Woman Flier Conquers

Jinx Journey

Mrs. Joan Merriam Smith, an American flier flying solo round the world in a twin-engine Piper Apache, was grounded indefinitely at Guam at the end of April by bad weather, after completing what she called the most vital leg of her flight—from Lae to Guam.

Mrs. Smith had been following the same route that Amelia Earhart took in 1937 and it was on this leg that Earhart disappeared.

In Lae, Mrs. Smith met people who remembered Miss Earhart's visit.

Earlier in Port Moresby, she was told that another American flier, Mrs. Jerrie Mock, had thwarted her in her ambition to become the first solo woman pilot round the world. Mrs.

Smith had then covered 21,000 miles and had about 7,000 to go.