Evening star., 1937-03-26
BY EDWIN C. MUSICK.

by TdQlO 10 ne St6T.
PAGO PAGO, Samoa, March 26-
While laying over here, waiting for
the storm center to pass west of the
new air track still to be surveyed be-
tween here and Auckland, New Zea-
land, the Pan-American Clipper was
serviced yesterday for the final stage
of our flight from the United States
to Australasia.
The delay afforded us an oppor-
tunity to proceed Immediately with
our harbor survey work and familiari-
zation with the air approaches to
Tuitila Harbor, which We originally
had planned to do on our return fight
to the United States.
Servicing Of the Clipper, survey work
and the coordination of all observa-
tions made during the 5,1l0 miles of
flight which we completed with our
arrival here Wednesday night have
been sandwiched in between express
sions Of hospitality from the people as
| recognition of their interest and
enthusiasm in our undertaking.
Official Government hospitality was
expressed through Capt. M Milne, U.
S. N, Governor of Samoa, who has
made us his guests at the Government
Mansion. Natives, barefooted, and
walking from all districts, have come
down from the hills surrounding Pago
Pago's perfect harbor to see the man
| bird of the west"
Ship Contacts Cited.
Outstanding in any recapitulation
of our experiences to date stand two
instances of radio work in contracting
ocean flight. Both these instances
occurred Wednesday in the final
stages of our flight from Kingman
Reef and demonstrate the extreme
| value of radio as a contact for trans
port, regardless of the speed of trans
port employed.
The first of these instances occurred
about 500 miles north northwest of
Samoa when the radio officer on board
| the clipper, Thomas R. Runnels, re-
ported he had raised by radio a re-
quest for the time of day. The request
came from the steamer Samoan, under
way several hundred miles off her
course. The Samoan reported that her
ships chronometer had stopped and
that she was unable to get time
tick" We were able to rescue" her
with the information that it then was
0010 G. c. T.
The second incident of radio contact
with ship at sea concerns the United
States Coast Guard cutter Shoshone,
which was standing at Jarvis Island,
some 300 miles east of our track For
nearly 80 minutes we exchanged posi-
tions and wether reports, theirs being
extremely helpful to us in checking
advices and forecasts received in ad-
vance and after our takeof from a
score or more of Pan-American Air
ways system weather reporting stations
in the Pacific.
Favorable Weather Sought.
Weather Of kind providing maxi
mum visibility and fair degree of air
smoothness is the ideal which we seek
for perfect survey work. The absence
Of this in reports covering the re-
mainder Of our route to New Zealand
led to the determination on our arrival
here to delay continuance of our flight
for at least "a hours. Reports yester-
day showed that storm was centered
near the north of the island of New
Zealand and was moving west and
north. At the center of this storm
area the wind was reported moving at
70 knots and better, accompanied by
scattered rain storms and squalls.
On our long flight from Kingman
Reef we did not always have that ideal
weather which we are so hopeful of
obtaining. While our radio direction
finders kept us on q perfect track
throughout the flight, we few for sew
eral hours on instruments, without 4
glimpse Of either the sun above or the
sea below us. On the flight from
Honolulu to Kingman Reef we flew
most Of the way at an everage altitude
OF 800 feet, but we spent most of our
day yesterday over the ocean at an
altitude of 1000 feet.
We have two new shellbacks (sub-
jects Of King Neptune) in our crew as
| n result If Nuodpaclo1,,c 4;rl+ r. r,o,