Evening star., 1927-11-14
AIR TRAIL BLAZERS
ARGUE FOR SAFETY
Aviators Insist Accurate
Weather Information Should
Precede Over Ocean Flights.

months-sat in judgment today al
the Commerce Department on the
vagaries of the weather over the
oceans, related their experiences Wltt'
freakish winds and storms over the
seas. and agreed that before trans
oceanic travel by airplane becomes
more than mere stunt much
more accurate information must be
had for the guidance of aviators.
Called together by Assistant Secre'
tary of Commerce MacCracken IN
charge of aviation, to confer with
authorities of the United States
Weather Bureau and Of the Guggen
helm Foundation for Promotion of
Civil Aeronautics. all the aviators re-
called their struggles with the eie-
rnents. and two of them told Of having
been forced into the ocean. their hopes
dashed by layers of impenetra bic fog.
or intense gales over the ocean. All
paid tribute to the weather forecastinc
by the Weather Bureau. but decried
the lack of facilities which make ii
virtually impossible TO forecast the
weather over the sea wastes more
than - hours in advance.
Bureau Terms Misunderstood.
Inkling of a misunderstanding Of
the terms 'Ised hy the Weather Ru-
reau in foterasting the weather for
ocean f1igh,s by the petite Ruth Elder
and her pisst, George Haldeman, came
from DIR. James II. Kimball OF the
Weather Bureau office in New York.
DIR. kimbAll and his associates fore
cast the weather for all the tranSat-
Ia antic flights, which started from fly
ing fields near New York. The two
principals in the flight of the plane
American Girl did not completely
understand the terms used by the
Weather Bureau. DIR. kimball said.
'The difficulty arose from our not
talking the same language" DIR. Kim
ball said, however. that the conference
should prove Of great value in bring
ing meteorologists and aviators on
common terms Of understanding. 1T
is fortunate that the Elder flight end
ed as it did" he added. "but it is
unfortunate that there should have
been misunderstanding" He alluded
to the area of high barometric pres
sure over the Atlantic, which Capt:
said the American Girl
climbed through. hut met with such
buffeting that an oil lead was broken.
forcing the plane into the water near
the Azores. Miss Elder spoke only
Cant. Haldeman speak for her. Hal.
deman said the pair had intended to
make the hop in August. but were
compelled by circumstances to go in
October" He did not elaborate on
the circumstances"
Lindbergh and Byrd Absent.
Col Charles A. Lindbergh. pioneer
transatlantic flyer, and Comdr. r. r.
Byrd, in command of the America
and hero of the North Pole fight,
were the only two outstanding trans
oceanic airmen absent from the "me-
conference" Byrd was
by Bernt Balchen, navi-
gator for the Byrd plane. who de-
scribed a grim battle with the ele-
ments, beginning less than half way
q cross the ocean. eliminating in
landing in the sea off the
coast of France. Fog blanketed the
ocean and the land on most of the
trip of the Byrd plane, Balchen said,
while the radio went bad over France,
the aviators to rely on
other instruments for guidance. I'VE.
needed two radio beacons and accurate
weather forecasting over Europe"
said, adding that eff we had
known the weather was clear over
Germany we could have continued on
and landed I'm that country"
The Pacific flyers. Lieuts. Maitland
Ind Hegenberger: Arthur c. Goebel.
winner of the Dole flight. and Emory
Bronte. all gave credit to the radio
beacon for their accuracy in finding a
minute speck of land in the wastes of
the Pacific. Bronte publicly thanked
Lieut.. Hegenberger for his advice in
inding a peak on the islands of Hawaii
which he said he could not have found
had he not been at an altitude of
like 5000 feet. Hidden in
cirrus clouds. the plane might have
the islands and fallen in
The ocean far beyond them had not
told him TO go into the
upper strata to hunt for the peak, he
said
Praises L. s. Weather Forecast.
Excellence of the weather forecasts
on the American side of the Atlantic
were recalled by William S. Brock and
F. Schlee, who attempted a
world flight in the Pride of
Detroit" but abandoned II in Japan.
Nowhere else in their flight did the
aviators find the weather forecasting
as reliable or accurate as in the United
States, they said. and it was practic-
ally useless in Asia They were en-
sbled however to go around ty-
phoon near Japan by a japanese fore
cast.
Clarence A. Chamberlin, pilot of the
Columbia. said he and his passenger,
Charles Levine. hit" weather about
as predicted by the Weather Bureau
with the exception of the finish of
hn ;ola n
need" he said, sis facilities for get
ting weather reports from ships" A
similar statement was made by Lieut..
Maitland
Paul Schluter. navigator for Martin
Jansen. second in the Dole fight, told
how his plane went into three tail
spins and how for hours they flew
at low elevation above the water, at
one time touching the sea with the
landing gear of the plane He urged
that plots of the wind be made ut
different elevation at the same time
to aid future aviators over the oceans.
ElderHaIdeman Flight Described.
Both Miss Elder and Capt. Halde-
man described the first night of their
flight as fine" but declared the
weather the second night was terri
BILE" The low pressure area pointed
out by Prof Kimball was certainly
low" Miss Elder said. Haldeman de.
scribed how ice formed on the plane
while going through the aerial storm,
and how, although keeping the motor
running wide open, the ship still lost
altitude. Then we had trouble with
the oil feed" he said. "Why the mo-
tor didn't stop / don't know"
RECOVERY MARKED