AMY’S OWN STORY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17949, 29 November 1932, Page 9

AMY’S OWN STORY

FLIGHT TO CAPETOWN WORRIES, MISHAPS & NARROW ‘‘ ' : ESCAPES FRIGHTENED BY SAHARA ■Mrs Mollison’s story, telephoned from Capetown, occupies a full ’page in the Sunday Express, London. It reveals that the flight was full of worries and mishaps. “I got the wind up,” she says, “ soon after leaving Lympne, as I was using petrol too fast, ihence the landing at Barcelona. Later I realised that the gravity tanks were leaking at the rate of two gallons an hour. I ■plugged the vent holes with' newspaper and then recognised that all the trouble was my own fault, as I had the petrol feed .too high. _ I am not such a 'hot’ engineer as I imagined. '“Despite Jim’s warning, I had the tank's filled at Oran, and I only just managed to clear the trees at the aerodrome. Then came the Sahara, the most dismal sight on earth. I was relieved when I made Gho and snatched a little rest. I was going merrily on the next stage when I looked at the gauge and saw there were only five gallons of petrol when there should have been 42. I had to turn back, and I bad a hard job to find the aorbdrome. Luckily I awoke the commandant and* made a perfect landing in the darkness. I found that the men at Gao had only 'half-filled the tanks. THE MOST AWFUL TIME “I slept for a couple of hours till dawn broke. I was worried and downhearted, and hoped that my troubles Fad ended; but the weather was foul and I realised that I must fly at night, though I had liftle experience of night flying, in order to beat the record. It was a wretched moon and' it. appeared only at midnight. 'The commandant at Dual a disapproved of night flying, but I determined to push on. A thunderstorm arose, and I saw nothing clearly. 1 'had to trust to ‘my instruments, and kept .putting my face out, into the'wind lost f should go to sleep. “Tile further I went the worse the storm became, and the rain toll in sheets. Then came the worst horror— L I turned the lamp on the oil gauge and fohml it. dropping! It was the most awful, time ill my life.- I had to come low and slew down, just topping the trees, but fighting hard I found the coast, sighted Bcnguella and landed safely. A wonderful Portuguese mechanic repaired the oil feed, mul after that, with tho machine going well, I put on all speed. The last laj) was the only part of the whole flight I enjoyed.” HOW HER HUSBAND RECEIVED THE NEWS

Mollison was in the office of the Daily Express when his wife rang through to announce her arrival in Oaptown. Mrs Mollison said that tho miles of desert without a single landmark had frightened her more than anything else, She had purposely thrown •over*

thorities make everybody carry over the Sahara, because she wanted to board the water which the French au’iiako the piano as light as possible. When slip reached the Atlas mountains she climbed to 4000 ft.. and she was nearing Gao and the Niger River before she had time to get scared about the Sahara.

Describing her feelings when she saw the oil pressure gauge going down, she said:—“There was that sickening sensation that any minute it would drop ‘o zero, and there would be a sudden and awful crash inside”the engine-as the bearings went. • I would have to trust in God and look for an opening in the jungle, and after that, heaven only knew what. But it Was all right. L managed to push.’on in spite of a terrific rain storm l and the blackness of the night, and landed at Bengueln.” 1 ,j ■ J f «