The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-05-28
GRIEVE TELLS Of
WEATHER FOUND
ON OCEAN FLIGHT
Navigator Describes Efforts
to Use Radio and Difficult
ties Encountered in Keep
; ina to Course.

LONDON, May 2s. CBy the Associated
Press. )-Describing weather conditions
and how his airplane ran into strong
no%rtheasterly winds. Harry G.. Hawker
said to a representative OF The Daily
Mail:
The weather was no hindrance and
we should have made the flight but
for the trouble occasioned by the water
boiling in our cooling system. We could
have got through the worst of the
weather In a couple Of hours"
The wireless was not a great sue
cess" Lieut. Commander Mackenzie
Grieve said. I'VE had a new set from
England, but a trial flight with It was
impossible owing to the danger OF risk
Ing the machine on the limited air
drome space. On starting we found the
spark very feeble and only a small
amperage o~btainable, owing to the
undersiEed propeller used to drive 1t.
] sent out messages every half-hour
and think they should have been heard
II any ship had been near, but never
had any reply. My chief object was
TO let them know we were still In the
air. During the last few hours, when
the engine was throttled down, the
speed OF the machine was insufficient
to drive the wireless equipment and
no spark could be generated but / sent
=. O.. s. signals every Is minutes on
an off chance OF the spark operating.
Fired No Lights.
Prom a navigating point Of view ]
placed no reliance in the wireless other
than as a means Of asking the posi-
tons OF such ships as we might pass.
The ships a previously been asked by
wireless from st. Johns to make known
their positions II they saw US by day
or II we fired Very lights by night. As
we saw no vessel, no light was fired.
n vessel has reported having seen a
light but the observers on board may
have seen the red glow Of the exhaust,
We preferred TO navigate chiefly by
celestial observations n my position
as | worked 1t out by the stars. was
virtually correct, | found, when picked
up, | used a cloud horizon instead OF
a sea horizon as tho sea was hardly
visible any Of the time We were In the
air.
During the first four hours after
leaving we passed over fog banks. The
clouds below were like a sea, giving
a perfect horizon. l had only to Judge
our distance above them and taking
the sun as on a sea horizon, About I
o'clock, Greenwich time, | saw the sea
for a few seconds through a hole in
the fog or cloud bank. / obtained sons
Idea OF the drift of the machine by
noting the breaking wave through the
drift indicator. We were than at q
height of 1000 feet and climbing, the
drift being 10 degrees to the right OF
our course, which | had already allowed
for on starting, owing to the northeast
wind that was blowing.
up to 1915 o'clock we steered to
make a true east course, not magnetic
east. During that period | took sights
every hour. At 1913 / made out that
we were 400 miles from st. Johns. We
then altered our course to north 7S
degrees east true to keep in the track
Of ships which we should just have en-
tered at that time. The clouds were
badly broken up and made sight i'm
possible until about 1913 when l man
aged to get the Pole star down to a
flat piece OF cloud and was surprised
to find we were about $50 miles south
of the course. We Immediately altered
our course a little to the northward to
counterfeit this drift but from a further
sight obtained half an hour later ]
found we were still settling southwark
and, realizing that a very strong north =
erly gale must have been blowing, made
n decided alteration to the northward
and worked the machine up to latitude
so degrees north and into the track fol-
lowed by ships"