New Britain herald., 1926-07-15
AIR MAIL PROVES
 VERY UNRELIABLE
TOday'S Plane Has Not Yet
 Reached Hartford

Hartford, July 15 OP - The late
 arrival Of the morning air mail
 plane of the Colonial Air Transport corporation here yesterday and the failure of this mornings plane to ap-
 pear at Brainard Field up to noon,
 because of a forced landing at Bel hany field, near Naugatuck, have
 disclosed that the company Is ex- periencing difficulty in conforming with its schedule that went into ef- feet on July 1.
 Since that day when the first air mail plane in New England arrived at Brainard field, the schedule has been maintained irregularly, the planes landing here on time only a little more than half of the number of days in which service has been in operation. District Traffic Man. ager Anson Bigelow said that today's air mail plane was held at Hadley field near New Brunswick, N. J., for several hours because of the delay in connection with the transcontinental plane from Chicago. It left the field at about 10 o'clock this morning but the pilot encountered a dense fog and was forced to land at Bethany field, an emergency landing place. Just when the plane will arrive at Brainard field, MT. Bigelow said he did not know because the pilot was waiting for the fog to lift before re- suming his fight.
 The New York Boston airplane is due here every morning, except on Sundays and holidays at ' o'clock and leaves at 7:10. The night plane is scheduled to arrive at 7:15 and to leave five minutes later. Yesterday mornings plane did not arrive until o'clock in the afternoon, although the second machine came in near its scheduled time. On Monday, Mir Bigelow reported, the evening plane from Boston had trouble of a minor nature and was forced to land for repairs. Last week. one of the planes became engulfed in the fog and landed in Bridgeport. The mail was forwarded by rail at that city.
 July is an unsatisfactory month for aviation because of atmospheric MT. Bigelow explained. I've have been having difficulty in keeping up our schedule. Our rec ord for the first week is not as near perfect as we wanted, but from now on as the pilots become accustomed to the route, the planes will arrive more regularly. The greatest trou- ble comes from the morning planes because they wait at Hadley field for the transcontinental mail plane from Chicago which is often late. The evening planes are arriving more satisfactorily. Also New York's atmospheric conditions handicap the pilots because of the fog from Long Island Sound. Although the wealth nr is warm, the condition of the air is such as to make flying difficult.
 Mir. Bigelow added that the planes are properly equipped with magnetic for use in the fog, but that this equipment does not offset the difficulties of general flying con- litions this month. He predicted hat from now on conditions ought 70 be more favorable.
 The Colonial Air Transport in- ends to replace the present single motor planes with new tri-motor machines large enough to hold pilot and a radio mechanician. At present the pilot is the only oecu- pant of the plane. The new planes nay be placed in operation this sum- ner. They will be of the same type hat recently flew over the North Pole.