The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-07-05
Coming Down in Barre Aft
er 2O0-Mile Trip from Sau-
gus, They Broke Propeller
SERIES OF ACCIDENTS
ATTENDS FLIGHTS
First Machine Struck Tree
in Glens Falls, N. Y, and
Had to Give Up

| FOR the HfsL time neHnitely KNOWN
heavier -than-sir machine flew over Barre
and environs last evening, the flight hay
ing taken place in connection with
Barre's homecoming reception to the
boys in the war; but the comparatively
| short exhibition before the machine came
| TO grief in a disastrous landing on the
trotting park was only accomplished
after series of disappointments and
vexations which tried the patience of the
| local committee most severely and after
series of accidents which resulted in
one machine being put out of commits
sion so that it could not reach Barre and
in crippling the other so that arrival was
delayedsmany hours after schedule.
The original fier engaged for exhibit
tion in Barre was Lieut.. j. j. Lynch, an
ex.army aviator, whose home is in Rut
land Lieut.. Lynch was TO fly from
Mineola, l.. l., and arrive in Barre on
| Thursday, the day preceding the celebra-
tion. All went well over 1876 miles of
the trip, until Glens Falls, N. ", was
reached, successful landing and start
having been made in the meantime at
Albany. At Glens Falls the machine
was brought down in small field and in
| taking off for the resumption Of the
| fight to Barre Lieut.. Lynch found that
J the open space was not enough to permit
him to clear some trees, the result being
| that the machine crashed into tree and
damaged the propeller so badly that
fight was out of the question even had
the aviator escaped injury. IL is under
| stood that no serious results attended
| for the airman, however.
| When Lieut.. Lynch failed TO arrive on
time, and the hours passed, the local
committee tried in vain to get in touch
with the booking agency in Rutland,
! after which they communicated with
Lieut.. Lynch at Glens Falls through in
| formation given them by a friend of the
aviator who resides in Rutland.
Finding out definitely Thursday night
at $3.50 that Lieut.. Lynch could not com
plete his fight to Barre, the committee
! began to work the wires, in an endeavor
to prevent disappointment for the great
crowd that was expected in Barre for
the celebration They tried to engage
| flier in Providence, r. l., and failed;
| they connected with an aviator in Mont
real but learned that all the machines
I Ntit III lhihHIbs NBitH Uidut Alldl DlOD"
osition out of the question; they tried
| firm in Boston and found the order could
not be filled
BY that time they were about ready
to give up and 90 home when at 1890
Friday morning word came TO them that
there was chance to secure a flight
through Saugus, Mass, firm. Getting
| into communication with the Saugls
firm by telephones they made the ar
rangements and then ensued a long and
complicated arrangement over financial
consideration; and it was o'clock a. IN.
when the contract with Whittemore,
Ham company of Saugus was completed.
Feeling somewhat relieved of their
worry, the committee retired almost at
daybreak of the big day itself.
The contract closed, the airplane firm
got into touch with two of their men,
NJ w Hodgdon, pilot, and Ralph Dale,
mechanician, at o'clock yesterday
morning and told them to get ready to
start for Barre It was a rather sudden
call and with a trying performance in
prospect inasmuch as neither man had
been over the course and had TO follow
general directions given by Sergt. Alex.
Straiton of Barre over the phone and
to depend also on the compass.
The start on the 200-mile iaunt from
Saugus was made at 1882 and the first
part of the trip as the men related the
story to-day, was as smooth as a sail
on summer sea, no air currents being
stuck and the biplane, type known
as A-7-A, with ll0horsepower Hallscott
engine, made fast time over Lawrence,
along the Merrimac river to Squam Lake,
| N. H., thence across the Connecticut riv-
er to White River junction and along
| the Central Vermont railroad line to
East Braintree, where the airmen saw a
| crowd gathered to watch Baseball game
and other Fourth of July doings and
! calculated that place was Barre, where
they were scheduled to do their rescue
work for a beleaguered committee. So
| they came down in the best landing place
| they could find, which was wheat field
mile south of the village
! There they found that Braintree was
not Barre, also that their 3h per cent
| landing. The time was | As o. m. and
they may have imagined that an impa-
tient crowd of 10000 people was waiting
for them further along. At any rate the
Barre committee did
But the only thing for the airmen to
do was to straighten the axle and when
that was done they had to wait until the
field could be moved before they could
take off for the last lap of their memoir
able fight All of that took time
However, at 6.45 p. m. the big ma
chine was ready for the start and made
successful getaway. Still sticking to
the Central Vermont railroad line in
stead of taking the short cross country
cut, the machine went to Montpelier and
there circled the State House dome be-
fore proceeding to Barre. The machine
first hove into view in this city at
] o'clock A man gazing skyw&rd at the
victory arch was the first to apprise the