Salamaua-Sydney: Notable Trip in Small Plane

Guinea, by the Nankin on January 21.

Salamaua-Sydney

Notable Trip in Small Plane A NOTABLE flight was made by Pilots R. O. Mant and M. Allen who, on behalf of Mandated Airlines Ltd., brought the Administrator of New Guinea, (Brigadier General W. Ramsay McNicoll), and the Treasurer (Mr. H.

O. Townsend) from New Guinea to Sydney in a Dragon Moth aeroplane.

The party left Salamaua at 5 a.m. on Monday, January 4, and flew over to the Papuan coast, near Port Moresby. The weather ahead looked so bad that it was decided to avoid the direct seacrossing to Australia of 450 miles. Instead, the pilots turned westwards, flew around the top of the Gulf of Papua, thence across Torres Strait at its narrowest point to Cape York, and down the Australian coast to Townsville, reached at 7 p.m.—l4 hours of rough, hard flying.

The next day, they flew to Sydney.

The Administrator had arranged to fly from Salamaua to Sydney in Guinea Airways’ new Lockheed aeroplane, which could have made the trip in one day; but, for some unexplained reason, he changed his mind when he arrived in Salamaua, and travelled per Dragon Moth instead.

He returned by the E. & A. steamer Tanda, leaving Sydney on January 15.

Messrs. Mant and Allen left Sydney on January 10 and flew the Dragon back to New Guinea.

Monsieur H. Martinet, president of the