Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-08-22
Bowen From The Air
lDr,) W. E. Bowen, Now A
Flying Cadet Gives us
Good Air History

The following letter has been re-
ceived by ]. N .Fitzgibbon from fly
ing Cadet, w. E. Bowen Mother Field
] Mills. Station, California.
August z, 1918.
Hello SPORT
Have been trying to write to you
for some time but if you ever saw a
busy man, that is me. And say
Sport you ought to see the old ex-
horse doctor perform in one of these
aerial busses.
II anyone had told me q year ago
that would be doing this kind of
stuff every day and not think any,
thing about it, I would have called
them many naughty names.
But times do change. have been
in the air about % hours and after
eight hours with an instructor I took
it alone and have been alone most Of
the time since.
They divide the course up in
courses OF stages as they call them.
The first they call the 1st Dual, that
10 when you fly with an instructor
and learn the principles of the game.
It lasts about 8 hours. flew alone
after hours but couldn't get out of
the stage until the required 8 hours.
Then comes the 1st Solo stage with
Z. bunch of wild eyed birds turned
loose with machines and believe me
that is when it is a case of every
man for himself. It isn't so much
that you are afraid you can't get
away with your end of it but you
have probably 80 to SO other birds
to keep from running into you and
I can truthfully say that had sever
IL thrills and throbs out of that
stage.
We all had to work in about 11a
strip of air and take offs and
landings kept you dodging. Zone
long necked guy from Kansas pretty
Nsar made monkey of me.) never
wrote anything about it to the folks
but will let you in on it and don't
scatter it around so the folks will
heSr it because it will only worry
them and it is all over. This par
ticular scared wild bird cut me off
on turn and had to dive to keep
from hitting him and when he saw
me he got so scared he lost control
Of the ship and let me tell you they
can sure cut UP some and do it in
about three seconds, when you loose
: control of them.
Well the way this turned out when
he got Strengthened out he was about
four feet above me and was about
TOO feet from old Mother earth.
He was SO nervous he tried to land
in the field which was only 100 yards
or SO to one side and he sure piled
up. Mashed up a $4,000 machine
but didn't get hurt much and that is
the only place where l showed pretty
good judgment. stayed up until
was about half over the scare be-
fore trying to land. That landing
stunt is some stunt. You can nearly
measure mans ability by the way
he lands under all conditions. Well
. whole bunch of officers saw the
mix up and the ambulance started
out they tell me when they saw us
coming together.
But they went back empty.
After this 1st Solo stage which
lasts about S hours you go into what
they call the second dual stage.
Here you get some advanced work
with an instructor. And I was sort
Of lucky in this stage because my
instructor spent most of the time on
stunts and I have them about cold
now.
From there we entered the second
Solo class. That is where I am now.
(Some Class.) Go down to the hang
ers in the morning and the mechanics
have your machine all warmed up
and you inspect it and climb in and
buckle the safety belt and they
crank it and away you go. It looks
like bunch of mallards jumped out
Of the slaps. You go up and jazz
around for an hour or SO and land
It another field off across the coun-
try. Rest awhile and go again. I
was up today 125 minutes. We are
more or less on our own initiation in
this stage. They put limit on our
boundaries but unless you go to aw-
ful far you can probably get away
with it. We are supposed to practice
figure eights and spirals with motor
cut off and what they>call hook land
ings. etc. but you are more or less on
your own initiative and can do pretty
nearly what yo,l! want to as long as
you don't get too strong
One Of the fellows got little too
playful with an automobile the other
day and I don't know just what it
was that happened, but he moved
down two extra large electric light
poles and they were carrying some
awfully high tension juice but he
didn't get injured. The machine was