NOTABLE FLIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22489, 5 August 1936, Page 10

NOTABLE FLIGHT

WILDS OF PAPUA food for expedition /• ILOT'S HAZARDOUS JOURNEY [ FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY, July 30 Travellers who arrived in Sydney from New Guinea tliis week brought retails of a daring flight of 900 miles my which Pilot A. /A. Koch took sup■iiiies over high mountains and jungles, jwhere there were 110 emergency landing prounds, to avert starvation of members of Dr. Archbold's American Musctirn'of Natural History expedition in ffto Papuan wilds. The expedition had been using an pmphibian aeroplane to maintain contact with the coastal . settlements, whence food supplies and equipment were regularly taken to them. Its members were left in sore straits when sue]. denly a tropical storm overturned the amphibian while, at anchor at Port Moresby jnjiiHt sank. The expedition had been awaiting supplies for five days. Their foodstuffs had gone, and they -were faced with starvation if supplies were not taken to them. Tht> party was in the Blucher Mountains, on the Strickland Piver, on which the amphibian landed when it took the expedition's supplies, but there were no facilities near the expedition's camp for an aeroplane to land. No other seaplaim was available. The position was becoming serious when Pilot Koch in his three-engined Ford was commissioned to attempt the flight of 900 miles over high mountains, with nowhere to land. The country traversed contained mountains from 8000 to 14,000 feet high, where weather changes were frequent and flying conditions can become difficult and often impossible. The machine was fitted with extra tankage to give it a wider range and the pilot of the damaged amphibian was taken as a guide. , Koch accomplished his task successfully, doing the 900 miles ir, 7\ hours. His flight was regarded as one of the most successful made in New. Guinea, in which aviation has played a tremendous role and which is probably the most air-minded country in the world. With petrol which had been dropped, the expedition was able to operate its wireless transmitter, and advised that all supplies dropped had been found The expedition is returning to Port Moresby, and it will go back to the United States and return to Papua with a twin-engined Sikorsky flyingboat. Repairs to the amphibian, which' was immersed for 48 hours in salt water, would have been too costly.