was elected to Royal Aero Club membership. He was granted a short service commission as a Flying Officer in the RAF on 24 October 1919, though this appointment was later cancelled. On 6 December 1919, he transferred to the unemployed list of the RAF. After the war, Pinder was an aviation pioneer in South America. In August 1920, he was part of a group attempting the first flight between Brazil and Buenos Aires. Pinder teamed with Brazilian Lieutenant Aliatar Martins to make this flight in a Macchi M.9 flying boat. The aircraft disappeared. The bodies of Pinder and Martins were found on 27 August. Loss of a propeller had apparently crashed their aircraft. Other accounts give more detail. They state that Pinder and Martins landed in the Lagoa dos Esteves, Içara to repair a propeller. After it was fixed, they tried to restart the airplane's engine. In the process, Martins was knocked into the lagoon by the propeller, and his arm was broken. Pinder dived in to save him, but both men drowned. After the drownings, a search party found the seaplane in the lagoon and threatened to kill all the local men in the vicinity because there was suspicion of foul play. There was a general exodus of these men into the woods to hide from suspicion. One courageous local man aided the ten-day search. Pinder and Martins were originally buried in the first graves of the local cemetery, but were removed several years later. References Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920. Christopher F. Shores, Norman L. R. Franks, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1990. , . Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America. Dan Hagedorn, 2008. University Press of Florida. . Endnotes Royal Naval Air Service aviators 1898 births 1920 deaths British World War I flying aces People from Deal, Kent Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Deaths by drowning Accidental deaths in Brazil