Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-23
Six Aviators Brave the EIe-
ments at Belmont Park.
TWENTY-NINE IN LIST
Grahame- White Takes First Place in
Distance Contests.
HOXsEY SCARS THE HIGHEST
Moisant of Chicago Makes Cross
Country Flight-But Few
Spectators Present.

NEW YORK, October GA persistent,
fine rain, driven before wind that held
steadily out of the east at between ten
and twelve miles an hour. thinned to a
sparse scattering of spectators at the
opening day of the International aviation
meet at Belmont Park, and brought out but
six of the twenty-nine aviators entered,
but it served to prove that airmen are no
longer creatures of moods and moments,
and that an aviation program can go
through as scheduled, in the face of the
most dispiriting conditions.
An Englishman. Claude Grahame White,
took first place in the distance contests
and in the totaization of duration-the
lump sum of time that any aviator had
been aloft for the day; an American,
Hoxsey of the Wright team scared high
est into the scudding mist, and another
American. John B. MOisant of Chicago,
was the only contestant who cared to
take chance on a twenty-mile cross-coun-
try fight into the teeth of the wind
and with the fog so thick that he could
not see the ground after he rose $50
feet above the EARTH
Airman Steers by Compass.
Moisant's was a second demonstration
both his own-of the fact that an air
man, like a seaman. can steer by COM
pass, without knowing the time of night.
foul weather or fair. AS on his trip
from Paris to London-and he flew in
the same machine-he steered wholly by
compass. II never bothered about my
course today" he said afterward. II
knew accurately the speed was making
and where 1 ought to be. The only
fhinU that hot 1ool nf
a barometer-I usually carry one. Tn
able to see the earth for the fog. 1 was
afraid 1 might knock down a church
steeple or get caught in a tangle of
wires, SO every few miles or so 1 had
to swoop down to within eyeshot of the
earth. Then I would rise again and
point by the compass. When I thought
and began to scout for the captive bal
loon that marks the turn. but though l
ranged twice, to the right and the left,
it was so thick I could not pick it up,
scribed to me for a landmark, that had
covered the prescribed distance. turned
for home"
Not Credited With Excess.
In point Of fact, Moisant, as observed,
covered probably three miles more than
the course. although he is not credited
with the excess.
No records were broken today: it was
sufficient triumph to fly at all. Grahame-
White, in q steady Farman biplane keep
ing close to the ground and cutting the
corners with workmanlike precision.
piled up twenty laps in two successive
hours. flying for distance only. He was
just two hours in the air, and the OFF,
cial scorers credited him with fifty kilo-
meters, 31.O7 miles. for each hour.
Moisant was second with fourteen laps
for the first hour and fifteen for the sec
ond-respectively 21.75 and 23.3 miles. He
the straightaways, he lost at the turns
and in the first hour was penalized four
laps for cutting corners inside the pylons.
Two Try for Altitude.
None Of the Wright team tried for
distance. Hoxsey and tombstone both
went up for altitude, but Johnstone had
engine trouble and Hoxsey evidently
found the currents up above the fog
too wild fer he quickly settled from a
height of 742 feet to more modest levels.
Ely of the Curtiss team also tried his
luck at high and took second place for
the first hour with 4O4 feet.
Hoxsey tried it again in the second
hour and did wOrse-673 feet this time.
Count de Lesseps made 62S feet, ].
Armstrong Drexel, SIG feet, and Ely, on
another trial, EOS feet. None of them
liked it much up. above, for they were
soon down.
1t was o'clock and was growing
dark. with rising wind and even
heavier gusts of rain, when MOisant
came home from his cross-country
flight, and the meet ended for the day.
Monoplane and Biplane Compete.
In the main it was a contest between
the mOnoplane and the biplane, with
the monoplane the swifter and the BIZ
plane the steadier. None of the Gnome
revolving engines missed once during