The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-30
Yankee Aviators To
 End Race Wednesday
(Continued from Page D

propeller of the plan and was struck. He made light oS the injury, how ever, and refused to allow 1t to de- lay the flight.
 "It's just little bump" he said. we can't stop for a thing like that"
 banks at 5:45 D. m. (11:45 p. m. EST). News that the Winnie Mae would reach Fairbanks in O few hours was flashed here by tele- graph from Nome. Preparations were started imme- diately for welcome. Food and lodging place were the first arrange ments made. Within an hour after the news reached here, practically every resident of the town was talk ing about it and making up greet ing parties" of friends and neigh bors.
 The flight of more than 2.0O0 miles from Khabarovsk, Siberia, to Nome was regarded as the most dangerous leg of the round d-the-world trip. Fog troubled them during part of the flight over the Boring Sea and at many times forced landing might have left them many miles from here.
  2:30 a. m. They were tired, and re- luctant to leave their beds. It's hard life," the swarthy Post yawned, as he came from his room his hair tousled and his eyes red from lack of sleep. After 0 hearty breakfast, the flyers went to the field. where mechanics had warmed up the gallant motor of the Winnie Mae.
 Six mechanics, under the direction of Arthur Joenson. Alaska Airways company manager. had worked all night ovarhauling the moter, install- ing new propeller and cleaning the plane.
 The ship, greasy and dirty from it's long flight when 1t landed here, left the field shining and clean. Post and Gatty. as an incident to their world flight set a new record for the flight from Nome to Fair banks yesterday when they nego- tiated the 520 miles in three hours and seven minutes, we'll under the best time every made by commercial flyers.
 TIree hundred fifty gallons of gasoline were put into the Winnie
 Mae. The supply assured an ample reserve for the flight to Edmonton. |
 make for difficult flying over the route they started to-day. The aerial epic of the Winnie Mae to-day has put to shame the best
 Jules Verne efforts of MT. Phineas Fogg who hurried round-the-world in 80 days.
 When Post and Gatty arrived at Fairbanks yesterday. they had be- hind them approximately 11,600
 miles of their 15,000 mile journey,
 In 172 hours elapsed time since they scared away from Roosevelt field at New York, a week ago to-day. To date they have averaged 70
 miles an hour, including all ground time.
 Their actual flying time for the journey to the time of the takeoff
 at Fairbanks has been approximately I95 hours. Their average speed to date, not counting stops, has been approximately 13O miles an hour. The Winnie Mae, a Lockheed high
 wing monoplane, has functioned per- fectly.
 At Berlin a small piece of metal on the body of the ship came loose. and was refastened. Once they spent a few hours on the motor. At Fair
 banks the propeller was changed. AbIQe IEOtu tudtp Bao anu OAA AAoo
 been all the big ship required.
 "You see plenty of country on a
 trip like this. but you lose a lot of
 sleep" Post said before We left.
 Just a little nick that's hardly
 even sore." Gatty said. when asked
 about his shoulder which was struck
 by the propeller at Nome yesterday.
 1T must be harder than I thought
 The propeller had to be replaced
 and I didn't even need a bandage."
 Post had high praise for Gatty's
 skill as a navigator. 1 We held the Winnie Macs nose
 straight for Nome through all that
 fog and open water coming across
 from siberia" he said. We wouldn't ! see, but we always knew where we were. Talk about ocean fiights-the
 weather coming over to Nome was
 much worse than that We encoun-
 tered crossing the Atlantic"
 The expression "here to-day and gone tomorrow fitted Post and |