Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1910-09-20
PERILOUS ERIAL FLIGHTS.
The Buckeye" Lands in Virginia and
the New York in Ohio-The "S1isso-

the New York in Ohio-The "hisso-
phIe'' Reported.
New York, Sept. 2O.--The Buck
eye." one Of the three hitherto unre-
ported balloons, landed in Virginia
Monday morning, according to tele-
gram received today by the Aero Club
OF America. The telegram was from
Pilot ]. H. Wade, of Cleveland and
read as follows:
Balloon Buckeye landed in the
mountains at 1870 Monday morning,
one mile southeast of Showalter, Floyd
county, Virginia. Impossible to wire
earlier"
The telegram was sent from Chris
tiansburg, Va.
Capt. Thomas Baldwin. the aide OF
Pilot Clifford B. Harmon, appeared
at the Aero Club OF America rooms
today and reported that the New York
landed near Portsmouth, Ohio, at D
O'Clock Sunday evening.
Il supposed, of course, that every.
one knew about our having landed, !"
Baldwin said in explaining his silence.
Although we we're not in the air very
long, we had q hard time OF it and for
fourteen hours we had the hardest fight
with adverse winds that | ever ex-
perienced."
I'VE ran into hot sunshine, cold
winds, thunder, lightning and rain in
rapid succession" Capt. Baldwin said.
1T kept us gessing to manage the
ballast under these conditions and when
we landed, we had only few pounds
of ballast left.
Our gas was also badly depleted
from the constant changes in tempera-
ture.
Saturday night, we we're soaked
by a cold rain. Sunday morning,
the sun shone brightly Our gas ex-
banded and we rose rapidly to y
height of 5000 feet or more. At
noon Sunday, we struck the worst
thunderstorm have ever encountered
in the upper air and TO avert danger
we scared TO height Of three and y
half miles 1t was Il magnificent spec
tacle to ride above the storm at such
great height, but were in no mood to
enjoy the sensation.
IAN the afternoon, we sailed in the
upper air currents, constantly throw
ing out ballast. By 4 o'clock we were
about out of ballast, and had to begin
looking for a place to alight. We
founG good spot on hillside near
Ports mouth"
New York, Sept. 20.--A report to
the Aero Club here today says that the
missing balloon, Miss Sophie, the only
one unaccountcd, for landed in an out
OF the way spot Ill West Virginia, a
few miles south of Clarksburg, ut about
6 O'Clock Sunday evening.
Philadelphia, Sept. 20.-Conyers B.
Graham and Arthur T. Athcrholt, the
Philadelphia aeronauts who manned
the Pennsylvania II in the balloon race
from indianapolis, returned here to-
day battered and bruised rs i result OF
the wrccking of their aircraft in a
terrific storm at Dexter, Ohio, Sunday.
Both narrowly escaped with their lives,
being caught "a, 900 feet in the air with
only three bags OF ballast. They de-
scended with such terrific force that
their balloon rebounded hundred feet
from the ground, carrying with it the
occupants entangled in the ropework
Of the basket.
The Pennsylvania, with the other en-
tries in the race, kept well together un-
til the storm hit them at 10 o'clock
Saturday night.
Rain poured in torrents" said
Graham today. I'VE we're blinded by
it and the intense darkness and abso-
lutely lost our way. We tloundered
all night, the winds blowing tierccly.
Early Sunday morning we were driven
to an altitude OF $4,000 feet. In des-
cending it cost us seven bags of ballast.
We had three left when we were sud-
denly lifted to an amazing height.
1t must have been some atmosphere
freak that caused it. The barometer
showed 1000 feet. 1t was trying
moment.
Tossing out our ballast we dccended
like shot. When we hit it was with
terrific force. We were both caught
under the basket but chung to the ropes
as the bolloon rebounded about a