Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-07
WILD TELLS OF
AERIAL VOYAGE
ASSERTS He REMAINED TN AIR
AT NIGHT
Statement Not Credited in Los An.
geles That Chicago Pilot Passed
TWenty-four Hours in Ball
loon as Claimed

Horace B. Wild, who came to Los
Angeles from Chicago in November at
the request of Dick Ferris to pilot the
United States in an attempt to cross
the continent, has contributed to Aero
nautics of New York an account of his
experience in Los Angeles. In it he
repeats his statement that he remained
up all night. although this was denied
by LerOyXez and others who knew that
Wild slept under an apricot tree near
Corona on the night of his ascension.
He also makes an attack on Capt
Mueller, blaming him for the quality
of the gas, which is at variance with
the testimony of Dick Ferris and others
VINO are familiar with Mueller's con-
struction of the hydrogen gas plant at
Chutes park.
Members of the Aero Club of Califor-
MIA and others who followed the Ferris
race believe that Wild's stories do
Mueller an injustice, and they generally
discredit his statements as to what ne
accomplished. In his contribution to
AeronauticS, which occupies five pages
in the January number of that maga-
zine and is headed "Over the Canyons
and Mountains of the Coast Range in
a Balloon-an All-Night Trip Wild
says:
1T is not every day that one has the
opportunity of stepping into the basket
Of balloon filled with hydrogen gas
ana with the prospect of a. course Of
32O0 miles ahead of you without any
large body of water to cross. SO, when
| received an invitation from Dick
Ferris, the millionaire theatrical pro-
moter of Los Angeles, to whom Leo
Stevens sold the balloons United States
and America, to come to Los Angeles
to take part in a double attempt to
cross the continent-his idea being to
attempt to break the worlds record for
distance and endurance by travelling
from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast
Immediately wired Mr.. Ferris my ac-
ceptance of the best proposition have
had handed me in a long while.
Only Eleven Sacks
has had a great deal of experience iii
ballooning. was my choice for a COM
panion. We loaded our heavy wraps
into the basket and as we unlocked the
sand bags one by one the old United
States, which won the first Gordon Ben
nett race, pulled and tugged at her
moorings Rex got into the basket and
l stood on the outside edge. One by
one the bags were unhoked until the
concentrating ring raised above the
basket. Imagine our surprise, after
seeing Mueller in the America start
away with only eleven sacks of sand,
when we balanced with thirty three
sacks of sand.
when all was ready at 12:45 p. m. A.
Roy Knabenshue, one of the worlds
most famous aeronauts, balanced off
the balloon. AS we shook hands and
said good by to those near the basket,
Roy took off one sack of sand and up
we went. He had evidently taken off
too much, for the balloon did not come
to equilibrium until we reached an alti-
tude of 1000 feet, where the wind cur
rent was direct from east to west.
which would carry us straight out over
the ocean. seventeen miles ahead of us
We travelled over six miles before we
could lower our balloon into the reverse
current. which we found at an altitude
of 400 feet. but the wind at this altitude
was very slow in velocity-not over
four miles an hour.
Time Stated Definitely
The balloon was packed up, loaded