FLIGHT INCIDENTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18559, 20 November 1934, Page 10

FLIGHT INCIDENTS

AXEMEN’S EXPERIENCES CONFESSIONS ]\Y RADIO SHOWERS OF INSEOf SPRAY Confessions of love und sliowm. of insfeet spray stxc' among ihe incidents vvhfd’r cnipe the way of the cgoeh-iqak-ing airman, lAcbrclihg tp the experience tf All: l’’,. Stewart; radio operator on the Now Zealand aeroplane Tainyi. In recounting the details of the C’eptengry Air Race (light, from England .to Molbourne, lie recalled several incidents that were as humorous as they were unexpected , t ,11 v reaching Auckland before his col-Icagu-va Squadron-Leader J. D. Hewett d I'Tying-Ofticer. C... E. Ray, ML b'Hwitrt, incidentally achieved the distinct tiou of, being the first man to fly front I'tighind to Auckland. That fact had not occurred to hini unljl it was pointed <>tU by those who welcomed' hint back. "Thy humor of the situation was app'cut to ilie immediately after we got <•?-Up'.ground at. Mildenhall,’’ said Air. f ‘evart. “The domestic arrangements of the aeroplanes were sugh that I .was n fi*” .ted from oral communication with ■ ", com pan forts; TJujte huge benzine Link*)’ suspended freji the emting oß.the r»bift to within- th’e floor, cut off . our ordinary iiicans. ; of njiprottdt. .... .... .... ■ ■

“A HE’D-HAILED GIRL !’’ , “Radio messages, when received,,were written oil a page of .scribbling pad, folded and wedged into a cleft in a long l>atnboo cane, which served for interhouse communication., “However, I was by no means "lonely aii T had the radio, which proved a boon companion. L well remember the flight from Athens to Bagdad, which started , at 10.20 p.m. We were flying high above the cloud ceiling and I got into touch with an English radio: amateur On I Rhodes Island. Me was, ,thirsting for news of the air race. i ‘'When he learned that vve were a competitor \vc held a. chatty Morse conversation, which developed into an ex- j change of confidences, lie said lie had j bved in Auckland for five years, and confessed that while in Auckland he had fallen violently in love with a red-haired . girl, but subsequently lie found that she was married. “On arriving at Task vve were takento the K.L.M. Dutch airline rest house for a few hours’ sleep. Before retiring, the local manager of the K.L.M. company produced a 20-erown banknote lotus to autograph, ft rains once in three years on an average, in this place. Water cans strapped oil the sides of a donkey are brought to. the front door | und the'water is,purchased in the. same, way as milk and- at similar prices. LIZARDS IN BEDROOM “At Bangkok, Siam, wb were the i guests in the officers' mess of the Royal i Air Force of Siam. We were greeted ; at the mess by vicious squirts from ah i insect ‘gun,’ and showers of this spray i were blown over us,while we were hav--1 ing otir evening meal j T- had never seen so many und such varied insects hi one

room before. “When' an orderly took me to my bedroom he brought the ‘gun’ along with him. Alter walking in between the insect netting, he sprayed everything to saturation point, with tin’s evil-smelling stuff. 'I. here was a ‘frieze’ of live lizards on the wall. Hiese lizards are highly prized by the Siamese. They say they keep the insects subdued. I took slroug exception, however, to their proximity to the lied and poked them with the 100 of my boot until they got up tile wall to a. reassuring distance. “At Avkab,' where we called for petrol, several members of a. primitive tribe from the hills Imd camped on the outj skirts of the aerodrome. They had been ( Waiting there for several weeks, and up to that lime ours was the only aeroplane to land there. The women had a sort of community nursery in tents. All they did was to poke (heir little bluck heads out to look at the aeroplane. LOIN CLOTH AND CAMERA “Just across the road an elderly male barber was busily bucking the hair off a bright lad. A few yards further along a fruit stall was doing a good trade. These natives had come from their homes in primitive bullock carts. I “The first person to greet ns at Darwin was a huge aboriginal dressed in a. loin j cloth and carrying a camera. At Newj castle Waters we stayed part of one night at a corrugated iron hotel. The proprietor took me to a, primitive bathroom while he prepared the bedroom. While 1 was drying my face I heard a great clatter, and saw the proprietor the head of a small snake against the 'corrugated iron of the passage-way. He assured! mo there, were no more snakes etilubihg round the bedpost.