The Alaska citizen., 1911-04-03

useless, for l am convinced that l l caught the machine just as she was
 passing the critical angle, after ! which there would have been nothing . to support her in the air and l
 should have gone crashing down 1 ward
 l As swiftly as it had come the danger | had passed. the machine mad right i ed herself, and after what seemed a whole lifetime of uncertainty in the ! very presence of death itself l open ed my eyes, to find myself sailing
 easily away on an even keel, safe.
 a.iNe and thanking God for it. ] l looked beneath me and l saw ] that the mechanics were gazing up
 al me with the iuea of what l had | just passed through. Mac, however l looked as white as d ghost. He knew. Naturany my n,rves were about gone. My heart was humping like
 a trip hammer and l could scarcely
 get my breath from the excitement. | But made up my mind that Mac was not going to see me quit, so as | though l had intended just what hap ! penod, l went sailing away 10 the far ! side of the ground and came back again in wide, easy, sweeping curves
 that landed me at the feet of my eX- | cited partner in perfect style. | l did not fly agaln that day. My other narrow escape was the
 result of a fiuke and l was saved | by fluke. To this day l have not l been abe to figure out why either Cf i the flukes happened.
 l was praCtlCing at Beaulieu, for | height altitude work had attracted
 me from the beginning, and l prac. l tiCed constantly. In fact l had sev. i eral times exceeded the worlds rec | ord for height as it stood then, but | could not claim it officially, as used my own barograpn and aneroid, and the flights were made with Mac
 and the mechanics as the only ] watchers.
 On this day l went up toward even, ! ing. It was one of those gray days i with a thin mist over everything and a damp feeling in the air sug- i geSting an impending fog 1 should have known better than to attempt l to climb under such conditions, but ] l was keyed up to it and l did not | want to put it off.
 ! The mecnanics turned the propeller | over and l was off. The engine was running with that smooth purring | that is music to the ears of an aviator and the machine seemed to
 mount without the slightest effort. i l went up in big circles, a mile or
 more in diameter perhaps, and as i got into the thinner air l paid l strict attention to managing the ! aeroplane; l doubt if I looked down 1 toward the earth once after I passed l a height of 20O0 feet.
 ! Without any incident whatever l | climbed to something like 6,000 feet,
 which was then above the record,
 and was debating whe Ter to try for any more altitude with the darkness
 of ening gathering, when my en-
 zine began to Sputter and miss in a
 way that sounded as though there
 were no more gasoline in the tank. | This, however, l knew could net be l the cause of the trouble The tank ! had been well filled before l started
 and there must have been enough to
 last me another hour at least. | What the trouble was l have never ! ascertained, but l felt the power be- 1 ginning to give out and l showed my steering post forward just about in | time to get the machines nose
 pointed down when the engine stopped entirely. There was nothing for tt but to plane down and get as near back home as possible.
 With the machine pointed right for long spiral glide, looked be- low to get my bearings and that is yrh fir- frin I1 mists had gathered so thicKly that l could not see single glimpse of the earth. There was nothing below me but billowy sea of clouds, impene- l trable to he eye.
 | l blamed myself in picturesque and forcible language for my folly, ill not taking more careful note of
 my position Cn the upward climb | Now it was too late l had not the 1 slightest idea what part of the coun- i try l was over or in which direction
 l was headed.
 l might have taken my bearings from the glow of the setting sun,
 but l had all l could do to take
 care of the machine, rushing down.
 ward through space as l was at the
 rate of seventy miles an hour or
 more. I thought of nothing except
 the steering and instinctively tried
 to keep her going in a general way
 in about the same wide circles that
 l had followed on my journey up.
 Soon l entered the clouds and be-
 gan to catch glimpsas of earth. l
 thought l saw something that looked
 like one of the buildings on our | grounds and l steered accordingly,
 aiming to plane down so as to have
 plenty of room in the open land that
 stretched for miles away from the l hangars
 l Suddenly the mists seemed to
 clear away completely, or rather l
 seemed to plunge through them and
 get into the ordinary atmosphere of
 the earth's surface. And there l got
 my second and really great fright.
 Instead of seeing beneath me the
 broad, smooth, clear lands of our
 aviation grounds, as l had confidently
 expected, there was nothing but
 rees-trees-trees as far as the eye
 could reach. I seemed to be direct
 " over t..e heart of limitless wood.
 To land in the branches meant cer-
 tain wreck. I had no power in the
 engine to give me a chance to look
 about me for an opening. There was
 nothing for it but to plunge down
 among the forest giants and trust
 to luck that the wreck of the ma
 chine would not cut me up badly
 and that my fall from the top of
 whatever tree l landed in would
 leave my features in good enough
 shape for identification at the in.