Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-02-28

1t sounded was going to die any
minute. There are nine cylinders on
my engine, but the way 1t sounded
then, only one was running, so once
again 1 headed for camp with the
engine coughing and splitting all the
way, and me expecting any minute
to have to pick out nice soft forest
to land on.
Being all alone this way and with
no engine to speak of, knew I
would be easy prey for any German
who happened to see me, so kept
q sharp Lookout. as 1 had been doing
all the time, and finally reached
camp all right, only to find l had
busted another rule on the calendar,
for the Captain was sure on his ear,
and wanted to know from one of my
American comrades whether l had
been drinking the night before, and
was l all there in the head, for he
sure thought L was lost. Not me
though, l had a compass, map and
the sun. And I'll say 1 had quite
an interesting hour and half all
by my lonesome. The thing that
made the Captain so sore was the
fact that had left the patrol with
out giving any signal of distress, and
then to crown it all had stood right
on my nose in my anxiety to reach
the earth. The first was correct,
owing to ignorance on my part,
since | did not know what the signal
of distress was, but the latter | was
not guilty of. and it turned out later
it was another plane. The latter was
caused by the Captains anger, be-
cause he had called me down once
before for peaking too steeply. This
morning / made it a rule to have all
the rules translated for me, although
1 could read some of them myself.
And this afternoon a number of
typewriter papers in English were
given us, which sure helped lot
since it told me a lot of things 1
never knew before. Indeed, it's no
wonder time flies so swiftly since I
am always guessing as to what am
supposed to do. Now that the pap
ers have been given me, 1 know,
and can devote more time to learn
ing the French language.
Walter.
Somewhere in France.
Dear Mother: 1t sure is cold here,
there being six inches of snow on
the ground. Also. since it's so cold
on the ground, you can imagine how
cold it is at three or four miles
but l know, for that's the height |
have been flying the last three times
over the lines. The first time, l
froze my nose and now there is
little black spot on each side of my
nose where the goggles rested. If
you didn't know l was an aviator,
you would think | was a school
teacher and had left my iron-bowed
spectacles on my nose too long. The
second time l froze two fingers alb
solutely numb, and my. oh my! how
they did hurt when l had descended
to 5000 meters. Strange to say, at
that height my hands and nose al
ways warm up. I don't know why,
but they always do. You remember
told you about that trip with the
Captain and my motor went bad and
he thought me lost. The way he
raved around one would think / was
real valuable. The next day he led
us over the lines again, and in order
to keep an eye on me placed me on
his right However. l stuck by him
this time despite a frozen finger and
trouble in regulating my motor. for
at high attitudes 1 always do have
trouble with the motor regulation.
The air gets thinner as one goes up,
you know, and this has a decided
effect on the power of the motor,
since so much air is required to mix
with the gasoline to give the requir-
ed power. Naturally, one must so
regulate his motor as he climbs
higher so as to get the necessary
amount of aid. This I find very
hard to do, but hope to get the hang
of it soon.
A Tough Landing
To come back to the Captain, I
was right by him all the time, and
when he peaked for the ground I
was still near him, for all the world
like baby hanging onto it's moth
er's apron. No, 1 did not break any
rules that trip. but / did break the
Becky" and bent an axle, for 1
made the most awful landing l ever
made in my life, leveling out ten
feet above the ground and landing
so hard 1 knocked both wheels
knock-kneed. The funny part of it
was, the landing was made right in
front of the captain, who had land
ed before me. 1 don't know whether
he saw the joke or not. At least, L
did not get the calling down I ex-
pected. You see coming down from
high attitudes, the distance to the
custom the eyes to the change one
must make a circle of the field at q
low altitude. l had done this, and
as I circled around and saw the Cap
tain sitting below waiting for a me-
chanic to start his stalled motor,
thinks l "Tll land right beside him,
and show him how to make a good
landing-without stalling the motor.
And so 1 did, for Handed beside him
all right, but oh, what a landing!
That's where the joke came in, for
| was so busy watching whether the
Captain was noticing the beautiful
landing I was going to make, that
the first thing l knew / lost all my
speed and sunk like a stone. Here
after, I'll watch the ground and not
the Captain, and probably Becky"
won't suffer so much then. How
ever, the Captain had troubles of
his own, which probably explains
why ] wasn't told about it, since he
had two fingers frozen also, and had
to depart as soon as he arrived. for
a distant hospital. where one of our
men was wounded. The other pilots
and the head mechanic sure did kid
me about that breakage, saying that
if I drank "pinard" such things
would never happen, for the fact
that we don't drink "pinard" sure
does surprise these Frenchmen-the
other American does not use IL
either. However, came right
back by reminding one of the pilots
that he had taken a whole wing off
while making a landing. It was the
truth too and he is the heaviest
drinker in the crowd. That come
back sort of stopped the Kidding
that "beaucoap" pinard would help.
My habits sure arouse a lot of cur