Plane In Crash At Wau, T.N.G.
p. 49 · Read in the full issue
A SINGLE-ENGINE, all-metal Junker machine, owned by Guinea Airways, Ltd., piloted by Jack Robins and with mechanic Len Dobbin on board, took off from Wau aerodrome on a test flight on March 8. When about 100 feet up, the engine spluttered and finally failed. The pilot made a gallant effort to get back
to the ’drome, but could not quite reach it, and came down on a cleared area alongside. The machine alighted and ran smoothly for 20 yards, but then hit the roadway skirting the ’drome, after bound ing over the storm-water gutter. The undercarriage was torn off and the plane buried its nose slightly in the road sur face. Pilot and mechanic were unhurt.
On March 24, M. Henri Martinet, a chemist, flew from New Caledonia to Bundaberg (North Queensland) in a Renault plane. He later flew to Bris bane and Sydney, and then left, along the airmail route, for France. He left
Uaco, a town in the north of New Cale donia, at 6.30 a.m., intending to fly to Brisbane, but he encountered bad weather which forced him to fly blind for long periods. His machine behaved in a splen did fashion all the way.