Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-11

And incidentally at about the
same time we saw seven Fokkers
! right over us, who promptly come
| diving down and opened fire, but
they opened fire at such long range
| and we swerved so quickly that no
balls took effect. A second time we
circled over to their side of the
| fence and a second time several
ambitious Huns started down on us.
At least we distracted their atten-
ton from the big planes underneath
us.
The second time the Huns came
after us my engine gave few warm
of the propeller, threatened to die
right there.
Out of "Gas"
The expected had happened.
was out of gas" 5000 meters up
and eighty miles from the home
| roose. One look at my air pressure
dial proved the lack of gas, as it
was slowly falling and no amount
of pumping with the hand pump
helped any. Seeing which 1 lost no
time in switching onto my second
tank, for use especially on such
occasions. 1t only holds enough for
a ten minute flight and if one don't
find landing place by that time he
sure is out of luck for I have yet to
hear of the law of gravity being
broken
I've tried it myself several times
by endeavoring to stretch out glide
and likely to break my fool neck.
When the gas is all, the propeller
stops and then one either comes
down in control or in a heap. 1
preferred coming down under con-
troll and knowing l could not make
home in my allotted ten minutes L
headed for big aviation field about
fifteen miles back of the lines. By
using my height and running my
motor at its lowest speed l got fif-
teen minutes out of that tank and
made the camp l was headed for
Lucky Boy
AS luck would have it, this camp
was the same one from which the
photo planes came that we were to
have protected. A Frenchman had
also run out of gas and landed with
me. Naturally, when we told what
escadrille we were from they want
wherefore, and since the French
man could speak the language l let
him explain away the miXup as best
he could.
From the conversation 1 soon
learned that one of the planes had
been attacked and forced to land
in Germany. And still the French
man kept making excuses as to why
we were not there. Golly! One
would think he would shut up after
that, but no, he kept right on drop
ping French all over the lot. AS for
me I felt disgraced and kept quiet.
But there is always a bright side
to every gloomy view and soon it
showed up in the shape of Amer
leans. There seemed to be quite
q few about and truck loads were
continually passing. One of these
trucks stopped while it's occupants
climbed down to look at our birds
You never saw a bunch of men
so interested-or so ignorant about
the uses of the different parts of my
plane. One soldier wanted to know
how the engine was cranked and be-
fore l could answer "by spinning the
propeller" soldier nearby eXclaim-
ed knowingly, why. you cRnk it
with. the rudder, you poor fish
and you want to watch out, she
gives a h of a kick som etimes."
And then those two guns shoot
inig through the propeller without
hitting 1t. That sure seemed a mira
Gle and 1 don't wonder, for it still
does to me. We had dinner at an
other escadrille and then came back
to the field to wait for our mechanics
because on examination there SEEM
ed to be other things the matter be-
sides lack of gas.
Pretty soon along comes three
girls, one having a camera, who
looked Interestingly at the numer-
Gus planes standing around, and
then, girl-like, not satisfied with
looking, they had to climb aboard
one Zang and examine the interior
decorations.
Such curiosity could only be pos
sessed by an American girl, so / in
vestigated, and sure enough they
were Americans from a hospital
camp nearby. The usual questions
were asked as to how long 1 had
been over here and when answered
about year." the 9rettiest one
opened her big blue :, yes to their
widest extent and exclaimed: "Oh,
I didn't know aviators lasted that
long" Cheerful, wasn't it?
Pictures Are Taken
And then she insisted on taking
my picture, and wouldn't l speak a
good word to the Frenchmen as she
was crazy to take ride in an air.
plane. It's forbidden, you know,
for a French pilot to take a wo-
man for an airplane ride, and 1 hear
it is also forbidden in the American
Army. You can see the wisdom of
the law surely, for otherwise a pilot
would get nothing else done.
Just let it be known that an air.
plane ride is the reward of friend
ship and one sure would get a host
of friends. l explained this sex diff
ticulty to the blue eyed one and sug-
gested that she might dress as a
man. She took me up ''toute-de-
suite" too, and my one regret is
that 1 had to leave that day, so
could not see the transformation.
However, I'll sure try and make
that hospital if / ever get wounded.
While we were standing there talk
ing the Boche staged a show along
the spectacular line for our benefit,
using French material as scenery.
This was no other than a balloon
attack. There were three of these
French balloons in a line and the
whole three were attacked at the
same time, only one burning, how
ever and that being directly in front
of us. But although we could see
numerous shrapnel breaking around
the attacked balloons we could not
see the Boche.
1t was some five miles away, you
know, but we could see the bal
loon very plainly as it sank, burn
ing, slowly to the ground. We could
also see the observer floating down
in his parachute and followed him
with our eyes as he made a soft
landing.
An Interesting Day
Truly, was spending an inter-
esting day and 1 was wondering
whether anything more would hap
pen before l got to my own camp.
r1n yfrl- hn 20