This Day in History: 1929-03-30

Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harold Litchfield and Tom McWilliams departed from Richmond, NSW at 10:50 am on 30 March 1929 aboard the Fokker F.VIIb/3m G-AUSU “Southern Cross” heading for Wyndham, WA. This was the first leg of af planned 13-day flight to London. Ulm recorded the following entries in his log: “9.45, Flagged the runway warming the motors to 10.20, 10.45: Still on the ground. 10.50: Take off after a long run. 10,55: Air speed 82 knots, altitude 400 ft. 11: Altitude 1000 ft., air speed 80 knots. 11.12: Mac reports that the whole of the 600 metre aerial carried away when Litchfield accidentally released the aerial catch while taking the drift reading. 11.25: Altitude 3200 ft. Now approaching Singleton country. From Richmond to Singleton is mountainous and heavily timbered. Revs. now 1725, air speed 82 knots. 11.35: Altitude 3000 ft. Changed course, now on a direct course for Wyndham. 11.44: Approaching Merriwa. 11.50: Passing Merriwa. Noon: Beautiful clear sky ahead, altitude now 2000, revs. 1700 all three, air speed 79 knots. Lovely warm sun, everyone happy. 2.30: Perfect weather at 1500 ft., but bumpy, 3 o’clock: Have passed the rivers Darling and Warrego. Plenty of water in both. 3.45; Passing over the Queensland border. 4: Passing Wyara Lake, slightly south our true course. 6: Dinner, sandwiches, coffee, water, 7.25: Here we are again, night flying; quite warm and cosy at 2000 ft. Our old friends, the exhaust flames, are carrying on as usual. 10.40: Both of us been flying semi-blind since 7 o’clock. It is not better and the horizon can just be discerned. As the ground speed was very good all day have throttled all the motors back to 1550 r.p.m. and are now cruising about 73 knots. The moon should be out soon.” The following day the crew made a forced landing and thus started what became known as the “Coffee Royal” affair. Sources: Parnell, N. and Boughton, T., Flypast, A Record of Aviation in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988; Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld), Mon 15 Apr 1929, Page 9, “LIEUTENANT ULM’S LOG”