Arizona republican., 1918-11-10
ALTITUDE RECORD
 OF 28,90O FEET o. K.

The altitude record made by Capt R. W. Schroeder of the American army Sept. IS at Dayton, Ohio, has been con- firmed officially. Captain Schroeder attained an altitude of 2S,9o0 feet. In his report he says:
 'The cold thin air is ones greatest adversary. First of all, one must make a study of the performance of his mo tor at these high attitudes. I took off at 1:45 p. m., Wednesday, Sept. IS, 1918, and made a steady circular climb, passing through clouds at 5000, feet, 12,000 feet and 16,000 feet. At 10000 feet, while still climbing in large cir cles, my goggles became frosted, mak- ing it very difficult for me to watch my instruments. When I reached 25,- 900 feet noticed the sun growing very dim, 1 could hardly hear my motor run and felt very hungry. The trend of my thought was that it must be get ting late, that evening must be coming on, but was still climbing, so thought I might as well stick to it little lon ger, for I knew I could reach my ceil- ing pretty soon, then I should go down, and even though it was dark I could land all right, for I had made night landings many times before, and so
  felt was a good sign to begin taking oxygen and I did. I was then over 25,000 feet and as soon as I 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 beau tiful one. I felt like singing with sheer joy as I gazed about through the small portion of my goggles which had no frost due to drop of oil which had splashed on them from the motor.
 Tt was wonderful to see the very clear blue sky with the clouds thous- ands of feet below. The frost on my goggles bothered me very much. At | times I had to remove my glove in order to put the warm palm of my hand on the glass to thaw the frost l did this about every 10 minutes so that 1 could take the proper readings of the | instruments, which I marked down on my data pad. I believe that if my goggles had been better ventilated, they would not have frosted. When was about 27,000 feet I had to remove my goggles. as I was unable to keep a steady climb. My hands by this time were numb and worried me consider ably.
 Oxygen Gives Out
 I kept at it until my oxygen gave out and at that point I noticed my | aneroid indicated very nearly 29,00O feet. The thermometer showed 32 de- grees below zero, Centigrade, and the revolutions per minute had dropped l from 1900 to 1860. This is considered very good. But the lack of oxygen was affecting me, I was beginning tc get cross, and I could not understand why was only 29.000 feet after climb | ing for so long time. I remember | that the horizon seemed to be very much out of place. but I felt that was flying correctly and that I was right and the horizon was wrong.
 About this time the motor quit. was out of gasoline. so I descended ir large spiral. When I descended t( about 10000 feet began to feel mucf better and realized that the lack O. oxygen had affected me. passed dowr l through the clouds at 16,000 feet anG as 1 remember it was showing iron these clouds upon the next layer, som, 4,G00 feet below. I am not positive O this as may have been affected b, the lack of oxygen. I noticed as I de scended that the air seemed to be yer, thick and stuffy but very nice ant warm. 1 did not see the ground iron l the time went up through the cloud