AN ALARMING EXPERIENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21828, 15 December 1932, Page 10

AN ALARMING EXPERIENCE

FLIGHT IN DAMAGED MONOPLANE LANDING SAFELY EFFECTED. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, December 14. A flight from Matamata to Tauranga, a distance of about 25 miles by air, with a broken propeller and a hole in the fabric of one wing of his machine, was made last week by a private owner, Mr H. L. D. West, of Whakatanc. Mr West owns the only Comper Swift machine in the Dominion, a tiny singleseater, high wing monoplane. Immediately he Took off from Matamata Mr West noticed that his little machine was not climbing at its usual rate, and he was at a loss to account for its indifferent performance. He experienced difficulty in gaining an altitude, and managed to clear the Kaimai Hills only by a small margin. In spite of the poor performance of the Comper the pilot decided to continue his flight, but received a rude shock when, while crossing the Kaimai Hills, he noticed a gaping hole in the fabric of one wing. As a landing on the Kaimais was quite out of the question Mr West was obliged to carry on in spite of the fact that the hole in the wing fabric was growing in size at an alarming rate. In the circumstances there was nothing he could do hut hope for the best, and after a nerve-racking trip the pilot made a safe landing at Tauranga. On making an inspection of his machine Mr West was astounded to find that the tip of each propeller blade was missing, and that one blade was split almost to tlie boss. It was then apparent that in taking off from a comparatively rough field at Matamata the propeller had struck the ground, snapping the tips from the blades and splitting tlie airscrew. The hole in the fabric was evidently due to a piece of broken propeller striking the wing. Tlie Comper is fitted with tlie “doughnut ” type of landing wheels, and on an uneven field there would be little clearance between the tips of tlie propeller blades and the ground when the machine was in flying position.