Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-22
PLAN EARLY HOPS
ACROSS PACIFIC
Three Free .Lances and Army
Flyers Spurn Prizes to
Take OFF First.

By thu Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, June 22.-1nter-
eat in the coming aerial races over
the Pacific centered today on those
who will spurn the chance to compete
in prize offers aggregating s16O.oO0
and hop off ahead of prearranged con-
test dates in pursuit Of the glory and
adventure that will fall to the first to
fly to Hawaii or the Orient.
Besides Lieut.. Lester j. Maitland
and Lieut.. A. F. Hegenberger, Army
aviators now in San Diego preparing
for the Honolulu hop, there are at
least two flying free lances who are
saying little. but saving much wood.
Army regulations prevent Maitland
and Hegenberger from participating
in q prize contest.
Plans Kept Secret.
Untrammeled by fixer hop-on dates
and contest regulations, Ernest Ia.
Smith, local pilot, expects to start
here next week for Honolulu. He APP
parently Is the first threat from this
side of the Pacific, but Richard Grace,
Oakland aviator, is aboard the steamer
Maluskai, which will reach Honolulu
Friday. Supposedly, Grace has a
plane, built in Oakland, with which
he expects to fly back. Preparations
for this flight have been surrounded
by the greatest secrecy.
The other free lance Is B. Fl. Griffin
OF Oklahoma City. who expects to
start late in July.
Maitland and Hegenberger, with
their big Fokker plane locked in a con-
crete hangar, aren't saying much, but
are known to be working steadily.
They announced last night that they
would keep the time of their hop-off to
Honolulu secret, but that 1t would be
some time between July 1 and July i5.
Many Instruments Carried.
"Hegenberger and I have so COM
puted our charts that we will know by
pre-computation exactly where we are
while in flight" said Lieut.. Maitland.
in other words, we won't have to
pore over charts to figure out our lati-
tude and longitude"
The cabin of the big monop1ane re-
semhles a combined meteorological,
completely is it equipped with scien-
tifc instruments.
Lieut.. Maitland said the navigation
instruments would include a British
aperiodic compass, one of the best of
it's kind in existence; an earth Undue
tor compass, magnetic compass,
standard Army compass and the Noel
Davis air seXtant. said by Lieut.. Heg-
enberger to be one of the most valu-
able instruments of it's kind. This sex
tant was invented by the late Comdr.
Noel Davis, who was killed in the
crash of the transatlantic plane Ameri
can Legion during trial flight.
Will Test Compasses.
During the next week Maitland and
Hegenberger will make a number of
night flights to test their compasses.
The sudden impetus given to the
Pacific conquest threatens to furnish
some inconvenience to those who
might arrive in the Hawaiian Islands
in advance of reception schedules, be-
cause of the shortage of landing IA
cilities and arrangements for escort
ing them toward their goal.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin editorial |
ly expressed fear that if the aviators |
reached the islands before the sched- |
uled time they would be in the posi- |
ton of guests who arrive before they |
are invited, finding their hosts UMPIRE
pared TO receive them.
cannot encourage an effort to make |
a fight here before the officially sane. |
toned contest for the Dole prizes is |
open. 1t is. to be frank, lit un-
for an aviator to try |
it," the paper said
The entrants in the S35, 900 contest |
promoted by James d. Dole, pineapple |
king, must not start before August II.
Lieut.. Carl Ben Eielson, who Tues.
day announced his intention of at
tempting to fly from Seattle to Toxic.
yesterday said Japan would be the
starting point for the proposed hop. |
Lack Of an airport in Seattle, with a
runway long enough to enable a
hea Willy laden plane to take off safely, |
was assigned as the reason for chang
ing the starting point. Seattle has
offered a $4,000 purse for the first |
aviator to complete a nonstop flight |
from there to the Japanese capital, |
and Toxic is raising another $4,000 |
for the same fight.