MY FLIGHT FROM HAWAII 



609 



fresher. However, they still concerned 

 mariners' weather. Nautical observers are 

 not equipped or trained to give information 

 exactly as jlyers wish it. What does a 

 sailor care about the height of clouds or 

 how the winds blow at 10,000 feet? 



The meteorological assistance rendered 

 me on the Pacific flight indicated the ac- 

 curacy that can be attained in the science 

 with trained personnel and a new theory of 

 forecasting. 



In Honolulu I wa^ fortunate in obtain- 

 ing the cooperation of Lieutenant E. W. 

 Stephens, U. S. Navy, aerological officer at 

 Pearl Harbor. Lieutenant Stephens, who 

 was responsible for plotting the weather for 

 the Navy's successful flight to Hawaii a 

 year previously, worked with us early and 

 late. Ten days before the take-off he con- 

 structed a hypothetical weather map em- 

 bracing much of the Pacific Ocean and 

 western America. That chart — a thing of 

 highs and lows, swirling isobars, barometer 

 and temperature readings, wind direction^ 

 and velocities — he made as he felt it should ' 

 be when I started. 



Then we waited for the gods of weather 

 to adjust their caprices throughout this 

 far-flung territory so that their handiwork 

 would at least approximately match our 

 ideal. 



FRIDAY THE GOOD WEATHER DAY 



After digesting the data that came in by 

 radio from vessels, from tiny islands scat- 

 tered eastward of Hawaii, from Pacific- 

 coast stations. Lieutenant Stephens on 

 Wednesday remarked: "It looks like Fri- 

 day. I think things will work out by 

 then." 



They did. And because of his satisfac- 

 tion with the outlook when Friday came, 

 I decided to start, even though that was 

 against advice received from California. 

 The consoling fact is that I found condi- 

 tions substantially as predicted by Lieu- 

 tenant Stephens, even on the California 

 coast. 



Just now much attention is being directed 

 to the pending possibilities of airlines oper- 

 ating across the Pacific. Momentarily the 

 center of interest has shifted from the 

 Atlantic. But over whatever ocean sched- 

 uled air transport may pioneer, a vital fac- 

 tor in its establishment will be the develop- 

 ment of meteorological data. With what we 

 now know about weather and with the in- 



stant communication of radio, it is not at 

 all impossible, with proper preparation, to 

 command a picture of upper-air conditions 

 prevaUing at any given hour over even 

 extended routes. One can also forecast 

 what will "come in" during the time elapsed 

 in the making of a flight. 



PLYING THE ATLANTIC AND THE PACIFIC 



The western frontier of the United States 

 lies 2,400 miles from the mainland. 

 Though this stretch of water is several hun- 

 dred miles greater than the shortest land- 

 to-land distance of the North Atlantic, it 

 probably presents less formidable hazards 

 for the flyer. Of course, no definite state- 

 ments on this score can be made until after 

 considerable research on weather and more 

 actual flight data are recorded. Further, 

 what is applicable to an individual flight 

 such as mine does not necessarily hold true 

 for transport operation. 



For general comparisons North Atlantic 

 and mid-Pacific weather disturbances are 

 similarly severe at times, but probably ice- 

 \ formation danger is greater over the At- 

 lantic. The shortest course from America 

 tdy Europe, followed by most flyers so far, 

 ha^ been somewhat north of the normal 

 steaii^er lanes. From Honolulu to San 

 Francisco or Los Angeles the route lies 

 directly over that traversed by ships — a 

 definite advantage. 



To me it seems that regular air transport 

 across both oceans is inevitable, and will 

 probably coii\e about sooner than most 

 people suspect. 



Probably used in such long-range service 

 will be the new radio compasses. These 

 are extraordinary "gadgets," which actually 

 lead a pilot to a selected point, guided by 

 radio operating at that destination. 



This uncanny "homing" device is grad- 

 ually emerging from the realms of experi- 

 mentation into that of proved practi- 

 cality. One, the Kruesi compass, after 

 Army testing ashore, has recently been 

 tried out over the Pacific in flights insti- 

 gated by Eugene L. Vidal, Director of Air 

 Commerce. 



Another variety of the new instrument, 

 the Lear compass, is being installed in my 

 own plane. With this latest addition to 

 my already generously populated instru- 

 ment board, I anticipate instructive expe- 

 rience in this most modern means of finding 

 one's way in the air. 



