HEAD PILOT

Southland Times, Issue 20641, 13 November 1928, Page 9

HEAD PILOT

BYRD’S ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. An interesting ge,ntleman arrived by the C. A. Larsen at Stewart Island a couple of days ago in the person of Mr Bernt Balchen, a Norwegian flyer of note who was brought up by Captain Amundsen. He has been in America for two and a half years as chief testing pilot of the machines made by the company who turned out Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith’s aeroplane that made the recent epoch-making Australian-New Zealand flight. Mr Balchen paid a short visit to Bluff yesterday arriving from Stewart Island by the Star Chaser XI departing again at about 3.30 p.m. He is in charge of three pilots and four mechanics for the Byrd Antarctic expedition. With them they have four machines of separate types a Ford, Fokker, Fairchild and General Applin. These were loaded on board the C. A. Larsen at Norfolk Island U.S.A, after having been flown from New York, Detroit and other large manufacturing centres. They were thoroughly tested before leaving the United States for the arduous work ahead. Provision is made on board the C. A. Larsen for the housing of spare parts and fuel etc. The Byrd expedition expects to make either Discovery Bay or the Bay of Whales their base. It is interesting to learn that Mr Balchen was the pilot in charge of the “America” which crossed the Atlantic successfully last year finally landing in France. He has already made four Arctic expeditions and looks forward to a successful trip to the South Pole with much data to be gathered therefrom. With ten years flying experience behind him he sees no terrors in the Antarctic trip. He is a well set up type of the Norseman and is very sanguine of success.