The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-09-12
FLYING OYER VERMONT
PLEASANT SENSATION
Edmund P. Howe Writes About His Ex-
perienee in Airplane Trip from Rut-
land to White River Junction.

e.
ing in an airplane with John j. Lyncl
from Rutland to the state fair ground
in White River Junction as follows
THE thrice deferred airplane trip iron
! Rutland 10 the state fair grounds a
White River Junction has at last be
come reality. At exactly 1850 yes
terday afternoon, the plane, piloted b!
| Aviator John j. Lynch OF Rutland, anl
| carrying as observer representative O
| the Rutland Herald, left the ground a.
Kelley field, south of the Rutland far
grounds, and circled above the city Will,
| gaining the proper altitude to start foi
Mendon Notch At exactly las, The
plane landed safely at the state fan
grounds at White River junction, thu
landing being witnessed by the seyera
| Thousand people who had gathered to at
/ tend the events Of the second day at tbs
| state fair
"The trip yesterday represented tbs
| first attempt ever made In Vermont e
deliver newspapers by the air route A
bundle of Rutland Heralds was carried
! by the observer and copies were dropped
| along the wav by the pilot. Papers were
! dropped in Sherhurne, Bridgewater and
! Woodstock and in some of the smaller
settlements along the way. On the
wrapper Of each paper was printed, Com.
plimentary First Airplane Delivered
/ Mail in Vermont John j. Lynch, Flyer
See him at the State Fair, White River
! Junction, every day this week Take a
flyer yourself. Compliments OF the Rut-
land Herald
"On Tuesday afternoon. an unsuecess-
full attempt was made 70 get through
Mendon Notch, but the cloud bank was
SO dense during the afternoon that il
was impossible 10 keep any course or
maintain any sense Of direction. so the
trip was postponed after three trials
were made to get through Yesterday
morning, the clouds still hung too low to
60 IN and the start was again put of
about 1890 the clouds lifted to some
extent and the sun came out for a short
time, 80 Lieut. Lynch decided TO get I'm
der way. The engine was warmed up
preparatory TO starting and was found TO
he running perfectly. There was little
or no wind and the take off was made
due west at precisely one minute before
o'clock.
SIN order TO get sufficient altitude to
clear the mountain, IL was necessary to
circle about the city for 10 minutes,
mounting higher In the air at each turn.
Making three circles above the city, the
pilot turned south and kept the ship
headed in that direction until he felt
that we were high enough TO make the
start. Turning back toward the city, he
followed the railroad tracks to Rutland
and then turned straight for Mendon
Notch, over the top of East mountain.
The actual start in the direction Of
White River was made ut l;06.
"The air was reasonably clear. The
sun came out occasionally for few sec.
onds, but the clouds were still heavily
massed in the east and were particularly
threatening over Ellington The air
was not cold but brisk enough to be ex-
hilarating. A long passenger train
passed directly beneath and presented
such an excellent target for bomber
that one could not help but wonder how
ii was ever possible TO run trains in
northern France during the war.
1.-THE Clouds and the Mountains"
Clouds were reached at 1910 and re-
manned with us for the rest of the trip.
This time they were not in a heavy
bank, but floating around individually at
various levels, sometimes completely OBJ
securing the land BY dipping and mount
ing the heaviest of these were avoided
and the plane was never out Of sight Of
the ground more than a minute at a
time.
"The air was not notieeably 'bumpy'
during any part of the trip and there
was pleasing scarcity of pockets. A
few bumps were encountered over the
notch, but the entire journey was re-
markably smooth In fact, there were
no more bumps on the trip than on a
trip on the Boston & Maine railroad for
the same distance.
while flying directly over MendoR
Notch, the scenery was particularly
derful The mountain trails ON all sides
were easily discernible and between the
plane and the mountains were small
heecy clouds of all sizes and shapes fit
ting across the ranges Some of the
trees were just beginning to become
tinged with the colors of autumn, which
gave every ridge and valley color eff
feet that only nature could produce,
Straight ahead was the highest part Of
the Green Mountain range, which looked
formidable to the observer if not to the
pilot.
AT l:l6 the ship was through the
notch and began to follow the Ottau.
quechee. It was in the town of Sher,
burne where the first bundldAof papers
was dropped. Owing to the altitude and
the drifting clouds, it was impossible to
follow the course of the papers as they
fell and it is not known as yet whether
any of them were received by the people
Of the villages passed over.
"Above Woodstock, the clouds began
to get thicker and Immediately ahead
was solid bank stretching away as
far as eye could see, resembling frozen
ocean. There seemed to be no opening
through this mass of white, but Lynch's
eyes are good and he dove for small
opening below the ship Dropping
straight down for several hundred feet,
he plunged through the cloud and got
below the confusing mass that we had
seen just before us. Immediately after
getting through this cloud. another bunch