Clouston ookedwat N traps na found an ate ni narked at Adana, in Turkey. They made' for it, still flying in storms. Eventually they sighted it, cut the throttles, wound the wheels down, and made a landing. As soon as they touched the ground they knew something was wrong. "Mud flew up and: covered the screens. The Comet shuddered And drew to rest in half its distance, if the brakes had bound They climbed out and discovered that their plane was axle-deep in mud. There was nothing they.could do that night. They slept in an hotel in Adana.
"Throughout the next day they worked at getting the Comet out of. the mud ani, preparing for a take-off, The airport was muddy as well The only possible place was the main street of the village.
Oxen towed the machine to it. It didn't look inviting. The road was rough and uneven. On either side lof it were deep ditches, filled with Water. The road was so narrow that when they placed the aircraft on it the wings overhung the ditches. This meant that if the machine after time And at last they arrived. It was ever. One ery great pilot and an ambitious young man—not a great airman at all gone out, Two heroes returned.
The "Aeroplane," trade paper of the aviation business, has a page about the flight. This is what it Mr. A. E. Clouston ud Mr. Victor Ricketts deserve full c dit for having made the world's g atest flight—so far The Comet which carried Clouston and Ricketts flow for thousands of miles over open sea, where, if they had been forced down, they would never "have been found. Equally it few over savage courirv, where it cone have disappeared a: completely as did Kingsford Smith or Mrs. Putnam, The performance was as reckless and foolish, from many points of view. $s any of those in which people have disappeared and have caused large sums of money to be spent and vulable lives to be risked in searching for lost aviators. In spite of all that, it was worth doing, because it did something which has t been done before. It brought" the furthermost Dominion of the British Empire within a week of home. And that was magnificent.
The whole thing was a triumph for Clouston's unusual ability as a navigator, and for the courage and endurance of both pilots. swayed an inch off its take-off course they would be killed.
Clouston and Ricketts got in and closed the cabin top. Clouston opened the throttles, and, keeping his feet delicately on the rudder bar, prepared to take off. As the Comet gathered speed Ricketts watched the ditches flashing by within inches of their wheels.
Ahead of them a bridge made a hump in the road, The rushing plane approached it. Clouston prepared to take off, although it was hardly ready.
Just as he. pulled the control column back there was an explosion. The machine swung and made for the ditch. The starboard engine began to vibrate} With desperate haste Clouston got the plane into the air.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.