The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1912-01-26

NaAt TIC iitN HuHkuItt 1--WE DIX
fellows. making gray blur in the
darkness, and he sailed about con-
tented for several minutes. Then the
attendants set a mark for him. a white
square OF canvas. and he swooped
down safely TO a perfect landing.
The following day he had a great ex-
perience The international meet be-
gan that morning at Nassau. and there
were perhaps a half-score of cracks
warming up when one of them, Beat
tie. in his passenger carrying Wright.
saw the group experimenting with the
chicken and the crow, "Genevieve" and
Geraldine" In friendly spirit he
turned the beak OF his condor down
ward and settled onto the grass In
Moisants field. want TO go up?" he
asked MacKay. when they had passed
the time OF day.
| MacKay did, and got aboard.
Whir-r-r-r-rrr! said the engine and
up they went. straight away at first
and then in q beautiful spiral until
they were nearly a thousand feet in
air. Presently Beattie nudged his pas
senger end grinned mischievously
They were directly over Mineola,
Long Island, and country fair was
I'm full swing. The human ants be-
low had discovered them and had
congregated in the large open space
near the center of the grounds TO
watch.
Beattie tilted her forward and they
dropped like a falling star. did you
ever feel sort e silly, as though you
| wanted to laugh when an elevator
went down with you pretty swiftly
asked Mckay in describing the sensa-
tions. We'll, magnify that feeling a
hundred times and you'll know JUST
how II hit me.
land | never dropped so fast in my
life. had TO hang onto the braces
10 keep from floating away. The ma
chine was simply trying to get away
and leave me hanging In the air AM
you'd ought to seen those people nus
tie! Ii was just like poking an ant
hill with a stick They ran in every
/! GlfeCtlOn .IOI CONtIs Nhth w 1900
scared them half to death and were
within fifty feet of the sod, he turned
her Prov up again and away we went.
"Then maybe he didn't put her
through all her PAGES. We climbed
away up and he did the ocean wave
That means scooting down two hun
dred feet in a perpendicular drop
rushing back up by the momentum oil
your fall. dropping again and rising
again, till the earth rocks like era
die. He warped her wings TIL she
tipped around like butterfly i'm gale
The performance wound up with
spiral glide back. TO earth again. There
was great half-hour!"
MacKay did not mount, a machine
again for three weeks. Jesse Seligmar
son of millionaire banker of New
York, dropped something like hun
| dred teeth when his engine quit colo
! and smashed the maheine. though
he was not hurt. On october th'
| Guardsman went up-and received MS
baptism of fire. He had another acci'
i dent.
| He was circling about at a speed OF
| perhaps as miles an hour and at
height of so feet, when short TURF
caused the plane to skid. She slipped
steadily. losing velocity all the time
until the pull of the engine wouio
not control her. The machine was
falling sidewise to earth.
| MacKay attempted to "straighten
her up" by tanning the rudder over
She would not respond Still hghtins
he damned IL the other way ano
pointed her head down for the spiral
dive.
He had almost recovered control. but
| the earth was too near The machine
struck with a good. hard thump. break
| ing one wheel. a brace and the prop
eller. MacKay was not hurt. Wheh
he saw that a fall was inevitable, ne
shut off the engine and hung onto the
supports. IF I'd so feet farther 10
go, I'd won." he says.
when asked If he was frightened
the aviator replied: 81 wasn't scared a
bit. ! was mad at the machine and
was so busy fighting IL and trying 10
get the upper hand that really dldn
have time to be afraid
Were you ever frightened
Not really frightened. Some days
I feel as though / didn't want to go up
but that feeling soon wore off"
on Wednesday. october IL. the pol
ishing process for MacKay's record or
license fight began. He made two
left turns. one figure eight which
brings both the turns into use. and
landing. A landing. when used In this
sense. means an attempt TO land as
close to a given target as possible, the
target being a square of canvas. ON
Friday. the 18th. he wound up the days
flying with two sets of figures and an
other landing.
This was In day that the aviator
wanted to try for his license. but IL
was impossible for. the Aero club OBJ
servers 10 come on that date, so the
record fight was made on october Is,
Sunday.
A colleague Of MacKay's had also
qualified for the trials. but as he had
uso given