On the 9th the additional radio contact was established by using the Ansab Camp as a relay station and it was found that the Aramco C-47 airplane was grounded in Cairo with engine trouble and all efforts to obtain another plane had so far proved a failure. The party therefore determined to return immediately to Dhahran by automobile. However, it was decided to unload the gasoline and leave it for refueling the flight that was contemplated whenever air transportation was available, since a straightthrough passage from Dhahran to Cairo is a little beyond the safe range of a C-47. The party reached Ansab Camp in the afternoon but pushed on after a meal and pitched camp for the night at the site of Hafur No. 1 Test Water Well which was then about to be started. (Map 2) Wolfe, Johnson, and Bramkamp left this camp early in the morning of the 10th, and after a succession of delays due to tire trouble, broken springs, and so on, arrived at Abu Hadriah long after dark. Here they decided to push on to Dhahran where they arrived at about 4 A.M. on the 11th, finding that there was still no definite promise of getting any airplane from TWA.

RECONNAISSANCE TO MISHA'AB

During the week starting May 12, Aramco's small Norseman reconnaissance plane (which had been laid up for several months for want of a pilot) was returned to service. It was an ideal reconnaissance plane from the standpoint of control and visibility, but its range was inadequate to permit its use over the proposed pipe line route. Some consideration was given to the possibility of flying it to Palestine by stages and then using It from Lydda as a base, but this was given up as too time-consuming, not to mention the hazard of flying over wild broken country in a single-engine airplane. On the 17th, however, Wolfe, Bramkamp, and Johnson took the plane up the coast to Ras Mlaha'ab just south of the neutral zone (See Map No. 2). Ras Misha'ab had been proposed as a landing spot for pipe. The general nature of Ras Misha'ab is indicated by the sketch map on Page 19, which was prepared after a previous reconnaissance by R. A. Hattrup of the Aramco staff. There is a sand spit at Misha'ab and south of it there is apparently an excellent protected anchorage where a pier could be constructed for unloading pipe. A disadvantage of this project is the necessity of constructing a causeway along this sand spit for about 3.5 km to reach the shore. Beyond the spit there is a sand island on which a road could be built. The total distance from the proposed pier to the shore is about 8-1/2 km, or say 5 miles, half of which is awash at high tide and the other half above tide level. Fig. 07, together with the sketch map will give a good idea of the conditions. The necessity of constructing 3-1/2 kilometers of causeway to get to a pier is a disadvantage but Misha'ab is believed to be the only feasible place in Saudi Arabia north of Ras Tanura for loading pipe directly from a ship to a pier. Probably the expense of a pier would not be justified, but it would also be a suitable port for barging operations. One great advantage of unloading at Ras Misha'ab is that there is no sand country between it and the pipe line route, and hauling can all be accomplished with standard high pressure tires. Even though low pressure tires were used (and Mr. Kerr of Aramco thinks that low pressure tires should be used for off-road hauling even where there is no sand to contend with) the cost would be greatly reduced and hauling would go on without the continual hazard of getting stuck and the slow progress and high cost due to grinding along in low gear-across the sand country that intervenes between Ras Tanura and the main pipe line route. As a matter of fact, it is believed that hauling the pipe from Ras Tanura or Dhahran without doing a good deal of expensive road work to bridge the bad spots would be intolerable, and this will have to be considered.