Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-08-07
AIRPLANE PATROL
FOR FOREST FIRES
Federal Forest Service Is Making
tperiments With Army
Machines.
FORESTER TELLS ABOUT TRIP
Gives Interesting Account Of Expert
snces Together with, Observations
as to Feasibility Of This
Method of Fire Detection.


Washington, D. C.-Airplane fire pa
trol of the national forests by army
machines was begun as an experiment
tor the forest service recently. Inc
arst report from q forester has just
come to headquarters here after an
exciting observation flight from Mather
Field made over the southern patrol
route in California, covering portions
IF the Eldorado and Stanislaus forest
preserves.
The trip was taken by Assistant Dis
.rict Forester How for the collection OF
iata as to the feasibility of this novel
method of fire detectionj what should
30 done to fight the flames, II pos
,ible from the plane; how alarms may
promptly be given; what style OF plane
)r balloon Is best adapted, and wnat
additional apparatus may be necessary
make successful this attempt al
more effectually safeguarding remote
md inaccessible stretches OF practi-
ally UNEMPLOYED country from the
courge which annually destroys thou
sands upon thousands of acres OF TIM
ser rapidly becoming well nigh price
ess.
Tells Stirring Tale.
Forester How not only covers all
.hese interesting points, but tells a
,tirring tale of adventure In doing so.
After describing his preparations Tor
he trip, he continuesi
"My pilot was Sergeant Mckee, who
& one Of the army flying instructors.
The plane we used was a Curtiss JM-1
With an OX-5 motor. There are no con-
rolls In front, so all / had to do was
sit strapped to my seat. We start
ID about nine O'Clock. I had heard so
much of persons becoming ~nauseated
hat / was expecting to feel funny, u
never had that kind of q symptom.
Nv impression was that we were stand
ng still, when In fact we were going
% miles an hour. We few up the
American valley to Placerville; thence
0 Chinese, ten miles southeast OF So
fora.
con the trip we saw five fires, all OF
which were outside of the forest boun-
laries. The largest was near Placer
lille and had been burning a week.
1.-THE country Is so rugged that a.
anding could not have been made to
light a fire without a crash. The pilot
greed to this and steered to the west
# the peak instead of to the east, int
doing this, we missed seeing some
t the country the patrol Is expected
o cover. A forest patrol by aircraft
, more hazardous than the flying that
$ usually done.
my pilot made me understand that
,ur trip scared him more than any
trip he had ever made, simply
because he could not make his plane
attaiL the elevation necessary for rela-
i've safety. He said he would take no
more passengers in the future. To
DO so would mean that he could cover
only portions Of the forest which could
be seer from the lookout points.
Getaway Extremely Difficult.
"In landing at Chinese for luncheon
we broke our tail skid, but were able
10 replace it. Our getaway was ex-
tremely difficult, and / did a heap of
thinking. Returning, we made a d.
rect flight to Mather Field at an ele-
walton of 5000 feet. When about half
way the pilot said he was going to
make a straight dip. He had made
A series in the morning of 90 to 20 feet
on an AMPLE. This time he shot down
Tor 900 feet.
"This was quite thrilling, but moth
Ing to the tail spin he put the ma
chine through in descending to Mather
Field. I had no warning and felt as
IL we were going down a series OF
corkscrew curves at a terrific rate. The
earth looked like an ocean during a
heavy sea. We dropped 1900 feet in
this manner and then gracefully vol
planed to the field within a hundred
feet of the hangar. Our total flight
time was about four hours and the dis
tance covered 250 miles.
'Fires have already been detected
from airplanes that have not been
picked up by the lookout a There
Is no question in my mind that it Is
the most feasible method of prompt
fire detection. / believe. however, that
the expense of establishing such a pa
troll would be p%rohibitive for the for
est service.
II am convinced more than ever that
the dirigibIe with helium gas will be
the type of ship we shall use in the fu.
ture. I predict that within five years
our present system of lookout patrol
will practically be a thing Of the past
and also that the suppression of forest
fires will commence Immediately after
discovery. In other words, the fire
fighting forces win accompany the OBJ
server in a dirigible. When a fire Is
discovered one or two men will climb
down and put 1t out. There will then
be different methods of fire suppress
sion than we nov use. II will be pos
slble to carry large tanks of water and
motors to pump 1t on a fire. Chemt
Gals, perhaps, may also be used"
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