The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-12-19
G. Fl. Cook, Formerly Man
ager Of the Wisconsin
Gas and Electric Co..
Tells Experience.
MAKES HIS FIRST FLIGHT
Describes That Funny Feeling That
Takes Hold of You When You
are 5000 Feet Above
gerya Tirna.

Just how it feels to see the earth
dropping away from you and to know
it is six thousand feet below you with
no choice as to where you would light
if something happened is described by
George H. Cook, former general mana
ger Of the Wisconsin Gas and Electric
Company, in letter to friends In Ke-
nosha. Mr.. Cook is with the radio
training station at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Under the date Of December 10 after
describing the preliminaries and telling
about the make ready preparations for
a ride he'says:
At 1:30 the mornings preliminaries
were repeated except that the flight
flag stayed up; and in a rather uncon-
scious way / found myself in the OBJ
servers seat, saw the mechanics let go
and realized we were off. Out on the
field a hundred yards or so the pilot
turned back to me and inquired "been
uI before7' /" First trip" I answered
and, with some remark from him about
doing Stunts" he opened the throttle
and let her go.
/ felt the tail rise ever SO little off
its skid, observed the bumps as we
ran along the surface gaining speed
and then realized yhe ground was leav-
ing US. No, we were not leaving the
ground the ground was being de-
pressed directly below, and rising and
curving upward toward us all around
And, as we were humping through the
air, slipping little now to the right,
now left, building upward quickly
dropping so feet more quickly and
rocking from nose to tail, the pilot
shouted something about the safety
belt. had been so absorbed in the
sensations of my first flight that had
neglected to secure myself to the cock
pit by the safety. soon had this on
and began to rather enjoy the land
scape. A glance at the altimeter show
ed zero but soon it began to climb -
500, 900, 800, 1900, 1000 - then some
thing happened. Were we falling on
our wing9 I held my breath and
clutched at the side of the fuselage, for
what or why ! don't know. We had
just completed bank turn, that
is. Well, that wasn't so bad after.
all Then we climbed straight up to
5000 feet.
| Just what tho earth looks like from
an altitude Of 5000 feet is not easy for
me to describe. The houses, roads and
rivers and lakes were in miniature,
sort Of model affairs; the green fields
Of wheat, the plowed ground and the
barren waste areas appeared as patch
es painted in colors with various
grades of brushes as to show the
brush marks. Hills and hollows were
not discernable when directly below
that is, the inclines and depressions
showed to be level where / knew there
should be an unevenness; the sky be-
came intensely hazy and limited the
range Of vision; the layouts Of towns
and villages were especially prominent
and one should follow the routes of the
railroads readily. The batteries were
at work on the artillery range, the
fash Of discharge was plain, as was
the shell burst, but were it not for
the fire flash I would have been un-
able to locate the guns for they were
camoufaged.
While thinking of these things the
laf - II ~
ious ship movements and then Oh
Lordi the sky was where the earth
should be. We were whirling and
whirling and whirling I felt sus-
] tanned tug at my safety belt, saw the
altimeter dropping and was quite con-
scious Of an awful seasickness! Would
the thing never stop and right itselfg
It did, at 1000 #. Some stunts from
5000 #. to 1000 fa., and then as If to
do the job right the nose went down
and we dived for the ground and wound
up with terrible swoop just above the
surfaced wanted to stop right QUIT
Wanted never to see ship again - I
was through with the air foreveri But
up we went again to 5000 feet. set
tied back in the cockpit and recalled I
was to do an experiment. with the
radio. telephone. But what the dickens
did want to fool with ship tele-
phone9 Wash It through with the airY
What did care about telephone deve-
lopment, anyways
We had been up an hour and half
and I was much relieved to hear the
pilot ask if I had completed the ex-
pertinent. I quickly replied that was
through with the experiment alright,
but didn t mention which experiment
referred to - the flight or the radio.
We landed gracefully and TAXED up
| to the line. In some way I managed to