The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-09-22
ST. LOUIS AVIATION
MEET IN OCTOBER
Bird Men Will Gather at ST. Louis
First Week in October to Take
Part in Aero Club Meet.

lent by the city to the Aero Club of st,
Louis for the aviation meet October 1
to inclusive on condition that no ad-
mission fee shall be charged.
The no-admission-fee provision has
not exoked a protest, as the Aero Club
of ST. Louis is a money-spending rather
than money-making organization The
one hundred millionaires included in
its membership would feel guilty of
professionalism, perhaps, unless called
upon to make up a deficit SO the
show is to be free to all, even the for
mality of obtaining an invitation being
unnecessary. All residents of the
United States, and other countries for
that matter may consider themselves
invited The Aero Club has promised
flights over the down town skyscraper
district and other sections of the city,
with the park as a base, for the delect-
alton of the Overflow" 120 acres be-
ing considered insufficient to hold all
the people willing to attend free
show of this magnitude.
Incidentally, Albert Bond Lambert
president, and the other members of
Il club have satisfied themselves that
any attempt to make the meet self
supporting would fail because the ayia-
tors are such high fliers. The term
high fliers" is here used in its literal
rather than figurative sense, and hence
does not charge the aviators with dis
sipation but credits them with accom-
plishment In other words, they soar
so far above the enclosure, irrespec-
tive of how tall it may be- that their
flying can be viewed from outside the
fence almost as satisfactorily as from
within.
The general public many times has
proven it's disinclination to pay for
what may be had free. At all past
aviation meets where an admission fee
has been charged the outside crowd
has greatly outnumbered the inside
crowd. These outside crowds cannot
properly be called overflow" because
they could be accommodated on the
aviation field which necessarily is
vast in aera. Empty grandstand seats
are the rule rather than the exception
at aviation meets This impossibility
to screen the fiiers from view by the
multitudes that gather outside ac-
counts for the big deficit last month at
Chicago, and also for the smaller de-
ficit at Kinloch aviation field, in st.
Louis county, last October, when
Hoxey, Brookins Leblanc and John
stone made successful flights, records
were broken and several notables, in
Guiding former President Roosevelt,
were taken up for the first time.
Colonel Roosevelts satisfactory St.
Louis flying experience inspired the
Aero Club officials with the belief that
if President Taft's st. Louis visit could
be arranged for the festival week he
would accept an invitation to make a
trip into the air But the president
has decided to visit st. Louis Septem-
ber %. Even that early, however, he
is not entirely immune from going up,
as aeroplane fights are almost daily oc-
currences in st. Louis nowadays. In
fact, joy riding in the air at night is
the latest st. Louis diversion, intro
duced early this month, when Albert
Bond Lambert and Walter Brookins
went aeroplaning together by moon
light. A rumor generally credited is
to the effect that the Aero Club Off
cials will anyhow-notwithstanding
the hoodoo "23" which is the date of
the Taft visit to St Louis-make an
effort to raise the president in BIZ
plane.
The park at which the free meet
will be held is Playground, an oblong
plain whose east end faces Grand ave
nue. and whose south side faces Nat
ural Bridge road. St. Louis has four
parks larger than Playground. These
include Forest Park having 1871 acres.
where Curtiss and others made unsuc-
cessful attempts to fly during the St
Louis Centennial celebration two years
ago. But Playground is considered
particularly fitting for flights, because,
according to aviation experts, it is one
of the finest natural aviation fields in
America. Kinloch field, the aero clubs
regular aviation ground, was, after the
successful meet there last October,
pronounced by aviators the finest field
they ever had ascended from, but is
several miles from the city, while
Playground is in the city. The accessi-
bility of Playground may be judged
by residents of other cities from its
proximity to the baseball grounds of
the big leagues. 1t adjoins League
Park. where the Cardinals play, and