Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-26

| eAio was SIlOl Sin lAnltS. w III oCnl
! you pictures and films as soon DIS de-
veloped. Don't expect anything like
brother Ernest's because you will be
disappointed. These were only snap
shots. Am not taking any chances of
going to Tours as they are becoming
so strict in camp that If one is not
back on the dot he is In Dutch, and
In bad. Generally the jug for him.
Besides Tours is five kilometers
away and one can only get several
hours permission, so you see one
must needs hurry back. Otherwise,
L would give Tours photographer u
chance to display his art. Art 1T sure
would be If he wished to give me a
flattertng impression of myself.
am almost as anxious to see those
films finished as you are. Wonder
how much l resemble a conductor? :?
WALTER.
Tours, France
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1917,
Dear Mother:
At last have a chance to catch up
with my correspondence, for to-day
is cloudy and threatening to rain any
| minute. Naturally there is no fly
ing. 1t might interest you to know
/ that just as 1 finished writing your
last letter a messenger came into
the barracks with the announcement
! that Shaffer was to go up for his
altitude test Immediately.
Takes Altitude Test.
1t was quite surprise as we'll as
a delight to me to know that the
| chief pilot knew a man of such
name was a pupil. So / got me
ready with big bearskin-lined over
| all suit, climbed aboard, and away
we went. We went away (when I
say we" l mean the airplane and y
worried though, because it would Lot
! take big book to tell how much l
know of a gasoline motor. This was
a very delicate motor too and one
had to know how to adjust it to get
! the right speed. The engine is con-
! trolled by two levers which look like
this (Here is V within a triangle).
You notice they work on a small arc
| and there are two levers, one big
| one and a little one. There are
| numbers on this arc and when the
motor is tried out on the ground, the
number at which the best speed
is attained is found and remembered.
| Well. the mechanics found the TWO
numbers, and told me them, but un-
| fortunately l forgot what number the
| big lever was set for as soon as got
| off the ground. And then l had
| some interesting time trying to find
| where it belonged, for there l was,
| going over vineyards, forests, etc,
! juggling those two doggone levers all
| the time and when l got to my
| height of 10000 feet 1 was still jug
| Cling. l had to stay at that height
! one hour and quarter, and before
| got up there | was wondering how
| cold l was going to get, as l had
| heard enough tales from other fell
lows who had taken the test that one
| could not put enough clothes on. 1t
| did not worry me though. 1 was so
busy playing CD with that darn en-
gine that 1 forgot to get cold.
On the Wing.
l suppose the friction produced by
the speed with which my brain was
working kept me warm. oh, no,
was not worried about coming down.
| That was the least of my troubles.
One never need worry about that,
you know. Ha! Hal The thing l
feared the most was that the motor
would stop, and then 1 would have
to take the test all over again. It's
a two-hour flight, you know, and
| gets very wearisome. 1t was real in
teresting to me though. because I
sure did learn lot about a motor
in that time. One has a recording
| paragraph to record ones height,
and since the time is also marked on
the same record, it is very easy TO
tell your height and how long you
have been flying. A little pen is
worked by a delicate set of levers.
and this pen draws line on a page
I! wrapped around a cone. This paper
is marked off in squares, and read
ing across the paper three squares is
15 minutes, while the height is read
up. This pen records ones every
move, when one goes up. the pen
goes up, letting a thick purple line
as it goes. when you fly level, the
line goes level. So you can see that
! the faster one goes up the straiteT
i up the line is. Coming down the
same way. Incidentally. you should
see my line coming down. I made
ii in about three minutes. Even al
that, l came down in spirals the
whole way, trying them at different
angles and both to the right and left
I got one up too steep one time and
/ the bottom nearly dropped out OF
my stomach. l came down so fast
II Why should l worry, I had a whole
lot of space under me-and then
again, there was the whole earth
waiting with open arms. 1 landed
safely and yesterday was sent out or
= petit voyage, a small trip OF
about a hundred kilos, with may
and compass. And there I was up
against it again, for 1 knew very
little of maps and nothing of COM
pass.
Lost.
Naturally. l was soon lost. What
surprised me so much was the large
scale to which the map was drawn
The funny part of it was that 1 was
flying over my objective point fol
40 minutes and did not know it
Finally I gave it up as a bad job
and thoroughly disgusted with my.
self started down in a spiral glide
to find out where / was. l had beer
flying at 1000 metres and when
got down to 400 I found myself
heading right for the place 1 haC
been hunting for an hour. It sur,
was welcome sight and 1 felt 81
pleased that my luck had held 81
good that l nearly came to grief, Of
SPILLED the beans" as the fellows
say. You know, was coming dowI
all the time, but 1 had been up 81
high that l saw no use in worrying
about how close 1 was to the grounC
for few minutes anyway-and theI
1 suddenly looked at my altimete
and nearly had heart failure to Sc,
1t registering zero. My eyes, how
ever, told me l was still some a0t
metres up, and my eyes were right
We are cautioned by the authorize
always to make a circle of the fielt
at 200 metres when coming dow
from high attitudes. This is to ac
custom our eyes to distance, whicl
calculation, it is said, one loses /
he flies at height attitudes very long
Strange to say, 1 have not found i
so, but 1 make a circle of every fiel,
just the same for one can pick ou