OSCAR GARDEN’S FLIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18169, 6 November 1930, Page 6

OSCAR GARDEN’S FLIGHT.

The flight of Oscar Garden from England to Australia must surely be regarded as one of the boldest and pluckiest on record, reading, too, more like a page from a novel of adventurous youth than the actual accomplishment of an adventurous youth. There is something delightfully haphazard in the story of a young man who walked into a shop in Bond Street,-London, and in an off-hand manner traded his motor car for an aeroplane, later to take off in her from Croydon, with the casual remark: “I’m off to Australia.’ v What is more, Garden had only a few hours of flying experience, and none of longdistance work. In this he and Miss Johnson were akin. There may be those who would condemn the flight as foolhardy and merely spectacular, yet with the probable exception of Miss Johnson’s, no air voyage in history has so effectively demonstrated the advance of aviation. When a novico can set out in an aeroplane with his objective thousands of miles away, and achieve it, it brings a heavier-than-air craft into the same category as a motor car—a machine t-o be mastered in the space of a few hours. There is, of course, more of the human element to be taken into consideration' in aviation. A man may be an excellent motorist but -a poor aviator. Success in flying would seem to be analogous to an extra sense, affecting not only individuals but rajees, as witness what indifferent flyers the Japanese are In direct contrast to the brilliant aviators of China. Poets and musicians are born, not made, and so must flving men be. It would be a fitting climax to a remarkable voyage if Garden were to succeed in his reported desire to fly the Tasman. In doing that he would break new ground and make history.