Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-08

, my second petit voyage" but the
moniteur refused on the ground that
| there was mist hanging over that
camp as low as 200 meters. So he
sent me to another town which |
had been to three times already In
| cidentally, it was the worst trip of all
! the cross-country trips, as the field is
| very narrow and bumpy, making
| landing very difficult. So / was not
| tickled much over the prospect of
such a journey knowing the way
from the previous Journeys. l had
| little recourse to my map and landed
! all right But coming back my trou-
! ble began aplenty, for | had only
! made one circle of the field when my
| engine began to miss. Little Walter
! came right back to the field and gave
| the mechanics another chance to
| look at the motor because n BUMPER
| day ! never put i'll and I've been
| bounced around quite lot before.
| Take it from me, | was not going to
start home until that doggone en-
| gne was hitting right. Just the
same, after an hours work thereon
| they sent me away again; but that
engine did not sound right yet, and
| sure enough when l was halfway
home she went bad again. 1t looked
for some time there as if l was going
4
thing else, because / was only 400
| meters high. and looking below the
scenery presented did not offer much
| encouragement in the way of land
| ing places. Just as if Fate wanted TO
rub 1T in, there was camp right in
sight with thirty or forty miles of
! vineyards and forests intervening.
In case 1 might get bored and fall
asleep the weather began bouncing
I all tha tH1ripn I thnnOhf
l was gone, puff knocking me right
| on end, and the warping controls re-
fuSing to answer, although hard over,
l had to stand her right on her nose
to prevent sideslip. Believe me, /
was having quite an interesting time
and after fighting their way for half
an hour, nursing my engine along,
and catching puffs before they had
chance to tilt me up too far, / was
not so crazy about 'aviatoire as j
had been when | started on the jour
ney. Since my engine was apt to go
/ wrong very shortly, l recklessly
headed direct for camp, flying right
across all these vineyards and for
ests. instead of flying around over
good landing grounds. Luck held
good too, because we finally got there
after an hour and a half flying and
| landing safely. That finished my
Z
ing they gave me machine with in
structions to make nineteen landings.
Just fly around the camp in a circle
and land, you know. They call these
little circle tour de piste" in
. French. To get a military license in
this country one must have made
fifty landings alone and flew for
total of twenty-five hours. That was
the reason l had to make nineteen
ln no in Nnf ~ hn
shorter l made the circle, the sooner
/ could land and quit. 1t was only
the landing they were counting. /
sure made those circles short. That
was al right when / started in as
there was only two machines in the
air, and the other plane was doing
the same work | was. But pretty
soon the double control machines be-
gan work, and several other classes
also. After that it was not so safe,
as machines were coming UP and fly
ing all around the place. OF course
they have traffic rules: they are abso-
lutely necessary to avoid collision in
the air. So the rule is that all
planes fly in a circle, turning to the
left, or vice versa, depending on the
orders for the day, which are given
by pulling two black balls up on
high pole. One ball means turn to
lllS li6iilt anu bNOt W TIC iCllf stbh
woe betide the aviator who turns the
wrong way. / did it once in my
earlier training and nearly got put in
the jug. However, that mistake
made in ignorance firmly impressed
the meaning of those big black balls
for they are very big on my mind and
I never repeated the mistake. When
all these other classes began work ]
was supposed to fly away around
III. hot
minutes to complete. That did not
listen good at all. 1t was not flying
that | wanted that night. l wanted
to finish up and get my wings. So,
trusting to luck that my moniteur
would not watch my machine, there
being so many in the air, | began
cutting corners. You can under
stand how close when l say that one
circle took me three minutes and
some seconds, when | should have
been gone fifteen minutes. One of
the fellows in the same class timed
it, but the moniteur either did not
| notice or else understood my desire
to finish that evening, so I kept on
doing it. ] got quite lot of fun
out of it, too, because cutting in like
| this I had to keep an eye open for
machines. Needless to say, l lodged
/ quite few, especially that class that
] were IlNlnB alone IOT the IlFSI flIllS.
! Having passed through that class,
knew just how wild these pilots were
because their motto is, We don't
| know how to dodge you, so you kee D
out of the way" I kept out of their
way too. and since / always flew over
them at 200 meters, (they are only
4 supposed to fly at 100, sometimes
7 though they reach 500 meters), and
chuckled as l watched them sit there
with their eyes glued straight ahead,
scared stiff but still game, in re
membrance of the time | felt the
same way. One don't get much
chance for meditation in an airplane
though, and l was soon rudely
brought back to the present by some
thing moist hitting me in the face.
Right away l thought my engine was
throwing oil. but when I rubbed my
goggles the liquid did not smear, so
it was not oil, and I could not see
how it was rain, as the sun was
shining all around. The peculiar
thing happened at the far end of the
field and l soon passed out of It.
came down and landed and went off
again. Coming around to the same
spot the same thing occurred again
only this time much harder and then
] knew it was rain. They were big
drops too, and passing there at my
speed of eighty miles an hour they
hit my face with tremendous force.
1t hurt so much that I thought IL
was hailstorm, but as my glasses