The Nome nugget., 1922-09-02

August 17th, says the Nenana News, was C. o. Prest. aviator, who has the misfortune to lose his plane when almost within sight of his goal. He went to Fairbanks yesterday and will return to Nenana within few days to connect with the through train for the coast. enrOute to the States. MT. Prest expects to build another plane during the coming winter and will make another flight next year. with Siberia as the objec. tive point.
 Although quite young man. MT. Prest has had twelve years flying experience. He had intended mak- ing q flight from New York to some point on the Siberian coast, and back. He left Curtis Flying field, at Buffalo, during the latter part of Ma. and followed mapped course. making brief stops to replenish his funi, at the following places. in the orier named: Cleveland, Bryan. Chicago, Clinton. Ia, Iowa City, Des. Moines, Omaha, Grand Island North Platte, Cheyenne. Rawlins, Rock Springs, Salt Lake City, ogden. To- gan. Roberts. Dillon, Anaconda. Helena, Shelby, Glacier Park. Kalis- ps.', Spokane, Seattle, Juneau, Skag- way. Whitehorse. Selkirk, Dawson, and Eagle. He came to grief when about 50 miles out of Eagle on his line of flight to Fairbanks.
 'The machine used was standard Curtis motored biplane. slightly smaller than the De Havilland bomb ing planes used by the Black Wolf Squadron which visited Alaska un- der the command of Captain Streete. and had the advantage of being able to land in places where the bomb CTS could not. The motor used was 90 horsepower. eight cylinder engine capable of a speed with full load of 65 miles an hour, greater speed being possible with less load.
 The flight was commenced in bad weather and MT. Prest says that during his long journey he did not have a single day of anything like fair weather, rain alternating with snow daily until he was forced to land near Eagle, where his plane be- came a total wreck.
 On Sunday July 16. he hopped off from Eagle. headed for Fair banks in the early morning. It was raining at the time but not very heavily. When he had flown about half an hour spark plug trouble de- veloped, one cylinder went out en- tirely. His altitude at this time was about $500 feet and. although he could have held his altitude with six cylinders, he could not climb and as he knew there were some noun tains ahead of him, coupled with the fact that plane could not long stand the vibration resulting from partial use of the engine, he made preparations to land. intending to resume the flight after he had put the engine in order. He picked out a sloping plain at the top of hill in the neighborhood of the Seventy mile river. He knew it was a nig- gerhead swamp but it was the best he could find, and he made the landing safely. coming down among scattered bands of caribou not in the least disturbed by his sudden ap- pearance. In very short time he had corrected the engine trouble and then spent a couple of hours clearing a runway through the swamp by tearing out the niger heads with his hands. When this work was completed he climbed in and taxied for the takeoff. The plane was gathering speed and all most ready to leave the ground when | .ll
 a soft spot was encountered. The wheels buried themselves in this. bringing the plane sharply on it's nose and breaking the propeller. Luckily for Prest he was strapped in his seat and escaped being hurled from the machine.
 It was impossible for him to right the machine alone. so he gath cred. up the more important instru- ments and started in search of a trail. The weight of his pack being too much for him, it was cached about three miles from the scene of the wreck and the aviator returned to the machine, intending to take shelter under it's tail from the rain.
 Before leaving the plane second time, he set up his moving picture