FROM THE AIR

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 9

FROM THE AIR

SCENE AT WAITANGI. SOUTHERN CROSS’ FLIGHT. Auckland, Feb. 5. Though to the ordinary man, a trip to Waitangi takes the whole of- a weekend, the whole journey, there and back, takes only three hours by. aeroplane. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, in the Southern Cross, took off from Mangere at 10 amt. this morning, and was back by one o’clock. He took up a number of passengers to see what the celebrations at Waitangi looked like from the air. Tomorrow he will make similar flights in the morning and in. the afternoon. The actual area where the celebrations are taking place was black with people, he said. In the centre there seemed to be a clear spot, like an arena, where Maoris were welcoming their guests in their own picturesque way. The crowd of sightseers was very large. Visibility was very good, and when a little north of Auckland, they ran out of- the cloudiness to blue skies and sunshine. Just over Warkworth, he said,- the whole of the North was spread out like .a map, with the ocean stretching far away on either side. ... Among the passengers were a blind man and his eight-year-old son. The latter arrived with two bottles of ginger beer and a bag of fruit. All the father could hope for was to feel the rush of the ’plane and the roar of the engines. “But.” said Sir Charles, “the boy . was his father’s eyes. He said he enjoyed his trip.” Sir Charles came within an ace of being able to land at Waitangi. He actually got the wheels of the plane on the earth, ran for 100yds, and then had to rise again. The land speed was too great, he said, for- him to pull up. He would have run into some fences, so all he could do was to go up again before the Southern Cross lost speed. His passengers had 20 minutes to look round them while there. Altogether it was a most enjoyable journey.