New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-08
10 Planes Engage
In Mimic Air War
Won by Attackers
Greatest Fleet This Henri
sphere Has Seen Skins
Over Long Island
Two Minor Accidents
Slush on Mincola Field Makes
II Hard for Aviators
to Rise

Nineteen seroplanes IT the greatest
feet that ever took the air at once IN
all the Western Hemisphere skinned
Yesterday over Long Island 70 play in
deadly earnest the war game in the air.
Had the three swift invading planes
been in reality hostile craft and had
their pilots been pumping lead from
guns instead Of hurting nvectives from
half frozen lips. the war god himself
and not his shadow would have been
crowned king for the day at the gov
erument flying field at Mineola.
In all other respects the maneuvres
yesterday. from Mineola to Oyster Bay
and Freeport, were real war maneuvres.
All the pilots and observers are either
attached 10 the Federal station in some
CAPACITY or have already made applica-
ton for the Officers Aerial Reserve
Corps. The machines are all govern
ment machines.
Good Day. Atmospherically
Atmospherically it was good day
for iying. But the condition Of the
field could not have been much worse.
Nine inches Of snow covered the
ground. A crust had formed. making
the entire Enclosure slippery as glass
Nothing but a frozen lake would have
been more difficult for an aviator 10
take of" from.
All yesterday morning and the day
before. 70 obviate the foreseen dim
Guilty pilots would have in getting their
machines off the ground. men had been
al work cutting a runway through the
frozen snow. 4 path thirty-hve feet
wide and $50 feet long was cleared.
Yesterdays sunshine, however. had
so thawed the field by the time most
OF the seroplanes were ready TO start
that the solid crust had vanished and
the field had become a sea of slush.
Several pilots disregarded the runaway.
Bouncing over the frozen earth, win
their small wheels sending up sheets OF
snowy mud, aeroplanes jounced rather
than glided into the air.
These tactics resulted IN one minor
accident. Bird Acosta, having with him
as passenger CAPTAIN A. W. Brggs'
OF the British Royal Flying Corps IN
America on furlouCh), struck with the
wing Of his biplane a two-foot snow
drift. The craft veered. started 10 rise,
swung crafty and nose-dived into the
snow. The tail of the war bird de
scribed an arc. finging the pilot and
his passenger. unhuTt. The propeller
on the 'nlane was snapped at the base.
The intended flight was made on an
other machine.
Meets with Accident
Late in the afternoon Captain j. c.
Carberry. commanding officer at the
field, met with small accident. He
felt the need Of a stimulating loop be-
fore dinner Ills plane rose without
difficulty. climbed quickly into the sky
and sailed out toward South Brooklyn.
Swinging back at an altitude OF 5000
feet. the army officer executed most
commendable loop and proceeded 10
sail down for landing. The biplane,
Swimming toward the ground, resent
bled q great seagull plunging after an
Unsuspecting fish.
But. unfortunately, this particular
gull appeared to pick out a fish too
large for him. The plane landed IN
the soft snow, bumped over the ground.
struck drift and turned a somer-
sault. The propeller was snapped.
CAPTAIN Carberry was not even bruised.
The condition Of the Governors ISL
and field accounted for a slight change
in the manpuvre plans. II had been
the original intention to spread out
the defending squadron over the land
between Mineola and the Rockaways.
and to have pair of attacking tractors
come up from Governors Island. Will
lam Willets was the only aviator who
was successful in getting his machine
10 rise from the island snow. And he.
after flying over South Brooklyn and
landing at Mineola about 3 o'clock,
Joined the defending squadron.
The three attacking planes, manned
by Leonard Bonney, A. l.. Allen and
Harold Blakeley, had a start. They