AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 140, 16 June 1932, Page 5

AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND

SYDNEY PILOT'S FLIGHT. The flight which Mr. J. N. Weir. | the young Sydney pilot, is low under I taking, will be of a leisurely nature, ' occupying roughly a month, with daily I stages of approximately 400 miles. | Mr. Weir arrived at. Batavia on Thurs | Mr. Weir’s Gipsy Moth machine i was originally owned by Major de! Haviland and was widely known as [ “Prudence 11.” Later, as the I “Golden Quest,” it featured in the spectacular disappearance of Pittendrigh and Hanire in the interior of ■ Australia, when they were 10.-t for ,-dx ) weeks ami rescued on the x point of ex- I haustion in the. Mat Donnell Ranges.! It has been reconditioned, painted I black and silver and christened |: “Edith” after Mr. Weir’s mother. Fitted with au extra petrol tank in I

’the front cockpit, it will have a total j fuel capaeiy of 60 gallons, giving it. a range of 1,000 miles in normal flying conditions. To simplify the pumping of fuel from the reserve to the gravity tank, a Vickers plunger pump will be carried, capable of pumping fuel M • the rate of 1} gallons per mtnuto. i Mr. Weir, who is 24 years of age, is of Scottish birth, and arrived in Australia early in 1920. Ho qualified as a 'pilot at the Adastra Airways (Messrs, i Follett and Hammond), Sydney, about two years ago, being the first pupil of this flying school to take his ticket. Mr. Weir has already flown 350 hours, a large portion of which was done a« second pilot on the Australian National Airways between Sydney ami Brisbane. The Shell Company has arranged fuel supplies for the flight over the usual route from Darwin to Aleppo, after which Mr. Weir will fly across Europe via Athens, Brindisi, Rome and Lyons. Mr. Weir will carry a bag of golf clubs, so that he will not be at a loss to fill in time if held up with bad weather conditions along