Ray Parer

Stirring Adventures of Pioneer N.G. Aviator, Jogging Along from England to Australia.

THE famous Australian aviator, Ray Parer, who is well-knovm in New Guinea (where he has been operating an air ser vice since 1926), has been having more than his share of adventure and hair breadth escapes since he left London for Australia in October last, in the Melbourne Gentenary Air Race.

Faulty radiators, frequent forced land ings, sickness, burnt out magnetos, and being lost for four days in Burma cannot daunt the inimitable Parer who, with his companion Geoffrey Hemsworth, also of New Guinea, has been making his way to Australia in spite of exasperating misfor tunes and set-backs.

ILL-FORTUNE and calamity, however, are not strangers to Ray Parer. In one of the most remarkable flights in the history of aviation, Parer, with Lieut. J.

C. McIntosh, flew to Australia from England in 1919, in one of the most extraor dinary contraptions that has ever taken to the air in a long-distance flight.

It was an astounding performance car ried out by men of fearless courage and remarkable grit. They arrived at Mascot, Sydney, in a queer, small ramshackle ’plane held together with fencing wire, bootlaces, and dirty string, after having crashed in practically every country be tween England and Australia. The flight, which amazed the world, took eight long weary months of struggle and hardships, but they arrived in Sydney as heroes.

Starting in the handicap section of the London-Melbourne Air Race, Parer and Hemsworth left Mildenhall in a Fairey Fox machine on October 20, last year.

They arrived at Abbeville, France, the following day, where they were delayed by a damaged radiator. Restarting from Le Bouget field, near Paris, they were compelled to return again, owing to fur ther engine trouble.

At this stage, they withdrew from the race. Parer, bitterly disappointed at the mishaps, decided to repair the ’plane and jog leisurely along to Australia, and thence to New Guinea.

In the middle of November they were reported to be at Athens. Since then, other than a few obscure lines in the Sydney newspapers, nothing was heard of the fliers until the end of January, when they were reported missing in Lower Burma.

It appears that after leaving Italy they were delayed at Baghdad, owing to pass port trouble. Away again, they were

forced down shortly afterwards with en gine trouble. To make matters worse Ray Parer became ill, but still he refused to abandon the flight. Between frequent forced landings and irritating delays the airmen made their way down to Burma.

After leaving Mergui, in Burma, they had a very narrow escape from a serious crash. Forty miles from the landing ground, while the ’plane was flying over a mangrove swamp, the engine began to splutter and misfire. The airmen turned back, losing height all the time, and just managed to land safely, finding that a magneto had burnt out.

It was then that they found they had lost their way, and for four days Royal Air Force ’planes searched for them in the jungle-covered, mountainous country.

Eventually, however, the fliers repaired their machine and flew on to Singapore, where an anxious crowd of harassed officials were awaiting them. They left Singapore for Darwin, Australia, via Ba tavia, Sourabaya, Rambang, and Koepang, on February 3, and were reported to be keeping company with the Australian air-mail liner.

They arrived at Koepang on February 7, and landed safely the following day at Darwin, Australia. Making a quick trip to Melbourne, they arrived at Essendon aerodrome to be welcomed by relatives and a few friends on February 13. Their flight from England occupied 116 days.

The airmen intended to remain in Melbourne for about a week before flying to Salamaua, New Guinea, via Sydney and Brisbane.

Ray Parer, who was born in Melbourne, is now 41 years of age, and it is reported that this will be his last big flight. One newspaper says that he will shortly relin quish active control of his New Guinea concern, the Pacific Aerial Transport Co.

Ltd., and that he intends to marry and settle down in England. Another, how ever, reports that he is anxious to get back to his mining interests in N.G. and that the Fairey Fox will be used in his goldfields freight service.