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New York Times
Thursday, August 1, 1929

FOUGHT HAZE ON FLIGHT

Could Not Identify Cities on Hop From Jacksonville - Will Fly to Mexico City.

Washington, July 31 - Bearing a good-will message to President Hoover from President Lazaro Chacon of Guatemala, Colonel Miguel Garcia Granados, chief of the Guatemalan Air Service, and his aide, Lieutenant Carlos Merlen, landed here at Bolling Field at 1:25 o’clock this afternoon, after a 2,832 mile flight from Guatemala City.

Colonel Granados will deliver his message to the President at the White House at 12:30 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. He will be accompanied by Dr. Adrian Recinos, the Guatemalan Minister, and Lieutenant Merlen.

Colonel Granados said his visit was intended to repay the visit of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh to Guatemala during his Central American tour a year ago.

The two fliers will spend the next two days visiting Mount Vernon and sightseeing in Washington, and will take off again Saturday, weather permitting, for a two-stop flight to Mexico City, where they plan to present greetings from President Chacon to President Portes Gil before returning to their home capital.

En route to Washington on his six day tour, Colonel Granados stopped at La Libertad, at Havana, where the fliers waited four days to present President Chacon’s greetings to President Machado of Cuba, and at Jacksonville, Florida

TELLS OF COUNTRY’S AIR SERVICE

Guatemala, Colonel Granados explained, has extensive regularly-opened air services, using American planes, which bring all parts of the country in close touch with the capital.

The nation has also begun the development of a military air force, French fighting planes being used. Colonel Granados said that Guatemala had the most highly developed commercial and military aviation services in Central America south of Mexico.

Speacking through his aide, Leiutenant Merlen, Colonel Granados told the story of their
2,382 mile flight from the Guatemalan capital to Washington.

He said the fliers were given a royal send-off by President Chacon, the American Minister Arthur H. Geissler, and hundreds of other officials and citizens.

The first day’s flight, last Thursday, was a short one of 162 miles to La Libertad, the real take-off for the 850-mile hop across the Yucatan Channel to Havana, where they were to deliver a message from President Chacon to President Machado of Cuba. The second day’s flight required eight hours fifty minutes, the fliers reaching Havana last Friday night, just too late to find President Machado who had gone to the country for the weekend.

FOUGHT GROUND HERE

As a result they were forced to remain in Havana until Monday before they could deliever their message.

They started north again Tuesday morning, the non-stop flight of 720 miles to Jacksonville requiring six hours and thirty minutes. Reaching Jacksonville last night, Colonel Granados and his aide were entertained by the Chamber of Commerce at a banquet in their honor.

The flight was resumed at 6:05 A.M. Today, the fliers being forced to fight a heavy ground haze all the way north which at times prevented them from identifying the cities they passed.

Colonel Granados said they circled for a half hour over Fayetteville, N.C., attempting to identify the city upon the ordinary tourist maps they carried.

Both fliers are American trained. Colonel Granados received his ground school instruction in 1921 at Post Field, Oklahoma, and his flying training at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas. Lieutenant Merlen was trained at Californian schools. He spent the last seven years as an employee of the Summit Aircraft Company in San Francisco. He speaks English fluently.

During his last six months service in Guatemala he has had more than 500 hours in the air, a record which would rival that of the busiest air mail pilots.

Dr. Recinos will entertain at luncheon Friday in honor of the two fliers. Guests will include officials of the State, War, and Navy Departments and Latin American diplomats.