The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-03-23
THRILLING RIDE IN
HyDRO.AEROPLANE
Brattleboro Boys Expert
ence Over the Ocean in
Flight Near Miami
WHIRLING PICTURE
WHEN IN TAIL SPIN
Beautiful Sight When Flying Level and
Watching the Opalescent Colors and
the Strange Markings Made by Boats
in Shallow Water
MIAMI, Florida,

MIAMI, Florida, March 10.
Yesterday / had wonderful ride in
a big government hydro-aeroplane and
il was the greatest experience I have
ever had. Strange thing but the pilot
of the machine has the same name as
myself The seat had been taken out
OF the back cockpit and in its place
was the mountings for machine gun.
! had TO stand mp in the back seat and
il was certainly some sensation 10 be
vauked aloug through space standing
up with a rope tied around my waist.
When the big poo horsepower motor /.
was warmed mp, We slid down the ways |
into the bay. Ny friend opened the
throttle and we began to shoot over |
the water. There were waves OF some
size and you could feel each wave as |
tac poutoons OF the aeroplanc strucl, |
them. The salt spray came up in our |
face, and clouded our goggles but it |
tasted good and that and the rush of |
air was most eyhilaratiug. We rushed |
along over the water about f5 miles
an hour. You can imagine the sensa-
ton Each succeeding wave was less
and less felt aud soon we were in the
air and tho waters of Bisc2yne Bay be-
gan to drop away below IL. We could
look right through to the bottom and
sec al the various aucs and shades Of
the tropical waters. The color is a
beautiful turquoise. In places, there
wrr" spots Of pure green and in others
il faded away t. magnificent hucs of
hlnc and purple. I could see many
Scratches all over the bottom and I
couldn I imagine At first what had
caused them but they were made by the
E"cl- OF the boats dragging on the bot
tom when the tide was low
We flew out toward the Florida
Keys, thcu turned and flew toward the
, +! city of Miami. The air was very clear,
see the Curtiss field several mile, in
land. We cireled around until we were
, Iup over . GOO feet. We were then above
, the lowest clouds Another machine
passed 10y in the opposite direction. It
,scewrd ia be winging Is way alone like
q wild duck before the wind. The com
/, hjuod velocity OF both machines gave
!. a sensation Of great speed. II takes
- longer to reach this altitude in Il hydro
argoplaue than in a land machine, due
lih tE' NtlHAl 81 lRH lphlboA~. IuCA
-, my friend made o signal and ! nodded
. yes. We had previously talked il
- over and he meant. "Do YOU want me
!. TO try tail spiu3'' It is much diff err
cnt when whirliug around in the air
.. to be standing up and grabbing on TO
:, the machine gun mountings than to be
~ citing tightly IN your seat with straps
L. around YOU. The motor was shut of,
zone wing went mp, the other down. we
slipped SidcWisc and down with q seiz-
ing, thrilling lurch for over 100 feet,
then we began 10 wairl and the world
{. was lost sight Of, SO 80 speak. After
going around a number OF times about
+, once q second, the pilot moved the con
trolls, the whirling gradually ceased and
4, could see we were headed almost
straight down for the waters OF the
hay far below. but not 50 FAR either
W. because in those few seconds. we had
dropped over thousand feet. The pi
lot lcvclcd of the machine a bit anC
'u then gldcd down toward the water ant
ea IN less time than il takes to tell it
we had settled on the surface and yer,
so holbing gently up and down on Thu
H. waters of Biscayuc Pay.
mt We talked a few minutes, then m
friend asked Ii tAer" was ANY pace
wished to see. motioned toward Cap
cy FLORIDA, mites distant. He opened III
throttle, "e eaurned the water fer
. rev lnNtanta ana were M the AR agan
So"a the old iighlhonse on cape Fl"Fld
was very near rs ana then W" Wer
swinging around it, This gave me a
idea OF the speed ut which we wer
~ travelling. We certainly reached on
II
IL objective quickly. The water of Cap
f'"flda Is very shallow and spots q
pare green dot;ed the purple bottom
''e u looked as If t@eT were the beds @
som" huge fish.
As we swung hy the lighthouse, N
ticed that we were going with the win
aud then it did seem a. if We were g.