The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-22

"a mile and a quarter. To my aston
'ishment it was warm there, and Their
1--WE stayed for forty-ive minutes. w
started on a big circle and the Who'll
r of the country from Mt. Scott to Law
ton swung slowly around the big clocl
beneath us. The railroads, roads, tn,
creek coming out of the mountains
the military camps, the town, all ap
peared at a glance, while the water il
Lake Lawton at the foot of Mt. Scott
itself far below us, reflected the blue
of the sky and showed the one white
cloud of the day.
The air was warm here and l liket
the rush Of the wind. The oar of the
motor was absorbed and seemed par
Of the thing, when / was suddenly
awakened to the fact that it was still
roaring by finding that 1t had suddenly
stopped. We were floating along be
hind a lazy hum, and l turned to look
at the pilot. We were over a mile uI
and ] wanted to know what was going
on. He was grinning, and told me we
were going to take a little dip. I hol-
Tered all right, and braced my feet.
Up she tipped behind and we were
pointing practically straight down
with the motor still running. Magnify
the sensation of an express elevator a
thousand times, and put the whole
thing out doors, unattached and over
a mile in the air. n 1t will give you
an intimation of that dip. Down we
went and ! was looking at the ground
without bending over. I felt as steady
in my seat as when we were running
level and there was no sensation Of
danger Of falling forward out OF the
machine. If l had pulled lose and
| rr,n1I o,,f 4ho chI~ wp1rIS h1v
have left me behind.
Suddenly the earth did a queer
thing. 1t turned around once on an
axis directly beneath us. He was spir-
illing, but It seemed to me that the
earth was doing the turning and not
us. I could feel the plane gradually
begin to flatten o u n soon We were
sailing straight again AT 5000 feet;
$500 feet in the twinkling of an eye
and all the time a feeling Of complete
safety. Roar went the engine again
and up We started once more / turn
ed and grinned at Munroe and tried to
say fine, but by the time I had said it,
We were four blocks past the words,
the way the wind picked my thoughts
from my lips.
We went back to 5000 and away
over past Mt. Scott to the west and
then came down with a long easy
glide, lighting on the field as lightly
as a gull takes the water.
1 haven't told about the ride. I
can't. / know how it was, but 1t is
past me to tell st right Hope this will
give You n inkling. however. Of the
general characteristics.
An extract from a letter which ac-
companied the description:
/ go up with a pilot and command
the ship. 1 tell the pilot where to go
and how to fly by a prearranged sys-
tenn of signals. In the ships that they
are building now, there is a dual con-
troll, that is the machine can be run
from either seat, but the pilot will
handle 1t except In case of emergency
or a rest. We will be taught to handle
the ships when the new types are put
in use. The observer has a number
Of different kinds of work.
First. General reconnaissance. Find
ing out what is behind the lines any
thing of military value and reporting
with a sketch and a verbal and also a
written report. Generally for general
| officers.
Second. Photography, taking de-
tailed pictures Of the lines.
Third. The directing Of artillery
fire, watching the shots and reporting
by wireless SO as to get the shots
where they belong. We do not do any
bombing as far as l know, but carry
machine guns for protection. However.
there are battle planes heavily armed
which protect us while we work. Our
work is very important and we are
not supposed to spend time in fighting,
| h1,S &C 7 COY hove tho ho ft1n rlorA, Co.
escort SO that we can do our work in
peace. OF course in M trip, we will
do only n of the things mentioned
except what other things we dc on
the side. The plan of the whole war
as far as action is concerned, can be
traced to the air for its origin and this
will be SO more and more. We are out
to put the eyes out OF the German
army; to sweep the skies as the
Frenchman says. The battle planes
will do this so we can work and tell
the heads what they went to know and
get the artillery fire in the right place,
also find targets for the guns such as
concealed batteries or anything else
that needs blowing up.
1 went up again today to sketch
some trenches that 1 had only a hazy
idea OF the location of, and never did
find them. I sketched something else
instead, and the lieutenant said he
would give me the trenches again
some time. We surely have a lot to
learn and never will know 1t all. there
is too much. I could work up there at
5000 feet just as cas- and with as
much confidence as / I could at a draw
ing board.
Milwaukee journal: The watch on
the Rhine seems to have stopped
running.