Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-08-01
A|RPLANE PATROL
FOR FOREST FIRES
Federal Forest Service Is Making
Experiments With Army
Machines.
forester Tells ABOUT TRIP
Gives Interesting Account of Expert
ences Together with Observations
as to Feasibility Of This
Method of Fire Detection.

Washington, d. C.-Airplane fire pa
troll of the national forests by army
machines was begun as an experiment
for the forest service recently. The
first report from a 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
of the Eldorado and Stanislaus forest
preserves.
The trip was taken by Assistant Dis
trict Forester How for the collection of
data as to the feasibility of this novel
method of fire detection; what should
be done to fight the flames, If pos
sible from the plane; how alarms may
promptly be given; what style Of plane
or balloon is best adapted, and what
additional apparatus may be necessary
, to make successful this attempt at
more effectually safeguarding remote
end inaccessible stretches of practi-
cally unexplOred country from the
scourge which annually destroys thou
sands upon thousands Of acres Of tim
Der rapidly becoming well nigh price
less.
Tells Stirring Tale.
Forester How not only covers all
these interesting points, but tells a
stirring tale of adventure In doing so.
After describing his preparations for
the trip, he continues:
"My pilot was Sergeant Mckee, who
Is one of the army flying instructors.
The plane we used was a Curtiss JM-1
with an OX-5 motor. There are no con-
trolls in front, so all l had to do was
TO sit strapped to my seat. We start
ed about nine o'clock. / had heard so
much of persons becoming nauseated
that was expecting to feel funny, but
[ never had that kind Of symptom.
My impression was that we were stand
ing still, when in fact we were going
10 miles an hour. We flew up the
American valley to Placerville; thence
to Chinese, ten miles southeast of So
nora.
"On the trip we saw five fires, all Of
which were outside of the forest boun-
1aries. The largest was near Placer
vile and had been burning a week.
"The country is so rugged that
landing could not have been made to
ight fire without crash. The pilot
agreed to this and steered To the west
Of the peak instead of TO the east. and
)y doing this, we missed seeing some
IF the country the patrol is expected
20 cover. A forest patrol by aircraft
S more hazardous than the flying that
= usually done.
"My pilot made me understand that
our trip scared him more than any
other trip he had ever made, simply
because he could not make his plane
attain the elevation necessary for rela
tive safety. He said he would take no
more passengers in the future. To
&c so would mean that he could cover
only portions of the forest which could
be seen from the lookout points.
Getaway Extremely Difficult.
"In landing at Chinese for luncheon
we broke our tail skid, but were able
to replace 1t. Our getaway was ex-
tremely difficult, and I did heap Of
thinking. Returning, we made a di-
rect flight to Mather Field at an ele-
yation Of 5000 feet. When about half
way the pilot said he was going to
make straight dip. He had made
series in the morning of so to 20 feet
on an angle. This time he shot down
for 500 feet.
"This was quite thrilling, but moth
ing to the tail spin he put the ma
chine through in descending to Mather
Field. had no warning and felt as
II I'VE were going down q series of
,orkscrew curves at terrific rate. The
earth looked like an ocean during a
heavy sea. We dropped 1,J00 feet in
this manner and then gracefully vol
planed to the field within q 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 man. There
Is no question In my mind that 1t is
the most feasible method of prompt
FIRE detection. believe, however, that
the expense Of establishing such pa
troll would be prohIbitive for the for
est service.
Il am convinced more than ever that
the drigible with hellum gas will he
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 thing of the past