He was discharged and returned to South Africa with shellshock and a total of 900 flying hours logged in nine models of aircraft, among them the Maurice Farman, Avro 504, Sopwith Pup and Camel, De Havilland DH6, DH9 and DH9A and the B.E.2.

Anderson left the company in March 1924, and in January, 1927, purchased from them a Bristol Tourer, in which he made an attempt on the record of Perth to Sydney by air in 21½ hours established by Lieut.

[2] Kingsford Smith, also in a Bristol Tourer, attempted the record at the same time; both completing the 2,200 miles (3,500 km) in 30 flying hours, attributing their lack of success to a strong headwind.

He visited Hawaii in September 1927 to assess the airfields available on the islands[5] then went to America with Kingsford Smith and Ulm to help in its organisation, but returned to Australia in March before the plane Southern Cross had been procured.

"[12] His fiancée's father, Sydney solicitor A. V. Hilliard (1865–1933), arranged a restraining order preventing Kingsford Smith and Ulm from moving Southern Cross from the jurisdiction of the New South Wales courts until a settlement had been reached.

The Supreme Court judge accepted Kingsford Smith's argument that the original project had been abandoned, and no promise had been made in respect of the revised flight, and directed the jury to find for the defendants.

They left Sydney on 6 September 1928, but got no further than Pine Creek, Northern Territory, when they had radiator trouble and made a forced landing, from which Anderson emerged unscathed, and Hitchcock suffering nothing worse than a badly cut lip and a strained shoulder, but the plane was a write-off, with nothing salvageable except the engine.

[1] After a series of well-publicised delays, Kingsford Smith, Ulm, Harold A. Litchfield (navigator) and Thomas Harrison "Tom" McWilliams (wireless operator) took off in "The Old Bus" (Southern Cross) from Richmond airfield for Wyndham, Western Australia on 30 March 1929 on the first leg of their London flight.

[18] By 3 April four or five planes had been deployed in the search for the missing airmen, two chartered from West Australian Airways by The Sun newspaper, one flown by Jim Woods and the other by Eric Chater (who had to make a forced landing near Walcott Inlet).

The plane took off easily with its load of 880 pounds (400 kg), Anderson having told fellow-pilot Milton Kent that he had the right machine for the job, and would leave no stone unturned in his search for the missing men.

"[20] Les Holden, in his DH.61 Canberra, found Southern Cross on 12 April, threw some provisions to the crew, and passed her location to Fred Heath of West Australian Airways, who landed alongside.

"Support" for these contentions was disappearance of the Southern Cross 's stash of food rations, and the financial assistance Kingsford Smith gave Anderson to buy the plane Kookaburra.

[26] Willian Angus Todd, for a time their navigator, attested that back in the days of financial stringency he had heard Ulm suggest that if they should get lost in the Australian outback they would have no lack of public support.