Later Temple flew over Eccles Church, Urmston, and Barton Moss, and in returning passed over the county cricket ground where a match was in progress. The latter flight covered a distance of 15 miles. On Saturday 17 May there was a crowd of over 6 000, each of whom paid an admission fee of 6d to enter the landing ground and see the flying. Temple responded by taking off and climbing to a height of 2 200 feet, before flying directly over the White City, in a tricky wind, and again out to the county cricket ground. After this second flight of around 15 miles he landed at the aerodrome with a steep vol plane. Temple then decided to purchase a Bleriot. He travelled to Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, where he managed to buy a Bleriot XI-2 two-seater previously flown by Roland Garros. Practice flights were made at Issy in September 1913, and initially Temple had hopes of participating in the Paris to London race scheduled for October. However, Temple decided to leave earlier and preparations were complete by September 4. At 11:30 he took off from Issy with the intention of flying to London. Intentionally or not, the flight was made in stages with landings being made en route at Beauvais, Laboussaire and near Abbeville. Some 104 miles from Issy dense fog and some rain were encountered. The change in weather conditions, together with the fact that he had been fighting a head wind all the way, caused Temple to decide to abort the flight and land at Valines, near Le Crotoy. The landing was somewhat eventful, with one of the blades of the propeller being splintered in the process. This, and the fact that he was suffering from the effects of a bad chill, caused Temple to postpone the resumption of his journey. Total flying time for the 104 miles had been 3 hours and 4 minutes. By Sunday Temple felt well enough to continue the flight, and a new propeller had arrived from Issy. The damaged propeller was signed by Temple and presented to the owner of the Relais in which he had stayed (it is still in the ownership of the family), and a number of photographs were taken of villagers standing next to the Bleriot. Finally taking his leave of Valines, he first flew to Crotoy to see some friends, and then went along the coast to Calais. Temple landed at Calais to prepare for the cross-Channel flight. This was delayed until 4:15 pm by heavy fog, at which time Temple took off to make landfall near Tonbridge after a flight of 50 minutes. By then it was getting dark, and fuel was low, so he landed quite close to an encampment of hop-pickers. The remainder of the flight was to Hendon covered in about an hour on Monday morning. This journey was noted as one of the two most significant cross-country flights of 1913. On October 10, Temple was engaged to give exhibition flights at Hull. A strong wind restricted him to a single flight that day, but three fights were made on the following Saturday. One of these included a climb to some 6 200 feet, and another a flight to Beverley and back. A further four flights were made on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, including a return flight to Driffield. On the Saturday Temple flew his Bleriot from Hendon to Acton to make some exhibition flights before returning to Hendon. This was repeated on the Sunday.

 

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