The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-06-02
AvIATOR'S Three
AWFUL MINUTES
Ashley Had Three Terrific Bouts
With Death.
IN STRANGE RACING MACHINE

At One Time He Flew Through the Air
at a Height of Three Hundred Feet,
Graspine Rod With One Hand-Har
Raising Performance.
One of the most hair raising per-
formances ever put up on an aeroplane
was given at the Brooklands aero
drome, near London, by the British
aviator, H. de ID. Ashley, who is a
cousin of the Marquis of Hastings.
Ashley was flying fifty horsepower
Bleriot racing monoplane for the first
time.
His first lap of the aerodrOme was
series of up and down dives, which
looked as if he were sitting bucking
broncho, only each buck took him forty
feet up and down again. Then he got
the weight of the machine into his
hands and steadied her down for a
second lap. Feeling he had got full
control, he took her up to q height of
300 feet, where he was flying quite
nicely when a gust of wind caught
him and turned him up on to his left
wing tip, and he began to drop side
ways.
Sat In the Air.
Knowing his only chance of righting
himself was to drive head first out of
the gust, he pulled the tail of the ma
chine up in the air, switched off his
engine and dived for it, Just as he
got the monoplane diving quite
straight he accidentally touched the
switch, and the engine started again
full blast. The sudden pull of the big
engine, added to the weight of the
machine, jerked the whole apparatus
from under Ashley, who was left for
a fraction of a second sitting In the
air
He grabbed the first thing that
came along, and when ho came to
himself sufficiently to think he found
himself sitting astride the frame OF
the machine, hanging on to the top
rails of the frame with both hands
and looking straight down into the
seat he had quilted. Meantime the
machine, absolutely without control,
was heading full speed for the ground.
now only about $50 feet below him.
Fortunately for him his weight, be-
ing so far back, made itself felt, and
at about 100 feet from the earth the
tail dropped and the machine started
climbing skyward again.
Given Up For Dead.
The other aviators on the ground had
given him up for dead as he made his
dive, and now they gave him up again,
for the machine climbed perfectly YER
tically, and no one had ever seen
machine going aloft hanging on to its
propeller and nothing else. They sim
ply stood and waited for the machine
to start dropping backward. There was
nothing else to do.
Then Ashley pulled himself together
and clawed himself up the frame 50
that by holding on with his right hand
he could catch hold of the control
wheel with his left, but he could not
get into his seat so as to get his feet
on the rudder levers. BY this time the
aeroplane had climbed to a height Of
about 400 feet and was still rising.
AS soon as he had got partial control
Ashley said to himself "This is where
l start for home again" and jammed
LIS NOillO WHICH, uuIu lOIWuIu. lt
tail came up, and the machine got on
level keel and steadied herself. Then
he raised the tail bit more, and, look
ing over the front of the machine.
meanwhile lying fiat on his stomach
on top of the frame, he saw below him
the sewage farm which covers and
spoils big portion Of the Brookland
aerOdrOme.
That's the safest part of Brook
lands. Me for it," thought Ashley, and
up he brought his tail still more so
starting another dive for earth. Hav-
ing no rudder control and no means of
getting any, he could not turn. All he
could do was to regulate his up and
down flight and keep the machine from
heeling over sideways; consequently
If he missed the sewage farm he
would hit the railway embankment,
which forms the limit of the aero
drome, and his only chance was to
drive straight into the sewage
Lands Unhurt
Down he came, engine running all
out, and again the onlookers gave him
up for lost. l-wenty feet from the
ground he let go with his right hand,
made dab for the switch and cut out
his engine. Then he hauled his lever
back, dropped his tail, and the machine
came up level, to drop gently into the
soft mud of the sewage farm, where
the wheels stuck and the mOnoplane
quietly stood on her head, decanting
Ashley over the top of the engine into
the dirt.
Net results, a couple of broken wires
and all the buttons pulled off Astley's
overalls as he clawed himself on his
stomach along the frame, and this aft