The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1919-07-22
Tells Stirring Tale.

Forester How not only covers all
these interesting points, but tells a
stirring tale Of adventure in doing so.
After describing his preparations for
the trip. he continues:
"My pilot was Sergeant Mckee, who
is one of the army flying instructors.
| The plane we used was a Curtiss JM-1
with an OX-5 motor. There are no con-
trolls in front, so all had to do was
to sit strapped to my seat. We start
ed about nine o'clock. / had heard so
much of persons becoming nauseated
that was expecting to feel funny, but
I never had that kind of symptom.
My impression was that we were stand
ing still, when in fact we were going
10 miles an hour. We flew up the
American valley to Placerville; thence
to Chinese, ten miles southeast of So
nora.
ION the trip we saw five fires, all Of
which were outside Of the forest boun-
daries. The largest was near Placer
vile and had been burning a week.
"The country is so rugged that q
landing could not have been made to
fight fire without crash. The pilot
agreed to this and steered to the west
of the peak instead Of to the east. and
by doing this, we missed seeing some
Of the country the patrol is expected
to cover. A forest patrol by aircraft
is more hazardous than the flying that
ls usually done.
my pilot made me understand that
our trip scared him more than any
other trip he had ever made, simply
because he could not make his plane
attain the elevation necessary for rela-
tive safety. He said he would take no
pOre passengers in the future. To
&c so would mean that he could cover
only portions of the forest which could
be seen from the lookout points.
Getaway Extremely Difficult.
I'm landing at Chinese for luncheon
we broke our tail skid, but were able
to replace 1t. Our getaway was ex-
tremely difficult, and 1 did heap Of
thinking. Returning, we made a d.
rect flight to Mather Field at an ele-
walton of 5000 feet. When about half
way the pilot said he was going to
make a straight dip. He had made
a series in the morning of SO to 70 feet
on an angle. This time he shot down
for 500 feet.
This was quite thrilling, but moth.
ing to the tail spin he put the ma
chine through in descending to Mather
Field. I had no warning and felt as
IL we were going down q series Of
corkscrew curves at q terrific rate. The
earth looked like an ocean during a
heavy sea. We dropped 1900 feet in
this manner and then gracefully vol
rlaned to the field within hundred |
feet Of the hangar. Our total flight
time was about four hours and the dis |
lance covered $50 miles.
'Fires have already been detected |
from airplanes that have not been |
picked up by the lookout man. There
Is no question in my mind that it is
the most feasible method Of prompt
fire detection. believe, however, that |
the expense Of establishing such a pa
troll would be prohibitive for the for.
est service.
II am convinced more than ever that
the dirigible with helium gas will be
the type of ship we shall use in the fu-
ture. I predict that within FIVE years
our present system Of lookout patrol
will practically be thing of the past
and also that the suppression of forest
fires will commence Immediately after
discovery. In other words, the fire
lighting forces will accompany the OBJ
server in a dirigible. When a fire is
one or two men will climb
down and put 1t out. There will then
be different methods of fire suppress
sion than we now USE 1t will be DOS
sible to carry large tanks of water and
motors to pump it on fire. Chemi.
calls. perhaps, may also be used"