Evening star., 1927-05-31
LINDBERGH PLANS
TO SAIL FOR HOME
BY LAST OF WEEK

Continued from First Page)
it is best for me to go back soon, that's
what I am going to do.
l do not know vet just how 1 shall
go. That will be quickly decided.
There is some question about my re-
turning on destroyer and perhaps
shall go back on a liner. / may leave
Europe on Thursday, Friday or Sat
urday. OF course, L shall not miss
one bit of the reception which London
has planned for me. Also / have the
task Of seeing that the Spirit of
st. Louis is properly dismounted and
boxed for the return trip, for my ship
must reach it's starting point in per-
feet condition so that it can be put
into action in New York to fly back
to St Louis. hope to he able to take
my ship back when l go. In fact. l
shall make every effort toward that
end.
Regrets Shipping Plane.
Perhaps few will realize how / hate
to put that ship on a boat. After
what it has done it seems a shame, a
sort Of disgrace and In dignity to have
some other motive power take it
home. It's true ship Of the air and
rightly should travel only in the air.
But unfortunately for ships. as we'll
as for flyers, they cannot always do
exactly as they please, so we are
going back across the Atlantic by
boat. l only hope the Spirit of st.
Louis understands just how the
other half of our partnership feels
about the matter. I do not see, how
ever, that anything would be accom-.
plished by our flying back over the
route we came, and any route seems
out of the question for the time being.
AS l said to some newspaper men
the other day, the tough part about
flying the Atlantic Is that one has to
land. BY that. mean to refer to the
rlotouS welcome / received at lie
Bourget. Well. the reception I got at
Croydon yesterday was almost as tn.
multuous. l have been asked to make
a comparison Of the two crowds, but
that / must leave to others, inasmuch
as I got to LIE Bourget in the dark
and could not see the whole crowd be-
fore landing. / saw enough after
landing, but couldn't make any esti-
mate except my joke that I saw a
million people running toward me.
Reception Wonderful.
While the reception at Croydon
must have lacked some of the drama
or LIE Bourget, it was a wonderful, If
rough, tribute. When 1 first touched
land and saw the crowd coming l re-
called LIE Bourget, and took off into
the air. After the police had cleared
space I came down only to be sewed
up again. l certainly appreciated the
tribute paid me. but was surely glad
to get safely away from that crowd
OF friends.
1 must say the Croydon welcome
came as surprise to me. I had al.
ways heard the British were less
demonstrative than some other peo.
pies, but that crowd was demonstra-
tive enough. And conditions at lie
Bourget were somewhat different.
There l landed suddenly in the dark,
coming from the long flight across
the Atlantic, whereas at Croydon
that was all week old. Yet look at
the enthusiasm the London host show.
ed. It couldn't have been more posi-.
tive, and l am very glad to know
only few people were injured in
that rush. Scotland Yard must have
mlscalculated the enthusiasm as much
as did, for there were only 1900
police there, and they were drowned
as completely in that crowd as if
they had been dropped into the midi.
die of the ocean. 1 was glad to see
them. and they helped me immensely
in getting away. If there were any
police at LIE Bourget certainly 1 never
saw many Of them.
Ship Is Little Hurt.
had a most agreeable surprise
when l went to Croydon to look over
my ship. 1t seemed to me when I
got out Of the cockpit 1 heard some
thing tearing and breaking. But
after a thorough inspection l found
almost no harm had been done. There
is one little hole in the wing and the
landing strut lacked two bolts. Out.
side of that nothing is hurt at ALL
l wish to thank the Croydon Of
f1cials and the police for the capable
manner in which they guarded my
ship. It was so well locked up it took
| me some time to get to it.
AS has been told. my flight from
Brussels was simple. After leaving