Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-08
POST AND GATTY
TO TOUR COUNTRY
World Flyers Delay Hop to
Oklahoma Because of
Bad Weather.

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, July 8.-Wiley Post
and Harold Gatty, round-the-world fly
ers, are to make Nationwide tour in
| their plane the Winnie Mae.
Announcement was made today b.
| the N. B. C., Artists Service that ar
| rangements have been completed with
the two airmen to start from New York
within week or 10 days.
| The tour Is expected to require six
weeks. and visits will be made to cities
having suitable airports. 1t is hoped
to make One or two stops each day.
Delayed by Weather.
Dirty weather from here to the far
side of the Alleghenies kept the world
flyers earthhound tcday despite theil
anxiety to get back to home folks in
the West.
Post was sure he could pierce the
| 300-foot ceiling and spiral into clear
weather above the fog in five minutes
and Gatty was ready to accompany
| him, but more cautious counsel pre-
vailed.
So the morning passed and the aft
ernoon began to creep away and still
the flyers waited with their wives ano
! financial hacker, F. C. Hall, for bright
, ening skies and an open air road tc
| Oklahoma and more triumphal lecep-
! tions.
1t had been arranged for Hall to crowd
| into the Winnie Mae and for the wives
| to follow in another plane. An ever
! night stop was planned at Wichita,
| Kans, and the flyers expected to reach
| Chickasha, Okla, tomorrow afternoon
The entire State of Oklahoma is
going to turn out to welcome these
boys" Hall said. "There1l be cele-
bration there that will beat anything
| they got in New York or Washington.
The flyers were told that at Belle
fonte, Pa, in the Allegheny region
there was no ceiling and no visibility.
In talking of the world fight Hall
said Post and Gatty had all the
breaks" even what seemed at the time
to be bad luck turning out to be provi-
Dental. If they had not begged down
in mud on a Siberian field and so been
delayed many hours they would have
run into very bad weather which might
have caused a crash in Alaska, he said.
Had No Insurance.
Hall also revealed today that he had
taken out no insurance on the Winnie
Mae for the world flight. 1t would have
been very costly, he said, SO he just de-
cided to take a chance.
II gambled on the boys success" he
said. ANY one who'd gamble on oil
wells coming in would gamble on any
thing"
Representatives Of the flyers an
ncunced they were already at work
collaborating on book describing their
fight. 1t is to be called Around the
World in Eight Days" and subtitled
The Flight of the Winnie May" The
first part has already been sent to the
publishers.
Post and Gatty attended dinner last
night given by the Aeronautical Cham
Der of Commerce and heard words CT
praise from men who also have flown
planes over seas and to distant lands.
The Oklahoma pilot and his Austria
liam navigator talked more freely at
the dinner than they have at any time
since their return.
Pest, who maintained he was not an
orator, said: I'm not going to let that
fellow Gatty get far ahead Of me even
in public speaking"
So he told of President Hoover swap
ping fish stories with Gatty: Of Russian
customs, such as an upward turn of
the thumb meaning ok, and downward,
vice versa.
The flyers were presented bronze
plaques. The only others to ever re-
ceive such prizes were Col. Lindbergh
and Rear Admiral Byrd.