New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09

! had opened on him and gave the enemv his
location. Then the leading German had
trouble and started to drop for his aero
drome.
Captain Rick followed up and the two
planes were falling at about 200 miles an
hour when the German decided to change
his course to get out of range. The enemy
fer zoomed up in front of the American.
forcing him to pull back the control stick
sharply, but this did not avert a collision.
The upper right wing of his plane was
smashed and he fell into tail spin.
"When about 700 feet from the ground,
over the German lines, he contrived to get
the plane even keel by defying all
aviation practices. This he did by pulling
the throttle wide and pushing the control
stick over hard, a procedure that usually
meant crash to the ground
Luck was with him, for he 'pancaked,'
as the aviators say, and sailed over No
Mans Land at low elevation landing
within his own lines. The observers gave
him credit for victory, as the German
was not so lucky and fell in flames.
During the drive through the Argonne
forest Captain Rckenbacker scored vic
tory, but landed with broken propeller.
as the German had opened fire first and
shot away half of the club Aviators know
that the splitting of propeller or smash
ing of any part of it is a dangerous thing
to happen At any altitude as it is likely to
tear the engine out of its mountings and
send the airplane crashing to the earth
II got off without wound, but for some
act of mine | lost lot of valuable time
at the front Out of my almost seven
months aviator on the front, | was
flying and fighting only four and one-half
months. The remainder of my time was
spent in a Paris hospital, after breaking
an drum. This occurred during the
Chateau Thierry drive | was up alone
early in the morning when | ran into six
seven German fiers. They gave battle.
they always did when we encountered
them in groups.
after a few seconds l decided that it
was foolhardy to try to lick circus and
dropped into nose dive from 10000 feet.
In flash | was dropping probably 800
miles an hour with the engine going full.
On landing my ear panied me. ] consulted
a surgeon later and was sent to Paris. 1t
was necessary eventually to have mastoid
operation performed; but still I came out
Of it without having my hearing affected
1t was not my time-but it was necessary
that l make payment debt l owed!
Zone Of my last auto races confirmed my
belief for all time. This was at Indian
apolis. had the lead and knew / could win
if my right rear wheel, which had lost sew
eral wire spokes, would stand the strain of
rounding the curves. The rest of the field
crowding close, and so did not stop to
get new wheel. On next to the last lap as
the car started to enter the home stretch
| had the accident l was looking for.
at at a spot that had been the scene
of many accidents. The wheel collapsed and
the car spun around like a top. But by put
ting the power l was able to pull off the
track, and the rest of the field swept by at
ninety to one hundred miles an hour If the
car had stopped the track it would have
piled up the whole field. But it was not
decreed that l should be even bruised.
"My experiences in the air and on the
track and road in automobile racing have
firmly convinced me that our deeds and &C
tons govern our span of life"