Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-10-23
PREACHER.Av|ATOR
WINS AIR DERBY

New Orh. Ocl, F,-tinlSnlnE ms sec
ond ocean-to-ocean flight in a tremendous
burst of speed that surpassed the records
Of all 1ers for the 500 miles between
cleveland and Mineola, Lieut.. Belvin "
Maynard. the preacher avia tor. landed al
Roosevelt Field at 1:5o o'clock yesterday
afternoon. winner of the armys $40.
mile reliability contest on virtually al
points Of competition
Unofficial computation of his actual fly
ing time for the 2sO1 miles from the
Pacific coast was about - hours In
making this ejaculation the official:
ignored the IS hours spent by Lieutenan,
Maynard between control stations in
Nebraska while he was putting a new
motor into his plane. Official compute.
those hours so that he may not be the
technical winner of the race on actual
flying time.
The preacher-aviator ia the indisputa lie
winner however. on elapsed time. He
was first Of the g. contestants to reach
the Pacific coast on the first lap of the
contest. and he was down several hours
before his closest rivals landed at Mneola
in finishing their first lap
\ crowd Of about 1000 persons had been
waiting for about two hours to greet
Lieutenant Maynard when he flew into
sight, dot high in the sky. moving at
great speed with heavy blue haze trail.
ing behind As the plane lost altitude
rapidly and then began to oscileate in the
| ia Hing leaf the spectators saw that
the motor was smoking badly Fearing
that the engine would burn out on his
last hop from Binghamton. Maynard had
| flooded it with oil
The plane came down so rapidly that
even the most expert of fiers in the
crowd feared that the pilot would lose
control. Maynard kept throwing the De
Haviland into sideslirs so that he would
lost altitude quickly, but few hundred
feet from earth he Strengthened out his
craft and brought it to the ground lightly
The oagerness of the crowd to gree,
he victor was combined with courtesy Ia
Mrs. Maynard and her two small daugh-
tiers. Maynard leaned over the edge OF
his plane and embraced the members OF
mis- family TriXie, his Belgian police dog
released from the hold of Sergeant Kline
in cockpit leaped down and began to
bark with JOY AZ seeing the children.
Colonel Archie Miller, commander of the
Long Island Fields, shook hands with
| Maynard and handed him kilograms OF
congratulation from the commanding Of
ficers of the army air service. Hundreds
Of persons then filed by shaking hands
| with him and with Sergeant Kline,
LEFT MINEOLA on OCTOBER
/ Leaving Mineola at 4:24 a. m, on Wed
nesday. October S. Lieutenant Maynard
| landed at the Preside at 1l2 p m.
Pacific time. Oh Saturday, October II. hi.
I oil for niph
days, six hours, and four minutes, Hi,
closest rivals. Major Carl Spatz and Lieu
/ tenant T., G, Kiel, did not ground a
Mineola until $40 y. m, eastern time
or about two hours later. On that fiigh
he was held up about five hours a
Cheyenne. Wyo, in making repairs to hi
radiator.
! ON the return fight from the Pacific
Maynard left the Preside at l:l9 p. m,
/ on Tuesday, October II. He was held VI
I for about eight hours at Wahoo. Neb.
while he replaced his played-out Lber9,
motor with with q similar engine takel
from the wrecked Martin Bomber o
Captain Roy Francis. This accident mad
the elapsed time for his return trip abou
three days Il hours and 81 minutes. o
more than fifteen hours more than hi
elapsed time for the first lap,
Although the actual flying time o
Lieutenant Maynard for the second trans
continental trip had been unofficially com
puted as about twenty-three hours Nat. /
was announced late at night by Cole J
Younger, vce-chairman of the contes
committee Of the American Flying club
that careful checking Of available figure
had made the unofficial time 24:45:os. Thi
IS a"out fifteen minutes better than III
time on the westward flight.