GIRL PILOT’S BID

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19138, 6 October 1936, Page 5

GIRL PILOT’S BID

ENGLAND-N.Z. FLIGHT JEAN BATTEN ON THE WAY HOP-OFF IN MOONLIGHT ARRIVAL AT BRINDISI (Bier. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Heal. Oct. 6. noon) LONDON, Oct,' 5. The Now Zealand flyer, Miss .lean Batten, left Lympno at 4.10 a,in. in brilliant moonlight on her flight to Australia and New Zealand. It was reported that the weather was favourable as far as Italy where there were heavy cloud’s at 1000 ft. Miss Batten reached Marseilles, her first slop, at 8.26 a.m. The plane had averaged 150 miles hourly. She resumed the flight at 9.3 o’clock and hoped to reach Athens at 4.30 p.m. Miss Batten landed at Brindisi, however, and will depart for Cyprus to-mor-row morning. “I wish I could have stayed for the presentation of the Johnson trophy on November 2,” said Miss Batten, prior to leaving Lvmpne, “but that would have delayed me a mouth, and I would have been obliged to fly through the monsoon season. I hope to fly back to London for the Coronation.” Miss Batten climbed into the cockpit clad in a heavy brown and a whiteflying suit, under which she wore a green jumper, which she described as her lucky colour. Earlier she packed aboard the machine a full wardrobe of frocks and a number of sets of dainty underwear, carefully slowing them from contact with the grease and oil. Miss Batten originally intended flying to Cyprus after Marseilles and planned thereafter to follow her former route to Australia. Miss Jean Batten flew the South Atlantic in November last year, using the same machine as she is using in her present flight. It has a range of 2400 miles and a cruising speed of 150 miles an hour. Her time for that flight was 13 hours 15 minutes. Iler previous flight from England to Australia, made after several failures, one of which occurred at Karachi, and another near Rome, was completed in May, 1934. It took 15 days and bettered Miss Amy Johnson’s time of l9i days. The machine in which this flight of Miss Batten was made was five years old, with a cruising speed of 80 miles an hour, and a range in still air of 1100 miles.