Our gutsy flyers, Gladys and Charles, left the beach on the Bay of Bengal and headed across the Yoma Mountains with a repaired engine but with no working radiator. Twenty-five miles short of Rangoon, they were forced to make another emergency landing. The pair refueled, kept going east to reach Bangkok, Siam (Thailand). There, the leaky radiator was repaired.
Meanwhile, hostilities between China and Japan had started north of Siam. The flyers progressed in the Errant and reached Hanoi, French Indo-China (North Vietnam) and were advised to not fly over China.
Gladys and Charles were determined to visit Hong Kong so proceeded to fly up the Chinese coast. Gladys writes, "On October 9, when we landed to refuel at Swatau, we were surrounded by Chinese soldiers dressed in irregular uniforms, but equipped with bayonets which might have been all too effective if we had not been able to show that ours was not a Japanese plane" (p. 686).
The last city in China on their trip was Shanghai. Intending to ship their plane across the Pacific, they were not prepared for the difficulties that ensued. They had to obtain a release from the Chinese government in Nanking.
While the American Embassy was negotiating this, they hoped to at least dismantle the Errant and pack it in crates. They were not even allowed on the field. "The reason was soon apparent. A plane arrived amid great excitement among the crowd. A few minutes later a car raced out of the field carrying a man in military uniform. It was General Chiang Kai-shek, the President of China and the principal figure in China's resistance against Japan" (p. 687). After more delays, they finally left and stopped in Japan before their trip across the Pacific.
"It was a joy to reassemble the Errant in San Francisco and soar over the Golden Gate" (photo caption, p. 688) after wandering over the rest of the world. "At Los Angeles the skypath turned toward the east and home . . . the flyers felt relief in freedom from frequent customs inspections and from the necessity of obtaining information through interpreters" (photo caption, p. 689).
Gladys and Charles were most impressed by the American Luxuries of having an airport and ground crew at every major city, radio communication between the fields and weather reports. "We had been away almost eight months. Now we saw America in perspective. . . It was time for the Errant, home from its wanderings, to rest" (p. 690).
Personal note: my parents lived for years in California. Dad was famous for being a horrible driver (I promised my children, "You will never again have to ride with grandpa). One time when mom, dad, and I were on a road trip, dad nearly got us killed by turning left in front of a truck. After he got out of the car to pump gas, I commented to mom, "I think he just used up his Guardian Angel." Mom sighed, "I think he just used up about two dozen of them!" Gladys and Charles must have used up about a hundred Guardian Angels on their world-wide tour in a primitive airplane with no communication, no radar, not much else!
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