Headwinds

CLXVI

Despite the China Clipper’s worldwide reputation, Ed Musick was never entirely comfortable with the big M-130. He would never grow comfortable with any of them. As Pan American Airways’ Chief Pilot, first Master of Ocean Flying Boats, and the only Skygod of the line (Lindbergh was out of the picture) Ed’s word was law around the big boats, and his word was often “scrub” or, alternately, “abort.” 

Musick never openly criticized the M-130, at least not after it rolled out of the Martin factory, so eighty years on it is difficult to determine whether he disliked the plane, whether it had serial problems, or whether he was just being overly cautious with the only China Clipper yet to take to the air, but if Ed saw anything --- literally anything --- that made him uneasy, he cancelled the flight. If an indicator twitched or jumped spasmodically as the power was switched on, the flight was off. If the mechanics reported the slightest irregularity with any system however minor, the flight was off until the whole system was broken down and reworked. If the ground crews took too long to service the plane Ed assumed there were problems on the ground, and the flight was off. 

The same rule applied in the air. The engines tended to run a little hot on the M-130s. If the temperature climbed just a degree over what Ed considered normal, he turned back. If the engines gave the slightest wheeze, Ed turned back.  An odd sound onboard, an off beat anywhere, a glitch in any system, and Ed turned back. If fuel consumption was a shade too high, Ed turned back. Everything might be “Within Normal Limits” by the book, but if they weren’t “Within Normal Limits” according to Ed, he turned back. And he drove this habit into other pilots’ heads with a jackhammer. He wasn’t the only Pan American Airways Captain to fly the China Clippers, but he set the standard. As far as the public was concerned, Ed Musick was inseparable from the China Clipper. 

Still, the China Clipper made only two complete round-trip flights to Manila and back in the first ninety days of its operation. Newspapers, the public, and even some Pan American board members began to wonder why. The airline certainly couldn’t continue to fly successfully with such a poor record of performance. Pan Am stock, which had been at an all-time high in November 1935 began to slide as 1936 progressed. 

Part of the problem arose because Pan Am insisted on Press coverage for each China Clipper flight. The airline thus made it impossible not to draw attention to itself every time the plane turned back. Neither Juan Trippe nor Andre Priester, to their credit, ever questioned Ed Musick’s judgement regarding the China Clipper, but other people wondered if “Meticulous Musick” was a shade too meticulous. Whether this impacted Ed’s subsequent decisionmaking is a great unknown.

Not all the flights were cancelled or aborted for minor reasons. During one Alameda-to-Honolulu hop in December 1935 the China Clipper faced headwinds far greater than those that had drained the S-42B Pan American Clipper dry of fuel in April 1935. At one point in the flight, the China Clipper --- bigger, stronger, and with greater fuel capacity than the S-42B --- saw its ground speed drop to zero. Essentially, the plane was battling with all its might to hover over one spot in the ocean (the crew later reported that they felt that the plane was being pushed backward in midair). Under such conditions the crew had no choice but to abort. 

That inaugural winter season of 1935-36 presented the China Clipper with bad flying conditions anyway. Given that there were no meteorological records for the transpacific route (the China Clipper’s observations were the baseline from which all future records would be developed) caution became and remained the sensible watchword among the Pan American family.