Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-11-23
AVIATOR TELLS
OF EXPERIENCE
At $4,000 FEET
Captain Schroeder Breaks the
Worlds Altitude Record;
Lack Oxygen Causes
Trouble.

San Francisco, CAL, Nov. zl.-.
Capt. B. w. Schroeder of the Unit
er States air service, who made a
new record flying to an altitude of
$4,000 feet over the state Of Ohio
on September Is, which record has
been officially confirmed. has writ
ten an interesting report Of his SEN
sational fight to Major General
Kenly, director of military aero
nautics.
Following is Captain Schroeder's
story:
an order to take an airplane to a
higher attitude than any other pilot
in the world, | made three at
: Ntempts. The first one took me a.
900 feet, the second to 1900 feet and
the last one to $4,000 feet, but now
feel certain that | can get to $4,000
feet.
THE cold, thin air is ones great
est adversely. | made steady climb
circularly, passing through clouds at
5000 feet, $4,000 feet and 10000
feet AT 10000 feet, while still
climbing in large circles, my goggles
become frosted. making it very diff
cult for me to read Fy instruments
Feels Hungry at $4,000 Feet.
when l reached 25,O80 feet l no.
,ticed the sun growing very dim.
could hardly hear my motor run.
and felt hungry. The trend of
my thought was that it must be get
ting late. that evening must be COM
ing on, but | was still climbing so
thought | might as we'll stick to it
q little longer for l knew could
reach my ceiling pretty soon, then
should 60 down even though it
were dark. ! could land all right
for had made night landings many
times before, and so / went to talk
ing to myself and this l felt was a
good sign to begin taking oxygen
and / did.
II was then about $4,000 feet and
as soon as | started to inhale the
oxygen the sun grew bright again
my motor began to exhaust so loud
that it seemed something must be
wrong with it. was no longer
hungry and the day seemed to be
most beautiful one. | felt like sing
ing with sheer JOY as I gazed about
Though the small portion of myt
goggles which had no frost, due to
drop of oil which splashed on
thar, from The motor
Frost flinders Sight.
1T was wonderful to see the very
clear blue sky with the clouds thou
sands OF feet below. The frost on
my goggles bothered me very much.
When ! was about $4,000 feet had
to remove my goggles as I was un-
abe to keep steady climb. My |
hands, by this time, were very numb
and worried me considerably. The
cold, raw air made my eyes water
and I was compelled to fly with my
head we'll down inside the cockpit.
u kept at it until my oxygen gave
but and at that point noticed my I
aneroid indicated very nearly $4,000
feet. The thermometer showed 81
degrees, below zero, centigrade. and
ethe revolutions per minute had |
dropped from 1000 to 1860 This is
considered very good, and l could
not understand why was only 29,-
900 feet, after climbing for so long !
time, ! remember that the hori-
ron seemed to be very much out OF !
place, but felt that ! was flying cor
rectly and that / was right and the
horizon was wrong.
Runs Out of Gasoline.
"About this time the motor quit,
| was out of gasoline, so I descend
ed in a large spiral When l descend
ed to about 10000 feet, I began to
feel much better and realized that
the lack of oxygen had affected me.
I passed down through the clouds
10000 feet and as remember, it was
showing from these clouds upon the
next layer some 1000 feet below. l
am not positive of this as | may
haYe been affected by the lack of
oxygen. | noticed as I descended
that the air seemed to be very thick
and stuffy, but very nice and warm.
Il landed o. X. 200 miles from
where i stated and broke the tip
Of my propeller, which was standing
vertical, when l rode into depres-
sion in the ground. did not nose
or do any other damage to the plane
myself and-I flew back to Dayton
with a new propeller"