade. Some had made a stop at Vienna prior to arriving at Belgrade. . Rose, Scott, and Llewellyn arrived at Salonika in that order. Rose and Llewellyn departed again for Athens, and Scott direct for Cairo.

CLOUSTON FLY'ING SECOND. The position at 9 p.m. was that six out of the nine starters were still flying to Johannesburg. Halse was the first to arrive at Cairo, Clouston second, and Waller third.

The last news of the others was that Rose had arrived at Athens, Llewellyn had left Salonika for Athens, and Scott had left Salonika fur Cairo.

Clouston stopped at Cairo for only 20 minutes as compared with Halse’s 37 minutes, thus virtually reducing Halse’s lead to a mere 9J minutes, taking into account the difference in the time of starting from Portsmouth.