Evening star., 1927-05-03

strain under which they have been
] since last December. Maj. Herbert A.
| Dargue, Capt. Ira c. Eaker and Lieut..
| Muir S. Fairchild of the Pan-American
! flyers today pieced out story of
| their adventure to a representative of
The Star.
Although the fight was not of the
transatlantic or other spectacular ma
ture," said Maj Dargue, 'it will reap
benefits in years to come, whereas the
stunts long since will have been for
gotten. The glory not only exists
now but will be a continuous affair,
| think. and from the manner III
which we were resolved, it is evident
that the flight never will be for
gotten.
1T was hard grind but it was
| worth it. The high lights of the trip
were the crossing of the Andes high
above the clouds in frigid atmosphere;
then rain in Ecuador, lower Chile
and along the Brazilian coast. We
went across the mouth of the
Amazon, which has ballled so many
flights in that region such as Dug
gan's and Hinton's We had no
trouble, but we had terrible thoughts
in our hearts as we looked down on
the jungle.
Jumped 1900 Miles in Four Days.
Then we Jumped from Rio to
Para, Brazil, a distance of 5000 miles,
in four days. and made the following
1900 miles in one day. Flying on
the west coast is ideal. except for
landing facilities, and while they are
not so good on the east coast on
account of the rains, with reliable
and dependable equipment the air
plane VIII show it is possible at none
too distant date to jump from Buenos
Aires to New York in five days by the
relay sistem, similar to what the trans
continental mail route in this coun-
try employs"
To Capt. Eaker and Lieut.. Fair
child, who flew in the San Francisco,
three points of their epochal under
taking always will remain as the out
standing results Of the flight. They
are:
First. The wholehearted and sipcere
reception they received from the peo-
pie in every Latin American republic
they visited and the widespread in
terest exhibited in the flight.
Second. They flew virtually the en-
tire air route without once knowing
what type of weather they would en-
counter and they never once turned
back on account of disturbances. al.
though there were many.
Third. Air communication between
the northern and southern continents
is possibility of no hard accomplish
ment, and once airways are charted
and meteorological information is
frequent and accurate, the continents
will be within few days of each
other.
Cordial Reception Noted.
The most cordial reception given the
flyers was at La Paz, Bolivia, 10000
feet above the sea level and to which
they went by train, the airmen said
Arriving in La Paz at midnight, they
were met by nearly 10000 people and
a band. The people fought to carry
the American airmen on their shoui-
ders and escorted them to the club at
which they stayed for the night. Once
in the club, the airmen were serenaded
from without and they had to make
frequent trips to the balconies and
receive the applause. The reception
did not subside until about 2 O'Clock
in the morning.
Capt Eaker and Lieut.. Fairchild
wei forced to spend the night alone
on the Brazilian coast when forced
down owing to broken gasoline line.
Thu flyers had left Florianopolis for
Santos, Brazil, and were about midway
between the two points when the
trouble developed. Lieut.. Fairchild
jumped up in the back seat and yelled
to Capt. Eaker to shut off the gasoline,
as he anticipated the trouble before
the flight from an examination of the
line. Capt. Eaker headed for the
beach and with engine dead landed in
the water.
Rescued by Portuguese.
As he had no power with which
to taxi for the land, they sat there
anu We're tossed toward the shore line
by the waves until about so natives
came out of the jungle. The natives
spoke Portuguese only and the two
Army airmen spoke only English. But
the former knew who the unexpected
visitors were, and assisted with a
human chain in pulling the plane
ashore.
After they had been brought up on
the land and repaired the break, it,
was found that if they departed at
that time they would not reach Santos
that night. Both airmen crawled un-
der an old boat and Capt. Ealler went
to sleep. Lieut.. Fairchild found sew
eral "man-eating cockroaches" about
three inches long in their presence,
so he went out to sleep under one of
the wings A fisherman nearby
wakened him at intervals to show
him his catches and there was little
sleep for him that night.
At 4:30 they prepared to take off,
but the natives, having spent the
night in locating some one who could
speak English, came down on the
beach. built fire and the English
speaking person delivered an grafton.
The flyers then bade farewell to their
hospitable hosts after a hearty break
fast which had been provided them
and pushed onto Santos.
Forced to Spend Night on Shore.
South of Bahia the entire flight was
forced to spend the night on shore as