FLIGHT TO AUSTRALIA.

Wairarapa Age, 15 March 1933, Page 5

FLIGHT TO AUSTRALIA.

KINGSFORD SMITH’S PLANS

START ON MARCH 25.

WELLINGTON, March 14. Provided the Southern Cross is passed as in the necessary first-elass order, and the weather conditions are anything like favourable, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew will leave on the return flight to Australia from the Ninety Mile Beach on March 25 or 26, according to Captain P. G. Taylor, navigator on the trip to New Plymouth, who arrived by the Wanganella from Sydney last night to rejoin Sir Charles and navigate the big monoplane on its fourth Tasman crossing.

Captain Taylor stated that the crew for the return trip would probably consist of Sir Charles Kingsford Staith, in charge of the aeroplane, Captain Taylor (navigator), Mr. T. Pethebridge (second pilot), and Mr. J Stannage (wireless operator). It is possible that Mr. Jack Percival, the Australian journalist who came over in the aeroplane, will be a passenger going back. The Southern Cross will undergo a complete examination, and be refitted at New Plymouth. When it has been passed as “0.K., ” given a suitably favourable weather forecast, it will be taken to the Ninety Mile Beach ready for the hop off. The flight will probably commence in the early morning, so that, with favourable winds, Sydney will be reached in the evening or early part of the night.—(P.A.)