Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-24
Tours. France,
Tuesday. Sept. IS. 1917.

Tours, France,
Tuesday, Sept. IS. 1917.
Dear Mother:
Your three letters received all in a
pile. Seems very strange, but mail
has suddenly stopped and 1 see no
reason for 1t to do so. unless the
censors are getting busy. Neither
nave L received any package YOU
said you sent. I'm afraid that bread
is going to be some stale. Quite
number of fellows are losing mail,
no doubt due to our being trans
ferred from Avord to Tours. Good
ness knows where we go next.
1t may please your patriotism and
you TO know that l took the eXami-
nation for American aviation and
passed. Sure, they put me through
all that parlor magic stuff, like
standing on one leg with eyes closed
for 80 seconds, hopping backwards
ana forwards in the same blindfolded
condition. Not content with all this,
they needs must spin me around on
a piano stool, stick a funnel in my
ear to look for pearls, give me a
rigid eye test, and then make me
swear to the whole shooting match.
despite my decided principles against
profanity. Pretty nearly turned me
No"h Oii luG InGnldl lest lHOuBjl
This consisted, of a few questions SIS
to where | went to school. whether
l was in a hurry to get to the front,
etc All of which l answered to the
best of my ability. Doctor Gros was
in charge, along with two other high
officers after looking over my record
decided in my favor. Then L swore,
he signed the paper and 1 drank the
ink. Half a dozen more pictures
nrxF 40 h q nd
Thursday and by Friday all the red
tape was finished with and the
worthy doctor left us with the ad-
monition to be good and in about
another month we would be through
with the red tape, and Immediately
on our passing the flying tests would
be made first lieutenants, with sal
airy that was simply staggering.
Saturday things began to happen
for me. You know l had been in the
landing class for week and had not
had a ride, due to the laziness of
moniteurs.
Took me up and surprised myself
and him by doing three landings in a
row very good. Then 1 made two
bum ones, and teacher, being very
hot-headed, began to grumble and
shake his head and finally turned
around in the seat and shook his
fault, however, and he nodded his
head with pleasure. l was feeling
perfectly at home in the machine
about that time and was watching
the ground below as it slid quickly
by making a very pretty sight. A
rabbits antics far below amused
both the moniteur and myself for he
| could not quite decide what kind of
| an enemy we were, or which way to
| until shadow n1GSad
him and then he quickly decided he
| had business elsewhere and hastened
| to it,
Made another landing pretty fair,
but nearly landed in a carrot patch
and / neved did like carrots either
And then we chased up flock OF
| quail. Teacher took the controls
| then and began a series of evolu-
! tions that were considerably more
after quail, and no sooner was the
machine off the ground than he
| stood her on wing and around we
came, no higher than three feet of
the ground. l know because we cut
the tops off a potato patch we
passed over, hit the ground with one
wheel, bounced up again and made
another turn, still scraping the
ground and going full speed (about
field and stopped on the edge of thC
carrot patch with four wires broker
and bent wheel axle. Nothing seri-
Gus, of course, but we got no quai
| and after lot of grunting and push
ing we finally got the machine or
level ground again. He said / did
very well and proved it by promoting
me to solo flying (fiying alonel
| Quails and pheasants are very plenti-
I f,t1 ci, =
| ing season just opened the moniteurs
saw no reason why they should not
| get some of the birds via aeroplanes
! They all went quail hunting that
night, and my moniteur later goI
| three quail and another moniteuT
| also got three. OF course ot,they
did not shoot them, simply steered
| the airplane among the flock, and
knocked the birds down with pro-
peller, wings and wires-a very eff
cient way indeed for results, but a
| little hard on the airplane as one
| fellow turned a somersault while fly
! ing so close to the ground. Broke a
| propeller and one wing. Yeh, dad, I
am still the lucky boy, for right after
we stopped at the edge of the carrot
patch at the finish of my quail hunt
ing expedition and took account of
stock l looked down to discover that
my SaIeJN DelI nstu been lOOSe all the
time and was lying open in my lap.
However, it was an experience
would not care to miss. Just the
same, it will be some time before
care to attempt it alone-I flew
alone this morning, you know. Just
short, straightway hop. Nothing
to boast of, I assure you. for the
landing was punk, although fortu-
nately l broke nothing. However.
am encouraged to know that han
died the plane all right in the air.
I can see now where the penguin"
training at Avord did me world of
good, for it sure taught me how TO
use the rudder and keep my plane
in a straight line, something which
a number of these Army men could
not do. One fellow nearly gave the
class heart failure, as he hal to
make three attempts before he got
off and then he went off turning TO
the leftl
They also have a little monoplane
to teach us penguin work This little
bird will really fly, for have seen it
do so. The other day all we solo
men were called out to take a trip
on it. The throttle was wired open
only so far, so it was impossible for
one to get far off the ground with it.
An Army man tried it first and be-
lieve me, he sure took 1t slow. The
next man up was one of our crowd
and knew something of the tricks of
the steed he was mounting. He ran
her along the ground in n straight