The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-10-27

Chief Arnold occasionally made a sug-
gcston to him. A flight is Just a part
of the day 5 work with both men, and
they make no fuss about it.
Cub is youth with sense of hu-
NOR. what s the elevation. cap?H
asked the Chief when we were sailing
along smoothly at a height of about
1000 feet. Cub had placed his aneroid
barometer in one of the pockets at
one side of the basket, and after FUN
bling in his coat pockets a second he
qucried ''Where in the dickens did |
put that 'adenoid?
\ little later Cub sang out: ".There
are some of the funniest guinea pigs
| ever saw. And we looked in the
direction indicated. The figures on the
ground did look like guinea pigs from
that distance, but they We're sleek
dairy cows feeding in green pasture.
The bright and varied colors of the
autumnal foliage, when YOU gaze mp
on them from a height of 800 to 5000
feet, give the earth the appearance of
the most beautiful tapestry imaginable.
and new scenes shift before your ewes
as rapidly as in revolving kaleido-
scope
We arc travelling mighty fast Just
now. remarked the Chief at one stage
of the fight. How fast? inquired
Student WEIGH, who, like the writer.
was also making his first flight prob
ably 10 miles an hour, replied the
Chief. It seemed incredible that we
should be making any such mileage an
hour, for not n breath of air was felt.
We were simply slipping easily through
the air, without a sign of vibration or
a particle of swaying in the basket.
and talking about swaving, there is
never any pcrceptlble motion to the
| basket
1t seenS strange that when YOU are
at fair height YOU cannot tell from
any sensation whether YOU are going
! up or down. The student aeronaut
throws ont tiny slips of tissue paper.
II they dance dOwnwards the balloon
Is rising rapidly. If they 90 up, the
balloon is falling, and if they bob up
and down almost at the side of the
car the balloon is in equilibrium.
There are instruments for determining
altitude and indicating changes. but
they are slow compared with the It's
sue paper test.
The men who have been up in bal
looms and airplanes say there is no
comparison when the pleasurable point
of the journey is considered. The air.
Iplane travels at tremendous speed-so
fast that there is no time for converse
ton and none too much for obserya-
ton, and the din of the motor is in
ccssant. With the balloon there is
quietude and the fascination of float
ing freely through space There is
! lure in ballOoning akin to the call of
the wild. Once YOU have experienced
il YOU will want to 90 again.
I Wires and water are the two things
to be avoided on landing, according
to the Chief. When YOU float beyond
Springfield and around Amherst, look
out for the high tension wires. On
our flight we once Dropped pretty low,
so that we were obliged to pull in the
drag rope, which bangles 200 feet be
low the basket as we feared if might
Snag in the telephone wires and pull
them to pieces. But while the rope
was being pulled in Cub dribbled out
some Of the sand ballast and the bal
loon shot upwards again to an eleva-
ton of 300 feet or more again.
Water is to be avoided for the rea-
son that you may have to ''swim for
IT. But the basket of the balloon
IS natural life preserver and Won
could cling TO it some time if necessary
Our landing was a little out of the
ordinary. When we decided to come
down the valve cord was pulled. open.
ing the valve at the top of the bal
loon. We descended without any feel
ing Of falling. In front was the open
field Of a farm. This the Chief said
we would try TO hit. Beyond was a
peach orchard, and then a long ex
ranse of forest. The wind had not
been perceptible at the start, but wher
within 800 feet of the earth we could
see that the trees were Swaving We
speeded up, and it was evident that W.
would not touch the green sward We
had cut away our anchor at the start
so as to carry as little weight as nee
essary. Away we hummed over the
peach orchard and then dropped among
the maple trees.
Everybody duck and hold on tight. :
said the Chief. and we obeved. cling
ing to the handles inside the basket
; We swished among the branches
touched earth. rebounded above the
tree tops, and came down again, break
ing off some branches of dead chest
I nut tree with the 500 pounds weigh
of the car and the additional weigh
of the four men aboard Then tn,
fight was all over, distance of som,
: 20 miles, in little over an hour. Blu
there was hard work ahead.
= The Chief and the novice walked :
mile and a half to the nearest tele
phone, made report to headquarters