Evening star., 1926-06-02

U
servations were made by Capt. ROald
.\muudsen and the members Of his
crew 20 make certain that they actu-
ally were passing over the Pole.
ropyticbt 1876 by the New York Times
and st Louis GlOhr- nem"'rat.
And that was the greatest ana moS'
lmpOrtant observation we made on
our examination flight, that on polar
ice there are no landing places for
flying machines.
This observation was not only Nalu-
able but also very surprising. Before
we left Norway for SpitZbergen natu-
rally we had addressed to many eX.
pertS questions about various matters
and especially our pilots had asked
about landing possibilities on the pack
ice inside the belt of drift ice along
The ice edge.
Landing Places on the Ice.
Most of the experts declared that
not very far from the edge we could
he sure to find excellent landing
places everywhere. between the foes
on the ice and should ii happen that
the ice. in case we were forced TO
land. was too much broken up. there
We're in the ice so many great leads
that with our flying boats we should
have no difficulties in finding open
water to land on.
We thought in another way we had
got certain proof of the existence of
landing places on the polar ice.
Along the eastern coast OF Greenland
every Year are observed immense ice
masses loosened from the pack ice.
And all experts who had seen these
l~~, ~
were level as the parQuet in a draw.
ing room. TO certain extent all
these observations were correct.
Naturally there are leads in the Polar
ice and often it's surface is level and
not broken up But the leads are
crooked and the ice that for the eye
of an ordinary man seems level Is for
the aviator not level and not fitted for
a landing.
And here we have the expla nation
Of why the aViatorS on our expedition
did not find landing places where ice
experts had told there were many.
Outside the belt of drift ice no aviator
had looked down on pack ice before
our expedition Of 1925. Probably we
should not have been so optimistic If
We had had reports from aviators
about the ice conditions.
Plains Dangerous to .Alight On.
The great plains the experts spoke
about were Very dangerous for Ia nd
ing. They were snow covered. but
under the snow there were great ice
foes that made it impossible to land
on them without running serious
risk of smashing the bottom of the
flying boat or damaging the wheels
on an airplane. And, as mentioned
before. the leads We're so crooked that
flying boats big as those we used had
not room enough for landing on them.
Our landing on the expedition last
year took place on the only lead Of
any size we saw on our flight from
SpitZhergen to 81 degrees 43 minutes
north latitude. and this will he proof
good enough Of the non-eXistence of
usual Ia nding places on the Polar ice
Mr.. Ellsworth AS well as myself
is convinced that 1t was only the
skillfulness OF the avators. Riser.
Larsen and Dietrichson. that saved
the expedition. When we passed over
this first big lead my plane. piloted
hy Riser Larsen. had consumed so
much fuel that he considered it most
prudent to go down to low altitude
TO look for a landing place before we
continued our flight. We were Just
on the point of going higher again, our
examination for the landing places
having given a negative result. whe n
suddenly one OF our two engines stop.
ped and now we had to go down.
Leads Also Full Of Danger.
To this day cannot understand
how we succeeded without smashing
the boat. We were too far from the
big lead and so the pilot had to try
to land in little branch of the big
one. How little this lead was fitted
for landing the readers may under
stand from a remark by Dietrichson.
II thought you were mad when |
saw you land on that place." he later
on said to Riser Larsen
| have. mentioned this thing so
amply to show how difficult it is to
find place to land on with an air.
plane or flying boat in the Polar basin
and how necessary it was for is to
use an airship after our experiences
last summer.
But that even aviatorS can have
ia lSe impressions of landing poSsibilj.
ties on the Polar ice when they look
down ON it from higher attitudes was
proved on the flight recently made
one of the helmsmen on board the