member of the British team at the International Tourist Plane Contest Challenge 1930 between 16 July and 8 August in Berlin, Germany, finishing the rally seventh overall in her De Havilland Gipsy Moth. She completed the whole contest on a high 4th position. In late August of the same year she was fourth in the handicapped race Giro Aereo d'Italia in Italy. On 5 December 1930, accompanied by Captain Edwards, she set out to prove that South Africa could be reached within 5 days by flying day and night. After 16 hours while Captain Edwards was flying the aircraft and Winifred was asleep, the plane crashed into the sea off the coast of Belmonte Calabro in complete darkness. Captain Edwards could not give a reason for the plane steadily losing height without his knowledge. As Captain Edwards was quite badly injured Winifred left him sitting on the wooden fuselage and swam ashore "6 strokes at a time". She was about 2 miles offshore. She then alerted local fishermen who set out to rescue Captain Edwards and the plane. She participated in three out of four F.A.I – International Tourist Plane Contests – Challenge 1929, Challenge 1930, Challenge 1932, as one of only two women; being one of top contestants and taking the 10th place in 1929 and 4th place in 1930. In 1932 she occupied the 4th position after technical trials, but she decided to withdraw after a forced landing, caused by a sabotage on her fuel. In 1931, she took the fifth place in the King's Cup Race and became the first British woman to earn her living as a private owner's personal pilot flying air racer and MP, Sir William Lindsay Everard, all over Britain, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. She is reported to have crashed an aircraft in Cleator Moor in Cumberland, UK. The date is unknown but the plane was taken to the Mill Yard, and Spooner is reported to have suffered no more than tattered stockings. Death In January 1933 Spooner, who was never ill, caught a cold while at Ratcliffe Aerodrome, Leicestershire, which rapidly worsened and she took to her bed. Pneumonia set in on the following day and the local doctor sent for a specialist from Nottingham. Unfortunately, because of thick fog, the specialist lost his way and the oxygen he was bringing, which might have saved her life, arrived too late: