MAJOR BLAKE’S FLIGHT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18534, 17 July 1922, Page 5

MAJOR BLAKE’S FLIGHT.

THE JOURNEY TO BAGDAD. ADVENTURES IN THE DESERT. A GRAPHIC STORY. Received July 16, 5.5 p.m. BAGDAD, July 14. Major Blake states: The journey from Aboukir was full of incident. On landing at Zina the shock absorber of the under-carriage gave way. The damage was soon repaired, but Malins was suffering from heat and it was necessary to send a wireless to Amman for a doctor. He thought Malins would be better for j a day’s rest, so they deferred the I start for Bagdad and camped for the j night in the desert. i Zina being a mere spot in the desert fifty miles east of the Dead Sea, i there was not a regular aerodrome. lOn Wednesday morning the two machines began the flight to Bagdad I over 600 miles of waterless desert, marked only by the track which a motor lorry convoy made last year. As the pilot of the Vickers-Vernon aeroplane had done the journey before he led the way. The VickersVernon also carried our stores, including fifteen gallons of drinking water and emergency rations. We had been flying one and a half hours when the Vickers-Vernon lost its way owing to our distracting the pilot’s attention by flying close to his machine to enable Malins to obtain photographs. The Vickers-Vernon landed. We followed, but went up again and searched for the route. When we found it, the Vickers-Ver-non could not rise above 500 feet. The two wireless aerials were carried away as the result of hitting rocks. Half an hour later the Vickers-Ver-non had io descend again, as repairs to the oil pumps were necessary, but the engine was still running badly. so I decided to continue alone, flying until dusk. We lauded at Eljid, where we were well received by the Arabs, one of whom wore a rusty Gillette razor suspended from the right ear. After we had kissed the sheiks and headman, a sheep was killed in our honour, and we were forced to carry away the bleeding carcase in our aeroplane. At dawn on Thursday we started on the last lap of the Bagdad flight. On several occasions we had to fly around in circles before we could pick up the track, and consequently exhausted our petrol before reaching Raniadie. This was awkward, but by draining all the petrol tanks and pouring the spirit thus obtained into one gravity tank, we just managed to rise enough to enable us to get into the air again and crawl to Ramadie. Here the political officer gave us beer and food. A few minutes later the machine from Bagdad, which was searching the desert for us, as we were long overdue, appeared. Thus we reached Bagdad, a sorry spectacle, unshaven and dirty, as we were unable to wash for three days, but all felt quite fit after food and a bath. The aeroplane engine is behaving splendidly.