Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-15
Mistellaneo'ls &eadins.
TWO MILES ABOVE EARTH.
Aviator Tells of Worlds Altitude
Fliuht.

81 sailed by scant 2S6 feet to carry
out my threatened ultimatum Of ten
thousand feet or bust!
"It was absolutely the first time
that 1 had set my foot in the little ma
chine with which I broke the worlds
record today, but am convinced that
the light roadster as we call her,
is the best altitude machine ever
built
"I figure that I flew over seventy
five miles to attain an altitude OF g.
TIA feet this afternoon. This figure
Is based on the time that I was In the
air Gone hour and thirty-two minutes,
the speed Of my craft, fifty-five miles
an hour:) and the time taken in drop
ping to earth, which I estimated at
between five and six minutes.
THE first mile of my drop to the
earth was accomplished in a trifie
over two minutes. I never saw ma
chine that dropped so easily and yet
maintained such wonderful stability
as this little girl. She sure was good
to me and I'll reward her yet by TAX
ing her up ten or twelve thousand
feet.
Although I was in somewhat Of a
purple haze up there I never lost sight
of the earth. Why, down below could
see trees and houses that looked small
er than toy blocks. Far over to one
side 1 could get a fieeting glimpse of
the ocean. The bay in the distance
looked like a volcanic eruption. AS a
guidepost, I kept narrow ribbon-like
road running north and south. Like
everything else the road looked dish
ed below me.
Today in spite of the cold, I felt a
strange exhiliaration. In endless cir
cles and flying as swiftly as the motor
would carry me, arose to height of
$500 feet in from twenty to twenty
five minutes. 1t was speedier than /
had ever risen before, and I had all I
could do to attend to the machine.
A glance at the barograph strapped
TO my waist told me l was in striking
distance of the worlds record. But
suddenly my heart sank as 1 noticed
that the little pencil on the barograph
had ceased its upward tracings and
was holding it at an unsteady level.
With victory in my grasp, I could feel
it slipping away from me. / think then
that muttered a prayer to the God
of Fools I am not sure, but while
l was praying, I was also thinking.
Il was floating then on a level, SIM
ply ploughing along in the air field.
There were just two things for me to
do to aid my desperate battle for the
record. Level her down. my instinct
told me, and 1 leveled her down, that
Is, held her or an even keel and de-
pended upon a sudden puff Of wind or
series of puffs to boost her upward.
The aero didn't move an inch. In fact
she seemed to my overwrought imag-
ination to be sinking a few inches at a
time.
Now I tried a trick which Is consid-
cred risky 100 feet from the ground,
but most people experienced In the art
Of air flying consider suicidal at such
a height and in such thin atmosphere.
Nursing my motor and almost rising
from my seat in my eagerness, /
pointed her nose directly upward,
seeking what we call the proper nose
angle l finally found it at forty five
degrees Git must have been less, but
it seemed to me more) and the little
roadster shivered and quivered, and
slowly, very slowly, dug up into the
air.
Then followed the most nerverack-
ing battle Of my life. 1t took me one
hour to push her up from 5000 to 5000
feet. How 1 did it at the angle luck
only knows. l was seated like a cow
boy mounted on a refractory broncho.
My feet were lacked up and my head
was lying back, as though reclining In
a steep Morris chair.
Now and then the Morris chair and
it's stability would disappear, and /
seemed to be reclining in huge rock
ing chair. Half the time 1 was lying
almost fiat on my back and straining
for a view of the angles. In such a
position one often loses his sense of
the horizontal. Before I left on this
trip I tied little ribbon to the front
of the machine. I was grateful for it
then, for I am afraid without 1t a
panic would have seized me.
"On the whole I enjoyed the trip as
greatly as though 1 had been on terra
firma all the time.
"Once only did l long to feel the
springy turf of Belmont park beneath
my feet again. That was when 1 had
almost reached the summit Of the trip.
realized that I was penetrating
further toward the unknown regions
above than any man had ever done
before in a flying machine. and sud-
denly the thought flashed into my
head:
Look here, old fellow, you haven't
got any idea what's ahead of you up