Evening star., 1926-05-17

| ana we were ready ana ANXIOUS U
be still further mystified If 1t shoul'
mean that the motor would continu
| to run.
But I felt sure. at this stage of ou
| journey, that we could make King
| Bay with two motors. The sun wa
| still bright and | had no further ap
prehension about the leaky tank.
Makes Aviation Practical.
| 1t occurred to me what q grea
thing multimotors are for a plane
They give to business the answer !
has been looking for. The plane tha
can fly with a half or a third of 1t!
motors is almost certain to run rea
sonable time If the gasoline, oil an(
water last.
But we did not have to reckon will
water because our three motors are
Wright air-cooled instead of water
cooled Freezing temperatures coult
not freeze our motors up. 1t Is {
great motor and a great plane. The
engines are 200-horsepower each, Sc
we had 600 horsepower pulling oul
great single wing along at the rate
of 100 miles an hour.
The Wright company had put {
special Cowling all around the motors
to protect them from the bitter cole
temperature at the Pole. The TEN
perature had been zero, 80 degrees be
low freezing. 1t was now 5 degrees
above zero and really warmer than
had expected to find it.
We had strong wind with us anC
We're taking advantage of it by flyine
at various attitudes. The wind changes
in both strength and direction at diff
ferent attitudes, and an aviator car
IN 6yyn afne Of hi n -
to increase his speed over the ground
Wind Increased Speed.
There was about a 20-mile-an-h hour
wind blowing, and it was increasing
our speed by 10 miles an hour. If this
wind had been directly behind us, as
1t was at times, we would have in
creased our speed 20 miles an hour be
cause the plane. while flying, is part
of the air and is affected by wind cur
rents exactly as a boat is affected by
water currents.
For the first time since we left we
gave the skis a careful examination
to see If they had been injured when
we got off the snow with our heavy
load. Amundsen and Ellsworth had
knocked a hole in the bottom OF one
of their flying boats previously in TAX
ing off the ice.
We found our skis o. X. as far
back as we could see. We had made
them in New York with a big factor
of safety. but had put two skis to-
gether at Kings Bay and nearly dou-
bled their strength.
1t is q queer sensation for one who
has flown for some years to look down
where wheels should be and find skis
and runners. We felt that we had
learned a little something about air
plane skis and about landing and TAX
ing off the snow, and I found myself
mentally designing set of skis as |
sat there mus!ng.
Navigation is Difficult
But 1 soon came to with a start, for
we had the job Of getting back to
SpitZbergen, which one who looks at
a polar chart Will find was not so big
q place to aim at. The great question
now was, would we hit Spitzbergen or
miss it and find ourselves lost over
the cold water of the Arctic Ocean.
There are no marks on the ice where
by one can retrace ones flight as one
has over the land.
One must navigate over the polar
sea ice just as one navigates over
the ocean, only navigation must be
much quicker, for by the time our
position could be located by the sea
going method we should be a hundred
miles or so from the location where
we started the calculations.
We had confidence that our naviGa-
ton had been corrective had to have
was it? Our lives
hung in the balance. I then tried a
very interesting experiment to make
sNoiv 70 h inc -
certain, that we were flying on q line
from the Pole to Grey Hook, SpitZ-
bergen.
1 calculated from the chart what
time Grey Hook should be exactly be-
tween the sun and the plane, which,
Of course, would be true noon at Grey
Hook and true noon for the spot we
were flying on. This was at II
o'clock, Greenwich time. as 1 recall.
At that time the plane, if we were on
the right course, would point exactly
towSrd the sun.
Calculations Were Correct.
To my great delight, when that in
slant arrived the hand Of the sun com
pass and the Josephine Ford pointed
exactly forward to the
sun. We were still more than 300
miles from land, but I knew now that,
fog or no fog, sun or no sun, we
would hit land unless a terrible hur-
ricane should blow up. On the way
north I had obtained the variations
Of the magnetic compass near enough
not to make q very great error in 300
miles. The worst of the variations
were behind us.
1 went up and relieved Bennett at
r,fC k<I nj "a
same time by holding the precious sun
slowly, as the time passed, the sun
make bigger and bigger angle to
the right of our line of flight. That
was as it should be. When Bennett
took the pilots seat again he informed
mo that the motors were coming up
to our best expectations in the mat
ter of gasoline consumption.
had taken a few photographs and
moving pictures on the flight, and l
now tried to take some more. l had
never taken moving pictures before
and very few photographs. 1t took
all the patience L possessed to reW1nd
that movie camera when the film
iammed, and 1 almost heaved 1t over
board once or twice. I wonder how
those pictures are coming out, II at
all: l. TOOK q movie OF Bennett DIT lile
wheel, and he tried to take care of me
plotting, but he got up so close that
am afraid it won't pan out.
Sights Land 100 Miles Away.
About 2:30, Greenwich. I started
forward to ask Bennett if he could
make out any land ahead, but just as
did so he nodded his head, indicat-
ing there was something of interest to
see. hastened to the pilots seat with
my field glasses and, sure enough,
there was land at least 100 miles
away. We had found the visibility in
the Arctic remarkable in clear wealth
er. I have several times seen noun
tains $50 miles away.
That land was the most welcome bit
Of land / had ever seen. No more of