The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-11-03

HlSuJ dt q ldi LII houoS'
The next morning friday we got
UP at daybreak, ate breakfast ana
went out to get our ship. We found
the engine so cold that we had diff
Guilty in starting it. After lot OF
hard work we succeeded in taking 10
the air again. We were only few
minutes in getting into the right field
now as it was broad daylight. 1t was
1920 a. m. when we finally got our
gas and oil and pulled out of
Des Moines. Omaha was then \ our
next stop. This was made in less
than two hours,
We were only out of Omaha about
ten minutes when our engine began
to misbehave and we were forced to
land at Lane, Neb. I had no trouble
in making a safe landing here and up
on inspecting our engine we found
| that the mechanics at Omaha had put
in too much oil and this had raised
our oil pressure and forced the oil
through the cylinders into the spark
plugs. After draining out gallon
and half of oil and cleaning our
spark plugs we again took to the air
and were soon in st. Paul, Nebr. We
passed through the control stop at
North Platte and stopped at Sidney,
Nebr., for the night. Here we got our
plane in readiness to make an early
start in the a. m. and then went to
bed for good rest. My ears were in
such an uproar from the constant
noise of the motor that | could not
sleep much.
Well, Saturday morning we left
Sidney about 7:4O and from there on
to Sacramento, Calf, we were flying
over mountains. Saturday we passed
through the following control stops
Rawlins, Wyo., Green River, Wyo.,
Salt Lake City, Utah and into Salduro
for the night and Sunday.
The landing fields at Rawlins and
Green River were very poor and
small. The landing field at Rawlins
was race track only 1000 feet long
and this is pretty small for as large
a plane as the D H-4 At Green Riv-
er, Utah, had hair raising episode.
The landing field was small and sandy
and way down in the valley of the
Rocky Mountains. And when I got
ready to make my take off" l found
that if headed into the wind that
would have to take off up hill and to.
ward the river. The field was so
sandy and rough that bounced along
all of the way across it while picking
up flying speed and we ran off the
prrcipice and by luck we had enough
forward speed to hold us in the air
as we bounced from the steep bank
of the river. l then had to make a
sharp bank to miss the mountains
and gain enough altitude to climb
over them. We reached Salt Lake
City about 2:45 p. M and it certainly
looked good to me as had passed the
highest of the Rocky Mountains upon
reaching here. We had over three
thousand feet Of altitude to lose be-
fore landing here and we passed over
the Mountains at not more than 200
feet just before reaching Salt Lake
City. By 3:15 p. m. we were pulling
out of here and on our way across the
Salt Lake and the Salt Desert to
Saludro. We covered this distance
of 100 miles in S. minutes and only
flew at an altitude of about 500 feet
The last 70 miles Of this lap was
nothing but salt. l could have landed
on it anywhere. 1t is rather a deceiv
ing surface to land on. From the air
1t looks like snow but when you have
once landed you find that it is a much
harder surface. 1t looks almost like
ice with small cracks running here
and there and is almost as hard and
slippery as ice. got down with q
safe landing on it all right but little
). E.-5 that came In just behind me
hit so hard that he broke his under
carriage and had to work all day Sun
day in order to get into the race agar
on Monday. Up to this point | was
holding third place out of about &
: planes that left Mineola. Salduro
by the way is not city, it is nothins
; but salt factory, and to think that
picked such q place as that to spend
Saturday night end Sunday when
could have stopped in the beautiful
City of Salt Lake. But it was OF SC
bad at that as we had no crowds ts
Dother us while we worked on ON
snip to put it in trim for the last lar
of our journey.
Jl II