Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-03
Continued from First Pagel

| we fedCneu ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, AAou6A a.
times it was quite rough, especially
going over Nova Scotia. We kept a
sharp lookout all along the route for
| Nungesser and Coli. We had always
| been anxious to search for them and
| thought there was a slight chance
| that they might have landed In some
rugged place in Newfoundland or
| Nova Scotia and cracked up their
| machine.
On the way to Newfoundland we
had splendid opportunity to get
| some excellent data on the altitude
at which to fly in order to get the
most help from the wind. In other
words, to pick out the shortest air
route. If the best advantage is taken
| Of the winds the route can be shorten
ed about 500 miles, and we were
anxious that our flight should do
something toward contributing to
| this improvement.
The most difficult thing about these
| long flights is suspending the great
| loads in the air. We soon got up to
| 5000 feet, which, in my opinion, is a
| remarkable demonstration, consider
| ing the heavy load aboard.
Cut Fuel for Cargo.
OF course, we could have taken con-
SLucI AMY ulOIC gas IL VIC iIoo iGhI ShC
radio out, taken only two men. and
not taken 300 or 400 pounds of emer.
gency equipment, mail, food, medical
| supplies, etc. We deliberately sacri-
feed the or Using radius in an effort
to provide for every emergency just
as commercial planes of the future
| must do.
Now that it is over I am glad we
had such difficult weather conditions,
because our flight proves what an
airplane can survive, and l believe we
learned something about what to do in
such bad weather. For example.
when flying for hours through fog or
over one layer of clouds with another
layer above, the only possible way to
account for the wind drift is to take
radio bearings from ships. This
could readily be so worked out that
bearing could be procured for the
whole flight.
In another article l shall so more
fully into this matter OF wind drift
and position, for in these 10 hours
when we saw neither water nor land
and seldom even the sky, l realized
more fully than ever how important
to transatlantic flying this question
is We had fog clouds practically
the whole way. from before we
reached Newfoundland and until We
came down at Ver-sur-Mer.
Plane i'm Rainbow.
For today / shall confine myself to
describing as well as l can the trip
itself and leave its lessons for
another time. AS / looked through
the trap door when passing north of
Halifax the shadow of the America
showed clear on a cloud below us and
there was around 1t very beautiful
rainbow that remained with the
plane. could not help but think IT
was an augury of good omen. Little
did we imagine the struggle that lay
before us.
Soon after we got over Newfound-
land / saw bog stream OF oil float
ing aft on the deck. | though 1t was
an oil leak and bad one, which, II
true, would place us in very Serious
predicament. 1t called to my mind
an oil leak we had on the Josephine
Ford when we were one hour from
the Pole and when we thought there
was not the slightest possibility OF
getting back.
Immediately | got hold of Neville,
who was forward, and we found 1t
was not a leak, but that he had
spilled some oil in pouring it into
the engines.
Then began those 10 hours from
the time we met the fog over New
foundland until we came out of 1t.
In my log find this note, which was
made then: Il take my hat off to the
boys, their efficiency and caimness
are marvellous"
Several hours after leaving New.
foundland / got note from Noviiie
giving the amount of gasoline left.
l made some quick calculations and
found that we had burned A gallons
Of gas an hour, that going on at
anything like that rate Of -consump-
ton and with the winds in any way
against us 1t would be impossible to
reach the other side. We had gone
too far to turn back. Should our
weather map be incorrect we would
get on the northern side of the storm
area, or the southern side of the high
pressure area and the winds would
probably be against us and we would
certainly have to make a forced land
ing in the Atlantic.
Worried About Weather.
I did not tell the boys this because
there was no use worrying them, but
for hour after hour l was worrying
whether the winds were with us. 1
knew that the higher we flew the
greater the winds we would have If
the weather map was correct. If not
correct, the higher we flew the more
we would probably be held back. We
CHANGED everything on flying high,
and so attempted to keep over the
fog clouds IS much as possible.
When the time came for the sun to
set we had just managed to get above
the highest tips of the great clouds.
The sun went down in a blaze of
glory. Then began a great struggle
during the hours of that first night
to keep out Of the clouds from the
| time the banks stretched above us
and we had to fly blindly with the
instruments.
l couldn't help but admire the way
Balchen and Acosta kept at their jobs.
1t was a great comfort at this time to
get some radio messages. The radio
| worked splendidly all the way across
and Neville deserves the greatest pos
sible credit. Although still in the
clouds when the dawn broke the light
was very welcome. All that day we
had only very occasional glimpses of
the sun and sometimes in the fog
we could barely see the wing tips of
the plane.
When we got above the clouds there
were at times some terrible views
We would look hundreds of feet into
fog valleys-da--.:, ominious depths.
At times the cloud peaks on the hori.
ION looked exactly like a land Of
mountains. At other times they took
on the appearance of beautiful lake
or river which showed blue against
the gray Of the clouds around.
Once when uora FxiYo on
altitude of about 10000 feet wa. ,r was
dripping into our cabin from the ex-
tremely dense fog. We got a radio
message from the steamer highland
which told US that our signals were
| coming so strong that we must be
very near them and asked IL we
could see them. They said thew too