AVIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20190, 30 August 1927, Page 9

AVIATION

ROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT. THE FIRST STAGE. FOG AND MIST ENCOUNTERED. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, August 28. Schlee revealed how they discovered they were over England after crossing the Atlantic. “ We were lost over England,” he said, “ When sixty miles from Newfoundland we ran into a thick fog. Then we had mist at sunset, and ran into heavy weather. A fifty-mile nor’-west wind was blowing right across our track. Sometimes we were 200 ft up, and igain at an altitude of 10,000 ft. Often in the dark we encountered air pockets, through which we dropped like a stone anything from 200 ft to 300 ft. When we sighted land we were 5000 ft up, with a ”'ng and drifting cloud mass beneath us. Through a rift we saw a patch of green countryside. , “It was our first glimpse of England. I reckon it must have been 7.30 in the morning. We could not square the coast outline with Ireland, over which we believed we were flying, and we resolved to drop messages asking our where >uts. Brock wrote two in succession, on' on cardboard and the other on blue paperWe descended to 200 fl above a coastal village. Few people were about, and the messages were carried away in the wind. “ Then Brock enclosed a note in a small bag, saying ‘ Write the name of your town on the sands.’ He . ditto an orange and dropped it on to the beach. A sharp youngster seized it. Then we saw people running about, and someone began to trace big white-washed letters on the pavement. Gradually we made out the word ‘Devon.’ . We then saw the Union Jack run up at the coastguard station. “We set our maps accordingly, and flew on to London. We were puzzled badly over the Henley aerodrome, which was empty. We guessed it was not Croydon. We went on until we saw another aerodrome, where people were running about. So here we ire!’’ Both men were without food from the start until a few minutes before landing, when they shared a sandwich. The aviators were tired, but fit. —A. and N.Z. Cable. LANDING AT CROYDON. NO OFFICIAL RECEPTION. LONDON, August 28. Though west to east transatlantic flyers have ceased to be really novel, the arrival of Brock and Schlee at Croydon twentyfour hours and ten minutes after leaving Newfoundland on the first stage of a twenty-two days’ record round-the-world attempt was full of dramatic incident. At daybreak enthusiasts proceeded to Croydon, but there were present no officials of the American Embassy, which announced that it ’ wis a private affair and not national, and Was not undertaken > -with their Government’s cognisance. Likewise there were no British representatives other than the aerodrome officials. This fact seemed to spur ’the crowd to a greater desire to welcome the flyers. They were first sighted at Croydon at 10.30. They circled over the aerodrome, banked steeply, and descended gracefully. The crowd rushed out, dragged the airmen from their machine, and carried them shoulder high. , They then svent direct to London in a motor car and to bed. Brock said: “ Flying into f storm and darkness makes one forget that one is hungry,. We averaged 80 miles an hour, and out of 355 gallons of petrol we only used half; ■ Our-machine ’ was : perfect.’ We could have gone on for another 1000 miles at least.” . The airmen take off for Stuttgart tomorrow.—A. and N.Z. Cable. TERRIBLE CONDITIONS FACED. FLYING BLINDLY FOR HOURS. LONDON, August 28. The airmen took turn about throughout. They saw stars occasionally and the lights of one ship. After six hours of trying conditions they faced a three hours’ terrible gale. The worst period of the journey was when they saw land, and die! not know whether it was Ireland, England, Scotland, or France, because they had just emerged from a fog, in which they had flo-wn blindly for three hours. It now appears that they struck the English coast in North Cornwall, and immediately became fogbound. They saw nothing until Plymouth was reached. The next place sighted was Seaton. The airmen leave at 7 to-morrow morning for Munich instead of Stuttgart, and thence to Belgrade and Constantinople. They anticipate that the wors stoge will be from Tokio to the Sandwich Islands in the Pacific, a distance of 2480 miles; —A. and N.Z. Cable. THE SECOND STAGE COMMENCED. DEPARTURE FOR MUNICH. LONDON, August 29. (Received August 30, at 0.30 a.m.) The Pride of Detroit has commenced the second stage of the flight, departing for Munich this morning.—A. and N.Z. Cable. GEORGIA TO BRAZIL. PAUL REDFERN STILL ; HSSING. RIO DE JANEIRO, August 28. Paul Redfern, the Georgia to Brazil flyer, has not yet been heard of. A Government search of the outlying islands revealed no signs of him. The storm on Thursday may have brought him down. —A. and N.Z Cable.