NSW:Two men recreate aviation history

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2011
NSW:Two men recreate aviation history

By Danielle McGrane

SYDNEY, April 19 AAP - Radio failure and aviation fuel supply problems couldn't deter
two men from recreating aviation history.

Eighty-three years after Charles Kingsford Smith became the first man to fly from America
to Australia in a three-engined monoplane, the pair touched down in Sydney.

But Jeremy Rowsell, 40, and Jim Hazelton, 79, said their trip across the Pacific from
San Francisco wasn't always smooth.

"We've had a few little dramas like our radio failing and having to turn back and land
with full fuel tanks," Mr Rowsell said.

"Then (there was) finding that the Middle East crisis has affected the supply of aviation
fuel, forcing us to fly longer legs."

The men left the US on April 4 on a journey from California to Hawaii, Christmas Island
and on to Samoa.

"We repeated as near as we could the Kingsford Smith flight," Mr Rowsell said at Bankstown
Airport, where they arrived about 9am (AEST) in a single-engine aircraft.

"We followed Kingsford-Smith's routes as closely as we could, the only difference being
that he came through Fiji and we came through Norfolk Island...

"He flew in the Southern Cross, which was a three-engine aircraft, but obviously bear
in mind that was back in 1928 and the level of technology was not that advanced so there
was always a threat of engine failure.

"We were in a single engine airplane but we have the benefits of more modern technology."

The pilots made the daring trip in order to raise funds and awareness for the work
carried out by the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS), which was founded in the same
year the aviation legend arrived in Sydney.

"We've been halfway around the world but we would like to go around the other half,
so we need to regroup and plan because there are challenges in the Middle East at the
moment," Mr Rowsell said.

"But the next trip would be from Sydney out to London, then London out to the US."

Clyde Thomson, Executive Director of the RFDS South Eastern Section, said that the
support of people in the community, like Jim and Jeremy, "helps ensure the continuation
of our services to people in rural and remote areas of Australia".

AAP dmg/tr/jnb

KEYWORD: AVIATION (PIX TO COME)

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