The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-26
3 FLIERS ARRIVE
HERE FROM TORONTO


Continued from First Page.
/ time for each Of the roaring squadrons to
take the air. The scene on Roosevelt
, Field was reminiscent of the days of the
old Vanderbilt cup races. magnifled a
hundred times. Two score planes were
trundled into line by groups ready for
the start Their great motors, unmuffied,
/ roared and spit flames. The blasts from
their whirling propellers swirled the hats
! OF tho crowd Into the mud puddles with
out respect for sex or person.
New York got no glimpse of the race.
It had been planned that the planes
starting from this end should circle over
Pershing Square, paying their compll-
merts to the Hotel Commodore, whose
management had put up the $4,000
prize for the civilians Members of the
/ American Flying Club and other organi-
cations had planned to take possess on of
the square, the causeway to the Grand
Central and the encircling roofs But
under the atmospheric conditions yester-
day 1t would have been necessary for
the planes to come down to within 1000
feet in order that they might be identi-
| fed by number. To come down that low
over New York would have meant that
In case Of hishap of any sort an emer-
gency landing might have had to be
made in such congested places as the
| Sheep Meadow In Central Park. That
was a contingency too full OF possible
accident and the Flying Club abandoned
the New York demonstration. The planes
1 flew straight across the Sound, over
Westchester and up the Hudson.
Albany was the critical point Of the
! race-the neck of the bottle. The AL
/ bany Chamber of Commerce had pro-
vided an admirably situated flying field
on the hills to the northwest OF the city,
| a former polo field. But Il was not large
enough for the unprecedented number Of
machines in yesterdays flight. officials
of the Flying Club frankly held their
breath at every report from Albany lest
1t tell OF a perhaps fatal accident.
As Il was three planes were wrecked
in landing there, but only trifiing in
juries to any one resulted. The most
spectacular of these accidents was that
j which befell Capt Kinley. 1t scared
| 100 stout Albany burghers and their
ladies, It hurled them into tho mud and
1t scratched up eapt. Kinley. Its most
serious result however, was the wreck
of the beautiful Spad plane which Capt.
kinley had flown a score OF times over
the battle lines in France.
After he had taken the ground per-
fectly at Albany, power was suddenly
turned on into the sensitive engine
|
ably toward a bank at the side OF the
| field where a big group OF spectators
were gathered. Spectators and Spad
| went over the bank together with all
the advantages to the spectators for
once.
Planes Meet had weather.
The FIRST hint OF bad weather last
night came from Syracuse whence II
was reported that Cant. Harry Smith,
apparently leading the Toronto bound
field in his SEES, ran into a hail storm
and was forced TO descend a few miles
beyond the Syracuse control
The same storm caught President
Wilson's letter to the Prince OF Wales
and set It down on mountain farm
near Binghamton. 1t was in the L. W. +.
Shark, driven by Capt. J. NJ. Foote, who
had got away from Mineola at 2 o'clock
and landed in Albany forty minutes
later, according to the time report re-
ceived here. He left Albany at $50
o'clock but plunged into such a hail
storm that even the 400 horse power OF
his Liberty motor could not keep him on
the course. He was blown fifty miles
out of the way and late last evening a
farmer from near Binghamton called
up and reported to the American Flying
\ Club that the Presidents letter and
Capt. F'oote were safe and sound, but
l,that the Shark was, thoroughly smashed
and out of the race.
1t must be said for the aviators who
were flying eastward that they had
what favor the weather offered. Eleven
of them reached Syracuse to report that
over almost half of the distance flown
the wind had been at their backs. The
eight starters from New York who got
Ito Syracuse had battle all the way
UP the Valley OF the Mohawk with u
wind In their faces that only the tough
est work at the Joy stick enabled them
to best. The whole atmosphere seemed
to be moving TO the eastward and II
made little difference. the arrivals said,
whether they few high or flew low.
!, Capt J. c. Donaldson few into d
sorry mishap through carelessness OF
the handlers in the Albany pits. They
filed his oil tanks and forgot the gaso'
lene. So when his fuel gave out near
Oneida he landed where he could AMI
broke his crankshaft in doing II.
Lieut. p. H Logan, the first man to
leave Roosevelt Field. was the last
man to get into Albany. He made a
forced landing at Hopewell Junction
near Poughkeepsie, and spent almost
two hours tinkering his 400 horsepower
Liberty-LePere before he could get into
thA- air again. Despite the emergency
l ne Il1duc Il ptTIcCl All0 lsthC Oll
Coombs Lands Here First.
Sergeant Coombs. the master sig
nal electrician. whose native ability 10
fly has marked him as something Of a
sensation even In the United States Air
} Service, was the first of the westbound
airmen to arrive on Roosevelt Field. He
made a clean landing at 7:11 last eve
ming He left Toronto at :26 yesterday
J afternoon, thus making me jump to
Roosevelt Field in just hours and "a
4 minutes.
Seven minutes after the sergeant ar
rived Roland Rohlfs in his big Curtiss
Oriole landed, and at 7:22 Major Schroe-
der's Vought came trundling along the
ground and stopped in the centre of the
flare light glare that illuminated the
widespread flying field. Rohlfs. flying
for the Curtiss corporation. made the
flight in 5 hour and SO minutes. Major
| Schroeder who Is flying as a member OF