Evening star., 1937-03-20
BY EDWIN c. MUSICK,
BY Radio to The Star.

oS tNdliO W lac otdI.
HONOLULU, March 20 (N.ANA.).
The Pan-American clipper, having
completed the first leg of it's 1000
mile survey flight to New Zealand,
will be taken on two-hour test fight
about Honolulu tomorrow, and If all
goes well, will depart early Monday
for the second base on our projected
trade route, Kingman Reef, 1,lO0
miles to the South.
With the longest crossing already
behind us, our remaining fight across
heretofore unfoWn course is expect
ed to take some "a hours, divided
into comparatively easy stages in Or
der to devote all possible flight time
TO route exploration Flight orders
call for this exploratory work to be
completed, if possible. on the south
bound flight, hence we are planning
only an overnight stop at Kingman
Reef and Pago Pago. Then we will
proceed to Auckland, where we are
scheduled to remain four days for
necessary survey of local flying con-
ditions in the harbors and to test radio
communications in that area.
On the way back we will devote
out flying time to routine transport
practice. but will spend day or more,
as necessary, at each base to ac-
quaint ourselves fully with the ter
rain and the marine peculiarities of
the area.
North Wind Rides at Anchor.
Our second leg lies directly south of
Hawaii to Kingman Reef, where our
"noating airbase," the Pan-American
supply steamer North Wind, is an
chored within flve-mile encirchng
reef which incloses deep-water
lagoon on three sides completely and,
on the fourth side, except for unusual
ly heavy seas from the southwest
The landing there will require the
most precise navigation, as the North
Wind is actually bigger in bulk than
the visible area of the island at high
water
From klngman south we will explore
a wider area for a look at all shoals
and some islands which lie within a
few hundred miles on straight course.
Those already visited by Pan American
marine engineers have been completely
charted, but an aerial survey enables
lis to cover a much broader area.
The weather over the area is gen.
orally favorable for our flight Daily
weather maps, made for the past 80
days at the Alameda base specifically
for this area, show the results of the
first upper air studies ever made of
weather in this South Pacific region.
Like Lower Caribbean.
The extreme southern area is par-
ticularly interesting, since it resembles
the lower Caribbean area of our inter-
American air routes, where seasonal
hurricanes are generated
The Southern portion of our survey
area Is generating base not only for
typhoonS but also hurricanes. Our
meteorologist for the New Zealand
area, veteran of both Caribbean and
Pacific typhoons, was lately trans
ferred from the Manila station for this
particular study.
Due to the broken area over which
we will be flying, we expect to expert
ment considerably with aerial navigs-
tion by the use of our own direction
finder aboard the American clip
per, which, heretofore, has been only
supplementary guard on our long
trans-Pacific flights to the Orient. 1t
will not let us go far afield, however,
since we will have the service of the
big long range of the Honolulu station,
and, OF course, a duplicate station
aboard the North Wind at Kingman
Reef, which will blanket our course
as far as Samoa. From then on, due
to the hundreds of islands within easy
reach and the opportunity to check
our course constantly by visual land
marks, we will take our bearings from
eoastWise steamers.
tCopyright, 1887, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. lnc.)