Evening star., 1924-09-05
)RLD FLIGHT REVIEW TALE OF
HARDSHIPS AND COURAGE
Death Seldom Far From Flyers-"Hard Job Terse
Comment of Smith, Looking For,Oard Hap
PLY to Trips End

miles and the next day flew 800 miles
to Hongkong. En- route they fell
into a typhoon of mild intensity but
they were able to complete their
flight without much loss of time
Thence their course carried them to
Haiphong, June 10. where they land
ed in a river.
The next day as they prepared to
leave they could not get off the
water and were forced to taxi out
to the mouth of the river in search
of wind and rough water. On the
way to the touraine, Smiths plane
from the radiator which shot" the
motor 1t was the first forced land
ing he had had.
New Motor Arrives
The destroyer Preble answered q
hurry call and brought Il motor from
Saigon, and at the end of Al hours
from the time the pontoons struck the
water the Chicago was turning over
knots for Tourane. Saigon was made
without incident, the only disturb
ance to the flyers peace of mind oc-
curing on the ground when a res
taurant refused to serve the airmen
because they were clad in white
trousers and shirts which they had
borrowed from officers on American
destroyers. Their route then led
them to Bangkok. Siam. which they
made on June is under good condi-
tions, and from there they went to
Rangoon, Burma, on June 20, and
it was while on this flight that Nell
son and Wade nearly lost their lives.
The planes cut across. the Malay
Peninsula, over a rough, hilly area.
Nelson suddenly was sighted in a
deep, wide ravine apparently unable to
climb out and Immediately Wade went
in after him. Smith hovered along the
edge, while the two pilots put into
play their entire aeronautical knowl-
edge to climb out Of a possible crash.
The flyers now speak lightly of this
story (Which they are preserving for
their memoirs). Akyab was the next
stop and while en- route they passed
Maj. A. Stuart MacLaren, the British h
aviator. who later abandoned his
globe flight in the kuriles.
Fly Out OF Storm.
Taking off from Akyab June IS.
the planes flew out to sea for Is
on landing at Calcutta were trans
ferred from seaplanes to land planes
in hours and Is minutes.
A large crane was on a barge and
picked the planes up, held them in
the air while the pontoons were sub
stituted for landing gear and dropped
the land planes on the ground from
where they were rolled a short dis
tance to a park used as a flying
field. Continuing their journey July
1, the pilots flew to Alahab had, where
they obtained their first ride on a
camel and then hoped to Unballa,
where British aviators supplied them
with flying sun helmets by robbing
another squadron of its supply. Be
tween Umballa and Moulton the flyers
experienced their first dust storm,
which to them resembled thick
fog. Sand piled up in the ships
crevices, in the pilots mouths and
made it a mise rable trip. At Moulton
the hottest day of their trip awaited
them-116 in the day and 9S degrees
at night, with no breeze. July they
left Moulton and had very weary
trip to Karachi, the last stop in India.
Nelson's Motor TroubIesome.
Seventy miles out Nelson had mo-
tor trouble, but he got into karachi
the same day The weather was hot
and dry and the country below them
was rugged and cheerless. Leaving
Karachi July 7, they made Charbar,
Persia, $50 miles. the same day and
proceeded to Bender Abbas, arriving
there July 8. From Bender Abbas
they flew to Bushire. 1t was so hot
the officers had to live on the out
skirts of the city.
1t was here that Lieut.. Arnold got
nothing to eat, there having been a
misunderstanding in arrangements
for food. Bagdad was the next stop
and a big English flying field, where
they landed, was one of the brightest
spots on the entire trip.
Aleppo, Syria, was the next stop
and the journey from there to Con-
stantinople was the most enjoyable
of the trips in the Orient. 1t was
made over mountains and beautiful
country and in cool weather, much
in contrast to the fiat and desolate
terrain previously traversed in tre-
Turkish and foreign officials to in
spect their planes, the flight was
held up a day at Constantinople.
They left July II for Bucharest,
Rumania, and the next day flew to
Vienna, making brief stop at Buda-
pest as a matter of courtesy. They
ate a bite On the field and imme-
diately took off. On arriving in
Vienna they worked on the planes
until pm. and then went to
hotel. which they never left until
time to return to the field next morn
ing. Paris was the next stop, but
battlefields where the airplane first
came into practical use as a tre-
mendous weapon of war.
Cross Battlefield.
So they put down at Strassbourg for
fuel and flew over st. Mihiel Verdun
and other historic sites familiar to
Arnold and Wade, who had seen war
service in France. On Frances national
holiday. July IA, the three planes land
ed in Paris. beating the time of
D'Oisy, the French aviator, who flew
from Paris to Toxic, by one day.
Crowds were on hand to greet them,
and in moment some persons began
writing their names on Smiths ship.
Smith had left the plane, but Arnold
still was in it, so he sped up the motor
and blew" away the excited French
men with the propeller blast. The fly
ers sought to recuperate and rest up in
Paris, but were prevented by admirers,
so three days later they flew over to
Croydon, England Mrs. MacLaren met
them on landing and personally thanked
the Americans for their kindness in
having aided her husband, A. Stuart
MacLaren, the British world flyer.
Next morning a letter was delivered
to Smith as he got in his plane. 1t
was from Mrs. William Mitchell, wife
of the assistant chief, Army Air
Service, and had followed the flyers
all the way from Shanghai. The
good wishes of the Gen. and Mrs.
Mitchell were conveyed in the letter,
which Smith read in the plane on his
flight up to Brough, 200 miles north
ward.
Long Wait Fellows.
A long wait now was in store for
the pilots. On July 21, the scout
cruiser Richmond left Newport, r. l.,
for RoSyth, Scotland as flapshin of