Report from the crew of the balloon “Warszawa”

On Saturday evening the crew of the balloon WARZAWA, Col. Zbigniew Burzynski and Ltd. Jan Zakrzewski, reaching second place at the past Gordon Bennett Cup, arrived at Warzaw with the train from Moscow.

On request, Col. Burzynski told the following about the flight of the balloon WARSZAWA:

As you may remember, we launched first. It was some minutes past four. Two hours after take-off we reached an altitude of 1600 meters. Above Lomza rain surprised us. To get out of the rain, we climbed higher. This was important for the further heading of our flight. The wind drove us to the east. After flying above Osowiec we crossed the Polish border 20 kilometres north of Pinsk. During the first night we managed to use very helpful atmospheric streaming and slowly reached the impressing altitude of 4500 to 6000 meters. In this altitude we stood for about six hours, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..

Being asked, if oxygen masks had been used, Col. Burzynski replied, that their oxygen supply was only equipped with the normal mouthpieces. “We did use our oxygen supply for some hours of the flight at the altitudes I told.”

“Above Orsza we started sinking. Our altitude was about 1000 meters. At about 6 p.m. we flew over Kaluga. During the night we climbed again to 3000 meters. This second night was again very fortunate to us. The clouds lifted us up to 6000 meters. From 9 to 10 p.m. we flew in this altitude, and later, from 2 a.m. on, at an altitude of 5000 meters. Of course we had to use our oxygen supply. We had only one bag of ballast left.”

We had to think of landing, so we started to descent slowly. From an altitude of 950 meters we dumped an oxygen bottle on a parachute. We found this bottle later. I must say, that no a single part of the balloon got lost. The landing happened with no incident in the village of Bykowo in the district of Moscow. The place of our landing is 200 kilometres northeast of Moscow. We landed on September 25th, at 4.50 a.m. The inhabitants of the village as well as representatives of the village council came quick to our help and took us and our balloon in their protection. Representatives of the village soviet drove us and our balloon by car to Rjazan, 60 kilometres away. There we waited for the arrival of the military attaché from our Moscow embassy, Col. Hartland. Together with him also a representative of the PAT (Popolski Aéronautique Towarzystwo) came to Rjazan. On Wednesday we left for Moscow. The trip was interrupted by a break down of our car. In Moscow we stayed from Thursday to Saturday. There the members of our embassy cared for us very hospitable. We went to the theatre several times, like to the opera “Boris Godunow”. First in Moscow we got the results of the race. The embassy phoned to the aero club at Warzaw, then we learned that we had made the second place.”

In Warsaw both were welcomed at the station by their families and comrades of the second balloon branch with Col. Hilewitcz. Here Burzynski said good-by to his fellow Zakrzewski, whom he had not left alone a single moment within the last week. Col. Burzynski lives at Jablonna and Ltd. Zakrzewski in Warzaw.