The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-11-04
RODGERS ALMOST
IN SIGHT OF THE
PACIFIC COAST
TOday's Flight Should End Coast
To Coast Journey.
WILL LAND IN LOS ANGELES
Landed at Imperial Junction, CAL, At
ter Fast Flight Of
1873 Miles

Imperial Junction, Cal, Nov. 3-Af-
ter getting everything in readiness !
got in the air at Stoyall, the water
tank station in the desert, where |
spent last night, at l 80 p. m, Pacific
time, or three hours earlier by Eas-
tern time. got away in good shape,
and my special left at the same time
that / did. was in hopes that 1t
would stay with me today, but | soon
ran away from it.
My motor was running fine. | cut
across one range of mountains that
the railroad had to run around ana
saved myself a few miles thereby. 1t
was not long before | picked up Yu
ma in the distance and | was soon
over it and did not land there out
kept on my way Yuma is 140 feet
below the sea level and this is the
worst part of the desert that / have
come across so far, being very sandy
and rolling. | noticed as | flew along
that there were some hills just OF
sand fully as large as mountains.
AS | passed Imperial Junction
few on a space over the Salton Sea,
lake by that name. But motor trou-
bles developed and ! was up about
1000 feet ! was able TO volplane
down to landing place at Imperial
Junction. The cause OF the trouble
was that a small screw same loose
from inside the motor, causing my
connecting rod 20 break in two and
thrusting a hole through my crank
case, and OF course had TO land i'm
mediately in the best place / could
find. Fortunately for me 1t was not
the Salton sea.
My motor was simply tearing itself
to pieces as the wind kept turning
the propellors. | succeeded in max
ing very good landing in a very bad
place. ! got to work TO take my mo-
tor out and tear down as my train
was three hours behind me and
wanted to have everything in readi-
ness for my mechanicians so that
they would be that much ahead and
save time.
We had to fix up my spare motor
before putting it in my machine be-
cause We had been robbing ii of dif-
ferent parts previously. 1t has delay.
ed me here - long that | won't be
able to start until morning. shall
try to get started at daybreak and
plan to make Los Angeles, the end
OF my transcontinental flight.
found that | had flown the 1873
miles from Stovall to Imperial juno.
ton in 1875 minutes today and il is
the longest stretch that | have done
during my trip without having TO
make landing for even gasolene and
oil.
My wife and mother, Mrs. II. $.
Weitzer, who are travelling on my
special train, had heard at Yuma that
| was down, and had had bad acct.
dent and were simply dumbfounaed
to see me calmly sitting beside the
track working on the motor
c. p. Rodgers.
Summary Of Rodgers Flight
Distance covered since leaving
New York. 1868 miles.
Distance still to go. l67 miles.
Started from New York at 4.25 ..
m. Sept II.
Reached
Chicago. 1899 miles Oct. 8
Kansas City, Mo. 1882 miles Oct. IL
San Antonio, Tex 1889 miles Oct 22
Sanderson, Tex, 2O69 miles Oc. &c
Sierra Blanca, 1921 miles Oct. rs
FL Paso, 1881 miles Oct. 20
Wilcox, Arlz., 27S0 miles Nov. |
Stovall, Ariz, 1920 miles Nov 2
Imperial Junction, Cal, 1858 miles
Nov 3
Actual flying time, days. s hours.
Average speed 51.3 miles an hour
Beats previous worlds record by
l7SS miles.
Best previous cross-country record.
Harry n. Atwood, st. Louis to New
York flight, 1865 miles.
Best days flight. 23O miles. from
Kansas CITY, Mo, to Vinlta, Okla.