The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-05-29
GR|EVE TELLS OF
FAILURE OF NEW
WIRELESS OUTFIT
HAWKER'S NANIG ATOR DE
NOUNCES SET FURNISHED TO
SOPWITH AIRPLANE.

London, Tuesday. May 27.-(By The
Associated Press.)-Describing weather
conditions and how his airplane ran into
strong northeasterly winds, Harry c.
Hawker said to 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 u couple of hours"
"The wireless was not a great sue
cess" Lieut. Com. Mackenzie Grieve
said. I'VE had a new set from England
but trial flight with it was impossible
owing TO the danger of rsking the ma
chino on the limited ardrome space.
on starting we found the spark very
feeble and only a small amperage OBJ
tainable owing to the understood pro
peler used to drive it. | sent out mes
sages every half hour, and think they
should have been heard if any ship
had been near, but never had any re
ply. 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 ma
chine was insufficient to drive the wire
less equipment and the spark would he
generated, but | sent IS. o. s." signals
every fifteen minutes, on and Off chance
of the spark operation.
"From a navigating point of view
| placed no reliance in the wireless 9th
er than as "A means of asking the posi-
tions of such ships, as we might pass
The ships had previously been asked by
wireless from st, Johns to make known
their positions if they saw us by day OF
ii we fired lights by night. AS we saw
no vessel. no light was fired. one YES
sci has reported having seen a light but
the Observers on board may have seer
the red glow of the exhaust. We pre-
ferred to navigate chiefly by celestia
observations and my position as | work
ed it out by the stars, was virtually cor
rect, | found, when picked up. ! useo
a cloud horizon instead of a sea horizon
as the sea was hardly visible any time
we were in the air. During the first
four hours after leaving we passed ovel
! fog banks. The clouds below We're like
a sea giving a perfect horizon. ! hdt
only to Judge our distance above then
and take the sun as on sea horizon
About 7 O'Clock Greenwich time, SAN
| the sea for a few seconds through {
hole in the fog or cloud bank. | oh
tanned some idea of the drift Of the ma
chine by noting the breaking waves
through the drift indicator. We wer'
| then at a height of four thousand t,el
ana climbing, the drift being ten de
| srees to the right of our course, Wh.cl
ha6 already allowed for on starting
Owing to the northeast wind that wa
/ blowing.
"Up to 1915 o'clock we steered t'
make a true east course, not magnetic
east. During that period | took sight
every hour. At 1915 | made oul tina
we were four hundred miles fr1m st
Johns. We then altered our course t.
north 73 degrees east, true 10 keep II
the track of ships which we just hat
entered at that time. The clouds wcr'
broken up and made sights Impossible
! until about 1;3S, when | managed L
get the Pole star down to flat pec
Of cloud and was surprised to find W.
were about $50 miles south of tn
course. We Immediately altered ou
course a little to the northward to coun
tcract this drift. but from furthe
sight obtained half an hour later
round we were still settling southwark
1;y;, l,at
erlv gale must have been blowing, mad
a decided alteration to the northwar'
and worked the machine up to LATITUDE
80 degrees north and into the track fol
lowed by ships"