The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-06-26
HON 1T FEELS TO BE
SIN MILES ABOVE EARTH.
Engine stops When Highest Point is
Reached and Plane GiideS
Back to Earth.

Mai. z. W. Schroeder, who holds
the worlds record for the highest al
titude reached in an airplane, de-
scribes his experiences while six miles
above the earth. That is the highest
altitude man has ever reached and
Maj. Schroeder's experiences are in,
teresting: He says:
"In order to take an airplane to a
higher altitude than any other pilot
in the world, found that more than
one or two attempts would be neces-
sary. l made three, the first taking
me to an altitude of $4,000 feet, the
second to 1900 feet, and the last
to 28,900 feet, all Of which would
have been worlds records, and now l
feel certain that with few changes
and improvements l can get to 30,-
600 feet.
The following experiences and SEN
sations which l noticed during my
flight were due to lack of oxygen. l
took off at LAS p. m, September
IS, 1918, and made steady wester-
ly climb, passing through clouds at
5000, $4,000, and 10000 feet. At
10000 feet, while still climbing in
large circles, my goggles became
frosted making it very difficult to
watch the instruments. The tempera-
ture at this altitude was 1S degrees
centigrade below zero. When l reach
ed $4,000 feet 1 noticed the sun grow
ing very dim,. could hardly hear my
motor run. and I felt very hungry.
The trend of my thought was that
it must be getting late, that evening
must be coming on, and that this
was the reason the SUM- was getting
so dim. But l was still climbing, so
thought l might as we'll stick to it
little longer, for knew I,could reach
my ceiling pretty soon. Then
would go down, and even tho it were
dark l could land Nall right for had
made night landings many times be-
fore; and so l went on talking to my
self, and this l thought was a good
sign to begin taking oxygen, and l
did. 1 was then over $4,000 feet up
and the temperature was rs degrees
centigrade below zero.
AS soon as started to inhale the
oxygen the sun grew bright again and
my motor began to exhaust so loudly !
that it seemed something must be
wrong with it, was no longer hun
CRY, and the day seemed to be most |
beautiful one. felt like singing with
sheer Joy as 1 gazed about through |
the small portion Of my goggles
which had no frost, due to drop of
oil which had splashed on them from
the motor.
kept at it until my oxygen gave
out, and at that point l noticed my
aneroid indicated very nearly $4,000
feet. The thermometer showed 80 de-
gree centigrade below zero. The lack
of oxygn was affecting me and ] was
beginning to get cross. I could not
why 1 was only $4,000
feet after climbing for SO long a time.
I remember that the horizon seemed
to be very much out Of place, but
l felt that 1 was flying correctly and
that I was right and the horizon
wrong.
About this time the motor quit. l
was out of gasoline, the propeller
stopt, and everything was quiet; so
down went in a spiral. When l had
descended to about 10000 feet,
bgan to feel much better and realized
that the lack Of oxygen had affected
me. passed down through the clouds
at $4,000 feet, and, as l remember,
it was showing from these clouds up
On the next layer, some 1000 feet
below.
During the entire trip l did not
see the ground from the time l went
up through the clouds above Dayton
until l came through the clouds
again, at 1000 feet above Canton. l
landed near the house of a Mr.. JOS
eph Schario, and one of his little
daughters came running ups to Inc,
but she was speechless. l asked her,
"Where am II" and she replied, !,
Canton, Ohio" Well, it almost took
the wind out of me to think l had !
drifted over 200 miles from where |
started. reached my greatest height !
105 minutes after l started. 1t re-
quired 20 minutes to come down.
was in the air 125 minutes, flying in
a westerly direction practically all
the time, and came down 200 miles !
east of where l went up