CAPTAIN MUSICK AND HIS CREW

Southland Times, Issue 23407, 14 January 1938, Page 8

CAPTAIN MUSICK AND HIS CREW

SPLENDID EXAMPLE TO JUNIORS

COMMANDER’S FORCEFUL PERSONALITY (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 13. The death of Captain Edwin C. Musick; a man whose very name inspired confidence, causes Pan-American Airways its greatest loss. His death has robbed the world of a flyer of rare experience, skill, and judgment, and aviation, both international and American, has suffered a loss it could ill-affora. The tragedy of Captain Musicks death has brought a deep sense of personal bereavement to Auckland. Here he had made many friends and in spite of his brief acquaintance with the city, the public was already inclined to regard him with pride as an adopted son. Retiring and almost shy in public, Captain Musick was a man of forceful personality. Behind his quiet manner was apparent a strength of character that might be expected of so great an aviator and for all his deliberate selfeffacement and his innate modesty he was a natural leader of men. Quietly spoken, slightly deaf as a result of thousands of hows close to roaring motors, he had implicit faith in the ships and crews that his company provided. He was a stickler for discipline and strict observance of company regulations and he set his men a. splendid example. It is a tribute to his personality that he was highly esteemed not only by Pan-American Airways but also by his own junior officers. He was a man of magnetic type, courteous and infinitely patient. His unhurried American drawl, his shrewd kindly eyes, typical of a man who flies far and fast, and his firm handclasp endeared him to those in .Auckland who met him on his two visits to the city. Hundreds will mourn his death as a personal loss. Captain Musick, who was about 43 years of age, was a married man. Mrs Musick lives at their home in San Francisco. There are no children. THE SECOND OFFICER The second officer of the Samoan Clipper on her last voyage, Captain Cecil Sellers, had only recently been transferred from the Orient route. His home was in Manila, from where he flew the Samoan Clipper to Honolulu before her New Zealand journey last month. Captain Sellers was a married man with a young family. He had not the long association of Captain Musick with Pan-American Airways; though a skilled and experienced flyer, he was a comparative newcomer to the American company, having served previously witn China National Airways. He was at one stage pilot to the Chinese ruler, Marshal Chiang Kai-shek. Though two other members of the crew of the clipper, Messrs T. D. Findley and J. W. Stickrod had previously visited Auckland, little is known of them by their associates in the city. It was stated that Mr Stickrod was single and that he had formerly been with United Airlines. Both Mr P. S. Brunck, the second officer, and Mr F. J. Maclean, the navigator, were strangers to members of the Pan-American staff in Auckland.

Two of the- company’s officers at Mechanic’s Bay, Messrs A. L. Lewis, airport manager, and M. M. Thomson, engineer, knew the remaining member of the crew, Mr J. A. Brooks, the flight mechanic. He was a married man whose wife and two sons are in Honolulu. Mr Brooks had been with Pan-American Airways for a number of years. He was stationed in the canal zone for two years and subsequently was transferred to the North Pacific section, while the South Pacific route was being surveyed. Mr Brooks acted as airport manager at Pago Pago.

A NOTED PILOT Commander Of The Clipper SKILL AND RELIABILITY Captain Edwin C. Musick, commander of the Samoan Clipper, probably contributed more real knowledge of ocean flying to aviation than all the spectacular flyers. Pioneer of most of the PanAmerican routes, he made aviation history in 1936 by flying the China Clipper from San Francisco to Manila. A taciturn pilot, who disliked excitement, and always put reliability first, “Pop” Musick, as he was called, grew up with Pan-American Airways, and was their senior pilot. He had spent more than 15,000 hours in the air, and had never had a serious accident, or lost a passenger in nearly 2,000,000 miles of flying. Captain Musick had been in commercial aviation for 23 years, and five years of his life were spent in an aeroplane. He began the first of those 15,000 hours in 1913 at Los Angeles, and by the time of the Great War he was an accomplished pilot. Trained men were rare in those days, so he was assigned to teaching, first at Wichita Falls, Kansas, and later at Miami, Florida- , . , In 1921 Captain Musick joined one of the first commercial air lines in the United States—the Aeromarine Flying Service, which ran machines between Bimini, Nassau and Havana. On this service he received invaluable flyingboat practice and started building his reputation. Four years later Juan Terry Trippe organized a little ferry-boat air line to fly the 93 miles between Havana and Key West, Florida, and gave it a resounding title—Pan-American Airways. The line needed a pilot who knew what a tropical hurricane looked like, and also how to handle a flying-boat. Captain Musick got the position. Pan-American Airways began to grow steadily, and soon Mr Trippe became president of an organization which covered Latin America and the Caribbean Sea with a network of airlines. Bigger and better flying-boats were built, and Captain Musick developed into one of the finest ocean flyers in the world. Then after he had made more than 1100 round trips out of Miami for Latin American ports, Pan-American Airways began operations in the North Pacific, and Captain Musick was the man selected to make the first test flights between San Francisco and Honolulu. After months of patient planning, he flew the Pioneer Clipper to Manila, and then put the seal on his achievements as an ocean pilot by taking the China Clipper over the same route to inaugurate the first commercial service. In 1935 the American branch of the International League of Aviators awarded the Harmon trophy to Captain Musick for his pioneer work on the North Pacific service, and his flights from San Francisco to Honolulu. ; When Pan-American Airways decided

to extend its services to the South Pacific Captain Musick was again chosen to pilot the clipper on a survey flight to Auckland. Its arrival there on March 30, 1937, marked a big advance in the history of aviation in the Southern Hemisphere, and Captain Musick and his crew received a tumultuous welcome. The second flight to New Zealand was made last month, and the return journey, which began on January 2 and inugurated the commercial service between New Zealand and the United States, was completed without .incident.