EPIC ANTARCTIC FLIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1929, Page 11

EPIC ANTARCTIC FLIGHT

BIG PLANE’S FORCED LANDING BYRD’S EXCITING RETURN TO BASE , - PETROL LEAKS FROM THE TANKS. (Copyright by Russell Owen.) Bay of Whales, Nov. 21. Commander Byrd, who had made a forced landing 90 miles from camp, and his companions flew back to camp about ' midnight after a day spent struggling with the refractory motors and getting thoroughly tired cranking and lifting the oil in and out of the engines. They finally lifted the big Ford out of the rough snow ridges on which it had landed, and on the tail of a 50-mile-an-hour wind blew into camp with tho speed of a pursuit plane. As they stepped from the plane they stumbled and grinned at the same time, but they were so glad to have the big plane safely back on its home field that they did not care about their weariness. “The troubles began soon after we left,” said Commander Byrd. “After flying for about an houi- it was noticed that the gasolene consumption was unusually high, and a small leak was finally found by June in the hand pump behind the pilot’s seal. He packed it with chewing gum and tapod it. An hour and a-half later all the motors coughed and died as the two . outer tanks unexpectedly ran dry because of the rapid consumptipn. June jumped for the valves and switched on tho other tanks, and the engines again picked up, but it was one of those moments which one remembers in flying.” UNIQUE MAIL DELIVERY. Commander Byrd said they saw the erevassed region, about *2OO miles south of Little America, while they were nearly ICO miles away, sticking up like haycocks in the great plain of the Barrier. Their next landmark was the geological party, whom they passed beyond the 200-milo depot, “It seemed a crime to watch them plugging along down below,” said June, “They just weren’t moving.” Dean Smith dropped them a message from friends and relatives at home which had been received by radio —a unique mail delivery. A course was then set by Byrd for the mountains, and about 40 minutes after passing the geological party the mountains began to show ahead, lifting out of the horizon like hummocks of snow or distant pressure ridges. Much to everyone’s surprise, they showed up first on the right of the course, instead of on the left. Byrd described them as “magnificent,” and June as “the most wonderful group 'of mountains he had ever seen.” Some were covered with ice and snow; some had great bare patches of rock; some were dome-shaped and others peaked. The plane was headed directly for the mountain .in front of Mount Hansen, and there a place was found where a base could be established. The surface was far from smooth; it was hard snow with sharp ridge edges. “It was like furrowed flint,” said Dean Smith, who flew the plane. “In the landing the skis took tho ridges all right, but if you made many landings there you would cut them right off,” he said. With a few thumps the plane heeled down, with the towering range running east and west in front of it. Commander Byrd jumped out and began to take sights with his bubble sextant to establish tho position of the base, and got two position lines which checked perfectly with their dead reckoning, so that they have no doubt as to where the base lies. TEST OF NAVIGATION. The entire flight was a splendid test of navigation under tho flying conditions down here, and Commander Byrd is quite satisfied now that his calculations will work out as he expected. The course was kept perfectly with the aid •of the sun compass, and cheeked with the navigation dome on the way out. Tho cans of oil and gasolene and bags of food were shifted out of the plane, and a pile was made of the fuel and oil cans, which are painted orange, and a hole vzas dug near them and the food cached. McKinley took some long distance photographs of the mountains, and in the landing and taking off June made some moving pictures. Before starting back Commander Byrd and June decided to put 50 gallons of gasolene, which had been intended for the mountain base, into the tanks, for the undiscovered leak did not get better. In fact, on the way home it became much worse. When the time came to take off the machine taxied up to the slope and got away nicely, despite the rough ground. They climbed to 5000 feet and flew parallel with tho mountains towards the south-east for 15 minutes, so that McKinley could photograph them. Then they returned to the base from where they took their departure on the course for Little America. The wind forced them to follow a course slightly to the west of that taken on the way out. They saw crevasses while 100 miles away, and hit them right on the course, so that they were able then to follow the dog trail home. A considerable distance of the return flight from the mountains had been covere'd when the motors began to pop and splutter. Juno was in tho middle of a message which he was repeating. He left it, not even stopping to lock up, which caused the signals to stop instantly, and made for the tank valves. Ho cut off the two outboard motors ( and then climbed into the pilot’s cockpit beside Dean Smith to pump and get up . sufficient pressure to feed the little remaining gas to the centre motor. They hoped to be able to stretch out the .

flight to the “snow-mobile,” for it was only 50 miles away. “I was never before so surprised in my life,” said Commander Byrd. “I never expected to have all the tlu - ee motors quit at once, and although we knew that the gas was low it seemed strange. I looked down and saw that wo were right over the worst part of the sastrugi, tho one place .where the men on "the trail had told us we could pot land safely, and I remember thinking, ‘Here’s where we get it.’ I never expected that we would land safely, but wo did. “While June pumped the gas for all ho was worth he also set the stabiliser to help in holding down the tail in landing, and when he had this done the machine was so hard on the controls that it was all Dean Smith could do to hold tho wheels forward. So Juno pushed on tlio controls on his side of the cockpit with one hand to help out while he pumped with tho other.” They were desperately afraid that the whole outfit would freeze so hard that they would not be able to get the engines restarted and were in the midst of the Lard job of warming the motors with torches when they heard the Fairchild piano coming. The other plane made a perfect landing and their troubles were over.