Page 28 - July 2015 Volume 9, Number 7

midnight he climbed the ship to 6,000 feet to stay above a layer of stratus clouds.
Finally, the long-awaited dawn arrived as the sun lifted itself above the eastern horizon, now far behind the Travel Air. As soon as he could see the waves below, Davis set to work taking readings of the sun’s position and checking to see if the wind had blown the aircraft far off course during the night. It was essential that he determined the airplane’s position expeditiously and make any necessary course corrections. Sighting the sun would determine the Travel Air’s position relative to longitude. As for drift, Davis tossed smoke bombs out the navigator’s compartment window. When it hit the water, he observed which way the smoke was being blown.
Based on that information, he estimated the wind’s effect on the airplane and computed a new heading to compensate. Fortunately, the northeasterly winds aloft from a Pacific high pressure area proved accurate and gave the Woolaroc a slight tailwind that increased groundspeed to nearly 100 mph. As the sun rose higher, Davis continued to make sightings and drift checks. He verified that the winds aloft were shifting to the east and then the southeast, and telegraphed Art to make a slight heading change farther to the south. The pilot quickly telegraphed back that he thought the Naval officer was wrong, but Davis insisted otherwise. Goebel relented and steered the Travel Air to the left. In addition, the radio was beginning to receive the low-frequency navigation signal from Hawaii, boosting his confidence that they were at last nearing their goal.
It is important to note today’s King Air pilots accustomed to using WAAS, radar, ADS-B and a host of ground- and space-based navigation tools to guide them with exceptional accuracy to their destination, may find Davis’s techniques almost comical, but using only dead-reckoning to find Hawaii in 1927 was no laughing matter. With only the sun and stars to guide them for a majority of the flight, Davis and Goebel could ill afford to make a mistake in navigation. An error in position of
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merely two or three degrees could spell the difference between finding the islands and missing them entirely, probably with fatal consequences.
The Woolaroc had been in the air for more than 24 hours when a tired Art Goebel sighted what he thought was a murky cloud on the distant horizon. He kept an eagle eye on that “cloud” and soon realized that it was not a cloud but land! Art notified Davis that he hoped what he saw in front of them was Hawaii. It was, in fact, the island of Maui. Suddenly, the big question that ran through their minds was whether they were the first to reach the goal, or second, or even third? Their minds begged for an answer as Maui began to fill the windshield. Soon they were flying over Molokai and eventually spotted the famous shape of Diamond Head on the island of Oahu.
As the Woolaroc flew past Hawaii’s most famous landmark in search of Wheeler Field, an Army Boeing PW-9 biplane fighter appeared off the left wingtip and tucked into close formation with the Travel Air. The pilot was signaling something with one hand but neither Goebel nor Davis could understand it. Seeing no reaction from Goebel or Davis, the pilot gradually brought the nimble Boeing very close to the Travel Air and made his message very clear – he was smiling and holding up one finger – a clear indication that they were first to arrive! It appeared that the Woolaroc may win the Dole race, but Goebel still had to find and land on Wheeler Field to claim the $25,000 prize.3
Fortunately, the PW-9 guided him directly to the Army airfield. By that time, thanks to local radio stations that were following the race, news of the Woolaroc’s sighting had spread across Honolulu. The military field was quickly overrun with hundreds of people eager to see the intrepid aviators. With the dirt runway in sight, Art settled the Woolaroc on final approach. The monoplane gently touched down on Hawaiian soil after a flight that had lasted 26 hours, 17 minutes and 33 seconds, consuming 317 gallons of Phillips Petroleum Company’s Nu-Aviation fuel en route to victory.
The winning Travel Air rests at Wheeler Field on Oahu after flying more than 2,400 miles from California to claim first prize. (COURTESY OF WOOLAROC MUSEUM)
JULY 2015