The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-10-12
AIRPLANE Attire,
HE CARRIES ON"
British Pilot Tells OF Thrilling Exc
perlence Spottinu for Ar.
tiiiery.
pEscENDs JUST IN Time
Engine stops Just ~ Mission II Com
pleted-Puts Machine Into Side
eiIp-Tsnk Explodss Just 90
He Reaches Safety.

~ NeAene& oefetg.
London.-'The fighting pilots DON'T
Get all the fun of the war In the air"
writes q young bird who had q thrill
Ing experience recently. returning to
hts base in q flaming plane.
I'VE were flying over No Mans
Land" he says, -spotting for the artii-
lery. and By constantly changing diree-
ton and height we had pretty well e.
capped the attention of the ubiquitous
Archie. The shoot was progressing
satisfactorily. and u battery would
soon be all ranged. Our engine had
been running very badly. and had the
shoot been less important we should
have returned home: but the target
was a special Hun bridge. and the bat
terry was shooting excellentiy.
AIrpIans on Fire.
Suddenly q smell OF burning wood
reached my nostrils. Looking down.
I saw the framework near my feet
~blackened and smoidering. The en-
gine's back-fring must have made q
torch of the exhaust. I switched on
the petrol supply and opened out the
throttle. One steep. swift dive and the
FIRE was out.
"Then ] hesitated. Should we hurry
for home and safety, or continue the
shoot In which a very little more OBJ
serving would bring complete successf
I turned to the observer. He leaned
over and inspected the damage. II
was not very bad, really. He shouted
into my ear:
Lets carry on"
"T climbed again and we continued
to shoot Our battery was very soon
firing as a battery-all guns-our last
message having completed the regis
tration: and now shells were dropping
about the target. Our part was done
pretty well. too-and In a few min
utes the bridge was entirely destroyed.
In u excitement the faulty engine
had been forgotten until, with n last
spiutter, II gave out completely. II
stopped.
The machine was really on IRE this
time and I was too late. The wood
work was burning independently Of PEE
troll and exhaust. and to dive now
would only fan the flames about my
feet. Yet we had to get TO the ground
and very quickly. too.
Quite q Wild AFFAIR.
II put the machine into d violent
side-slip away from the line. The
flames were thus famed toward the op-
posite wing. The observer. leaning
owe my shoulder. squirted the fire ex-
tinguisher about my feet. which N
abied me to keep control OF the rud-
der bar. We were down to 1900 feet,
but the heat was intense.
"The fire had reached the right wing.
Things were getting more and more ex.
citing. Would the fabric continue TO
support us7 l pushed down the o
to hasten u descent. keeping the IA
chine also In a side-slip. The rush Of
air slightly changed the direction Of
the names. Now we were nearly down.
There were a few shell holes and hard
iy any hedges. Unless we were un-
lucky we should not meet any serious
obstacle.
The ground rushed toward Us I
took Oh the bank and tiattened out.s
One landing wheel touched with 4
bump. broke away and continued its
purse independently. The machine
pirouetted ON the remaining wheel and
finally crashed on its 9 and left
wing. II was quite q wild affair. but
we were unhurt.
"Springing to the ground. we hurried
away from the burning wreck Just In
time. for a second later the petrol
tank exploded. We just looked at each
other and never said a word. but
neither Of us regretted having CHANGED
II and finished our Job"