The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-10
By Associated Press


 hound and westbound fliers met in the air at North Platte, Neb., today in the trans-conti- mental reliability race, and to- night Lieut.. B. w. Maynard, the flying parson, was at Chey- enne, Wyo., hundreds of miles ahead of the other westbound aviators, while Capt. Lowell Il. Smith, we'll in the lead of the contingent from the west, was at Omaha, for the night.
 Maynard, piloting machine number s1, left Chicago at 7:0s a. m, central time, and flew Ss6 miles today, 70 miles more than he covered yesterday in sailing from New York to Chicago. But his time. chiefly due to adverse weather conditions. which in one form or another extended almost from coast 10 coast. was slower. He landed at cheyenne at s:25 D. m., mountain time. having covered a total distance of 1898 miles in two days.
 Captain smith. after struggling through three mountain snowstorms and over three mountain ranges, reached Omaha at 7:20 o'clock tonight. having made S52 miles today without accident His total distance since the start at San Francisco is 14s0 miles
 The remarkable flights of Maynard and Smith for two days have made the transcontinental race record event in this country.
 At the close of today's flights the fliers remaining in the race. of the 4s starting from Mineola, L. l., and the Is which left San Francisco, were strung out across the country, most of them accounted for
 TWO ARE MISSING
 Two machines from the west, No. 50, piloted by Lieutenant Hall and an- other driven by Second Lieutenant F'uen, were missing tonight At Raw lins wyo., it was feared they were lost in the mountain snowstorms.
 The days flights were attended by no fatal accidents, while yesterday 5 record was marred by three fatalities.
 The most serious of several acci dents. nearly all of them of d minor nature, wasl the spectacular crash of Lieut.. E. V. Wales. plane No. 6S, from San Francisco on Elk mountain, at Obert Pass, Wyo.. in heavy snow storm Pilot Wales was seriously in- jured and ras taken to a ranch housc. His passenger. Second Lieut. Willia1 Goldsborough. was only slightly hurt
 While rain in the east and middle west made landing fields soggy and dangerous, resulting in a few minor accidents snow in the Rocky noun tain region made flying difficult and hazardous. The snow screened fields at Rawlins and Green River. Wyo., and the latter early in the day was elirn- mated from the control stations, the fliers who left Salt Lake this morn ing proceeding to Raw1ins
 HALFWAY POINT
 The meeting of east and west lead ers al North Platte. Neb.. today mark d the halfway point for the two fliers. Maynard and Smith. They marked off 491 of the 2700- mile trip for Lieuten- ant aynard, while for Captain Smith the distance was r211 miles.
 Maynard landed there at ALA p. m. and Smith five minutes later.
 Besides No 34. which fell in Lake Erie No. 27. piioted by Major J. Miller, was reported out of the race beca of engine trouble at Rock Island, ILL, No 4S, driven by Lieut.. H. D. smith. was smashed at LocKport. N. r., dbu No 59, piloted by Lieut.. Robert Kauch. was said to be out of the racs when landing this morning at Coal z-iJle. Utah. because of the snowstorm No. S3, driven by Lieutenant Norman 1T. Langley. also was reported dam aged in forced landing at Hudson vile. Pa.
 Lieutenant Maynard, the westward flying pace setter. was unable to duph cate his sensational speed of better than two miles minute for the sle miles from Mineola to Chicago, but in- creased his distance today in spite oi adverse winds He was the first to reach Chicago, arriving late yesterday the only frier to arrive here the first day of the race.
 His closest follower was at Des Moine' tonight.
 Only seven other fliers reached Chi cago from the east today and four o them remained for the night. The flier' were held up at Buffalo. Cleveland ans Bryan, O. by rains and soggy fields The planes reaching here today were No. q, driven by Capt H. c. Drayton. a Des Moines tonight; No 2, Nal Il. J Miller, Rock Island Ill.: No. 1o. Lieut. l.. S. Webster; No. 90. Capt. J. Q. Don aldson; No. S. Lieut.. Alexander Pearson IT,; No. g. Maj. Harry Smith. and NO s. Lieut.. E. H. Manzelman. The latte four remained here tonight.
 Six other planes were at Cleveland, an the remainder of the westbound ma chimes were scattered across eastern ter