Weekly journal-miner., 1918-06-12
LOCAL B|RDMAN MAKES b|G HIT
 IN FRANCE
ERNEST LOVE, PRESCOTT LAD, TELLS OF ATTEN- TON WHICH NATIVES PAY TO AVIATORS FROM ACROSS THE BIG POND.
(Fiom Fridays Daily.1

city have during the past week re- ceivcd a number of most interesting i letters from their son, Ernest, who
 is now an aviator with the American | Expeditionary Forces in France. The i young man, who is pretty we'll known to nearly everybody in Prescott,
 writes as follows:
 Well today has certainly been
 some day for me The first thing this
 morning I went up for my altitude
 test. over 12,000 feet, then I went on
 two cross country trips and got lost on my second one. Landed by the i Chateau Grandvault near -. There were three or four chat teaux around there, and I picked out I the best land ground I could see near one of them. and landed. l thought my chances Of getting some one to understand me would be better at a chateau than at farm house. l had
 flown over the town a couple of
 times and noticed the people all run ming out in the street to sec me, and when I landed about 200 people came running to see me. A couple of lad | ies came up and tried to talk to me, ] but of course I couldn't understand them. I tried to find out where I was. but the town was off my map. : Finally a boy who could talk little i English came up and l got along 1 fine
 The ladies asked me to dinner at [ the Chateau and took the boy along as interpreter. The boy lives in a chateau not far from the one stopped by and he wondered why ] didn't stop at his chateau. He said
 he was watching me from tower Of his chateau, and waved his hat when l passed.
 [ ''I was the first American aviator to get to that town. and guess many of the people have never seen an | American, so you see l was quite novelty.
 "I have a standing invitation at two chatteaux there, and if 1 ever get a chance I am going there to spend day or two.
 "The Chateau Grandvault is very old. has moat and towers and everything, it's an old feudal castle. The madame showed me pictures oi her two boys who are in the French army. One had his leg amputated as the result of a wound, the other is still fighting, IS a captain. The boy who interpreted has brother who is a bombing pilot
 Well I finally got away. though they wanted me to stay longer. The madame brought out maps, and l found out where l was, and corrected my course. and went right to the place I was headed for at the time got lost.
 From a letter a few days later:
 Well l am over at Field : now, got here last Friday. Flew Friday morning and afternoon, but could not tiv Saturday on account of fog. like these ships here fine. They arc the same size as the ones at Fields ; and 6. that IS Is meters, but they 40 more horsepower. They have TO h. D. engines and they sure do ram ble. The best way to realize thelr great power and speed is to be idling along with the engine turning up to about l,250 R. P. Nl which gives a speed of about no or ll5 miles per
 
 go slow in order to save the engine, and also to make it easier for us be- cause when the engine is turning up from l,l5O to .250 R. P NJ. it is much harder to fly than when the engine is turning up 950 or 1000 R. P. M., i but if we see a ship ahead that we want to take a close look at we open up and catch up with them like they are standing still.
 Tn our formations here we fly so close to each other that we can read the number on the next machines s . tail-thcy can be read from about 50 meters or l50 feet At first 1t IS . a little scary to be flying so close ! together, especially on bumpy day when the ships are bouncing around like TOW boats on rough sea.
 Our formations here are threes and lives with some English forma- tions in which seven ships are used. In the threes the leader is the low est with the other two following on either side, and above him, and about fifty meters from him. The leader gives signals for turns, etc, and the other two follow, always keeping the V formation with the leader at the point. The five is the same as the three except that there are five ma chimes in the formation.
 The stunt IS the most fun. It is usually five, but instead of just straight flying in the V formation the leader gives signals for certain stunts-for instance one stunt is the circus. the V is broken up and circle formed. It is practically i'm possible to attack a formation flying in circle because the attacking ships are always under the guns of one of the circling ships. If circus gets ship on the inside of the cir cle il is gone.
 "I heard some of the fellows laughing about the fun they had with i q Coudron that had the nerve 10 ven- | ture up to the higher attitudes where { it had no business to be A Coudron , is the result of a drunken French . mans dream. and reminds one of an . ice wagon with wings on it. 1 guess thcy 70 about SO or 60 miles pc, {