SYDNEY TO MELBOURNE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1934, Page 3

SYDNEY TO MELBOURNE

BY CAR AND AIR WITH SIR CHARLES MR. S. E. NIELSON'S EXPERIENCES. Ail account of his recent trip from Sydney to Melbourne with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith by car in 17 hours and back by aeroplane in 3 hours 50 minutes -was given a Daily News reporter yesterday by Mr. S. E. Nielson, New Plymouth. Sir Charles, he said, had extended him the courtesy of an invitation to accompany him and Mr. James Marks to Melbourne. With the exception of two small magneto-parts, the engine and' the car had been completely built in Australia. It was certainly a wonderful construe-, tional achievement, commented .Mr. Nielson. The trip was not made to break records, but merely to make an endurance test of the car and its engine. That it was a remarkable performer- was shown by the fact that the distance of 575 miles was accomplished in 17 hours, the running time being 15 hours. “The engine functioned perfectly and did not stop during the whole journey,” said Mr. Nielson. “It was given a hard thrashing, being pushed at everything on the road, and was a credit to Australian workmanship.” . The return trip to Sydney was made m 3 hours 50 minutes in Sir Charles’ private Percival Gull aeroplane. Only a few days before it bad made the trip in 2.2 hours with a following wind. This was the machine in which Sir Charles made his record-breaking flight from England to Australia not long ago. Its registration letters were most appropriate in that they were V.H. (the Australian registration) followed by C.K.S., Sir. Charles initials. . • The machine, which was named Miss Southern Cross, had already many fine performances to its credit and was on the way to rank as a worthy member of the fleet of which its famous namesake was the pioneer and the ace. Built to carry three passengers, and with a petrol consumption of six gallons an hour, the machine had just completed a taxi flight of 1500 miles and was on its way home when Sir Charles and Mr. Nielson joined it at Melbourne. Helped by a tail wind at one stage of the journey, it averaged a ground speed of 160 miles per hour at a height' of 11,000 feet on its way to Sydney. -t The flight from Melbourne to Sydney was found most interesting by Mr. Nielson. He saw from above in panorama detail the huge reservoirs upon which the irrigation schemes depended. Canberra, the Federal capital, was seen very clearly, too, although it was several miles off the direct route. Speaking of the Mascot aerodrome at Sydney, Mr. Nielson said great roading and building improvements had been made since he was there in January, The aerodrome itself had been greauy developed. Notable among the building improvements was Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s fine new hangar.