Perhaps nothing reveals the weakness of a flying boat and its equipment with more rapidity and certainty than a cruise which involves a prolonged absence from organised bases.

Relatively few have had this unique experience, and unhappily no designers of air craft in this country. Words alone cannot conjure up the atmosphere, the petty anxieties, the continual working against time, the struggle in rain and rolling swells, the idiosyncrasies of motor boats, the enthusiasm of crews snatching food when they can get it, and a thousand ills that flying boats are heir to. But it is an exhilarating life that takes a firm hold of all that fall beneath its influence.

Perhaps I had better begin my story by giving you a very brief resume of my flight outwards to Cape Town. The flight was made possible by the very enterprising support of the Argus South African Newspapers, who purchased the Moth for me. When the flight was completed the machine was given to me ; hence the possibility of my returning, in a purely private sense, as I have done this year.

When Trans-Arctic transportation becomes common, when air routes take full advantage of great circle courses, when we travel from New York to New Guinea via Point Barrow, Alaska, from Chicago to China almost hitting the North Pole on the way, and from San Francisco to Moscow via Spitsbergen, then, and then only, will those concerned with aerial transportation realise the facilities the Arctic affords the aerial navigator.

Whilst carrying out various tests on radiators and airscrews in Iraq, it was necessary to take the air temperatures up to 10,000 feet, and the results of twenty-six flights are given in these notes as it is thought they may be of interest to aircraft designers requiring data to predict the performance of their aircraft in a tropical climate.