WOMAN'S GREAT FLIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1930, Page 7

WOMAN'S GREAT FLIGHT

DUCHESS OF BEDFORD’S FEAT.

■ NAVIGATOR TELLS THE STORY. Described by the Director of Civil Aviation in Great Britain, Sir. Sefton Brancker, as “the ’ best thing in civil aviation for three or four years,” the London to Capetown, and return flight by the Duchess of Bedford in. April of this year brought to a close another noteworthy chapter in the long association with flying of a distinguished member of the English peerage. Mr. .Little, navigator and assistant pilot of the “Spider,” told the story of the flight to a representative of tho Shell Company, -which arranged spirit and oil supplies over the entire route. “Adventures on the flight started at the most inconsiderate of times —for instance, when we were flying over hundreds of miles of forest in Tanganyika in which it would have been impossible to land, to our horror we saw that the oil gauge showed that we had only four gallons lefthand a few minutes later it was two gallons. We had two or three hours’ more flying before we could hope to land. We thought that the only thing to do was to make a forced landing in the forest, though we knew our chance of being found or heard of again was remote. Soon after this the oil disappeared from the' oil gauge altogether, and we assumed that the end was at hand and flew on; waiting for. the machnie to stop. To oiir amazement, however, it dish not stop, and when wo ultimately, landed *we found that the oil gauge had merely broken, while the' tank was full of oil. ..“In Rhodesia we had another’ exciting experience; we had run into very bad. weather while flying above ’ dense forests. We were flying under a curtain of low cloud just above the trees and surrounded by hills,.' and were ” circling round looking for a way out, because it was impossible to fly into the cloud, without the danger of. hitting the mountains round us, and pvehtually we . bad to go miles' off our course'in pur effort to find a gap through the clouds. Presently we decided to steer south in. the hopes of seeing the Zambesi, which would give us our position, but to bur dismay we could not find it, and this was very serious, as there was /nothing but masses of trees and jungle “ in which we could not land. After hours of flying, with petrol getting short, we came • to the conclusion that ■ we - had lost our way and we should merely have to fly on with jungle underneath until we crashed.

“Captain Barnard and I . mutually agreed that it was all up, but we did not say any thing to. the Ducliess, who was busy studying the wild game through her field glasses; the animals were very close, as we were flying low. When we had less, than one ..hour’s petrol supply, to our immense joy, we saw some mine buildings, and a few minutes later a d-ail way line, which we were immediately able, to identify as the Livingstone and -Bulawayo ; line. This. meant,- of course, that.as soon’ as we could . find somewhere ;to .land - iwo were saved from . being utterly, lost in the jungle. What we had -been afraid of. was that we were. west of .Livingstone, in which, case, there would have been thousands ; of miles of desert, and we would have had no hope, whatever. “Near Bulawayo we had another adventure. Captain Barnard was flying the machine at the time and became 'so over-powerhigly sleepy that’ lie sent a note for me to take over from him. the Duchess also fell heavily asleep, and when I had taken over for about ten minutes I could hardly keep my eyes open. We could not. make it ~ out, and we thought it must be'the . great fatigue of the journey. Things became so difficult that we could only fly by taking ..turns of about twenty minutes each,' and the moment I was relieved from' the i controls I used to; doze' until re-awakened at- the end of; twenty minUtes. On landing we found that • this was'due to an exhaust pipe insidejthe fuselage’ havirig .broken and '.filling 7. the place with carbon monoxide gas, which, as you know, is a deadly poison. It has no smell and has the effect of putting one to sleep. There is no doubt that we had a very lucky escape on this Occasion. On top. of all this we found that the flame from the broken exhaust, pipe was playing directly-on the carburettor and might easily have set the machine on fire." ' : "•' “I need not tell you much about the . forced landing, we had in jJulgaria, as it,has been fully reported in . the daily Press. ’Captain Barnard was .flying the machine at the time, and no, one but a most exceptionally gifted pilot could have achieved a forced landing under those conditions. The machine' was very heavy, having just' started with'a full load of petrol,; and in such conditions the machine. is' practically uncontrollable when thb engine is not running, yet he succeeded in landing the machine, against the. wind in a very small space surrounded by hills. > ■ ■“Although it . was not an adventure, a plague of flies wo came' across in .Khartoum, was most interesting. Ono night we were being entertained .at the Grand Hotel, when a plague of tiny -rreeh flies came on. They were so dense .that the three lights over', the billiard table were entirely obscured. By, a solid mass of flies so that we had’ to turn, the. lights out. “Throughout the .flight we ; satisfied ourselves with practically ..only one meal a day, which was dinner after we landed for the night. We started so early every morning that we had to be content with a cup of tea." • ' The Duchess of Bedford, who is oi years old, has ben ap enthusiastic liver since 19’20, and has a flying record of over 50,000 miles' to her creditv.Last year, with Captain' Barnard, she flew, by stages to India and back, and has since made, two extended air tours m. Europe. Besides being an experienced aviator, the Duchess is an expert on ornithology and zoology, while much of her spare time in summer is taken up by fishing, and many nursing institutes have reason to bo grateful for the interest she takes in their work. She is the daughter of Archdeacon Tribe, of Simla, and married the Duke of Bedford in 1888, and her prowess jis a cricketer is well remembered in Simla, particularly a game when she scored Odin a match for ladies in 1886. . .