The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-01-18
Former Gate City Sporting
Editor Tells HolO it Feels
to go Up in New Curtiss
Machine

r. r. McCabe, former sporting edl-
tor of The Gate City. and now with
the United States aviation corps at
Dallas, Texas, described his first
flight in letter to his father, which
/ will be of interest to McCabe's
friends here. The letter was re-
printed in the Indianapolis News
under a Williamsport date line, as
follows:
Edwin B. .McCabe. leading attorney
of this part of the state, has re-
ceived an interesting letter from his
son Ross, who is flying cadet at
Love aviation field, Dallas, Texas.
He was graduated from the aviation
school at Columbus, Ohio. Decembea
IS, and was sent at once to Dallas,
where he made preparatory studies,
resulting in his first flight January
A. The letter contains the results OF
close observation and gives one who
has not had the experience of fly
ing a fairly good idea of what the
experience really is. Many 1ndianians
have gone with the aviation service
and more are enlisting each day
The letter, which Is dated January
A, written just after his first flight
follows:
Il LOOK lily IISl N1SuI toooy'
will try to tell you something about
how it feels. although | feel that |
could write for hours and then not
tell but a small portion of the
thoughts and sensations expert
enced. 1t seems without question TO
be the greatest sport in the world.
and one as absolutely different from
ANYTHING / have ever experienced oi
can possibly imagine.
Made Two Trips Up.
81 made two trips up this morning.
/ was called with three others yes
tercay afternoon to the Office of the
officer In charge of flying instruction,
who assigned us to an instructor and
told us to report to him this morn
ing at o'clock, the time when fly
ing starts each day. pair of
goggles (glass made in three layers
so designed that it will not shatter,
costing $40 to SIS a pair), and
leather helmet were issued to the
four Of us. We did not get leather
coat, until this afternoon because of
a shortage.
"This morning we reported and
was the first of the four to so up.
i
the instructor getting in front. The
motor was already running slowly,
having been started ten minutes or
so before by the mechanics, SO that
it would be warmed up thoroughly,
and the tail had been swung around
so that we were headed toward the
part of the field from which we were
to take off. There were already
few machines in the air. My in
structor was a man named III. f.
George, who started in here this
morning, having come from the field
at Dayton, where he has been an In
structor for some time. Before we
started to taxi out, he turned around
and told me that we would go UP
and 10y ride for a while. that / could
place my hands on the wheel and
feet on the rudder, but that I should
be careful not to freeze on to the
controls. Then we adjusted our
goggles and started to taxi out,
watching carefully to avoid getting
in the way of other machines that
were gliding down to land, or that
were moving on the ground, The
machine we were in was a Curtiss J.
n. "A, with duplicate bridge con-
troll, eight-cylinder Curtiss model
Model O. X, with speed OF 400
giving the ship about
sixty-fve or seventy miles an hour
ground speed in still air. OF course
its ground speed in aeases in going