APRIL 9: MANILA to CEBU UNRECORDED FLIGHT
Backstamped CEBU, April 16 / 4PM plus the Manila "RECEIVED BY AEROPLANE"  postmark.
(David Chiong collection)

In 1997,  when I was helping David prepare his Philippine Air Mails collection for the Istanbul Philatelic Exhibition we were already puzzled with the cover illustrated above.  It is certain that the airplane returned to Manila per undated RECEIVED BY AEROPLANE postmark. However, two questions remained unanswered: When did it returned to Manila and via what route? It can be derived from the cover that is was flown after April 9. Relative to the Cebu arrival postmark, my guess is that this was flown on the morning of April 16.

This puzzle was really solved a long time ago. The answer was just in front of me but somehow never notice it until a few days back when I was preparing images of this collection for the web. Middle of last year I requested Ed Nocom a copy of the AAMC catalogue since someone borrowed my copy. Ed has a habit of putting down notations of his collection on the catalogue which I never paid attention to. Last Wednesday I finally did. Lo and behold! On page 396 of the AAMC is the following notation: "1926 APRIL 19 Cebu - Zamboanga (backstamped Manila) "RECEIVED BY AEROPLANE".

APRIL 17: CEBU to ZAMBOANGA UNRECORDED FLIGHT

Postmarked CEBU / 7AM / APR 17, received on front ZAMBOANGA, ZAMBOANGA / APR 19 / 1926 10AM. Handstamped with RETURNED TO SENDER notice. Backstamped MANILA, P.I. / REC'D / APR 23 9:30AM. Circular receiving cachet on front, identical to cover addressed to Zamboanga. (Ed Nocom collection)

From the above cover, it is now clear that the airplane (or airplanes) took the following route: MANILA - CEBU - ZAMBOANGA - MANILA

This route will result in the following unlisted flights:

• MANILA to CEBU 
• CEBU to ZAMBOANGA
• ZAMBOANGA to MANILA