The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-09-06
Carrying Mail for
Uncle Sam in A Fog

fuSSy, ana furious,
Gathered his trappings and went
on their trail.
He found them that night
In a pitiful plight.
And sent them all home on the ter
o'clock mail"
But it Is an entirely different mail
service, that occupies all the time
of Robert Shank, the most expert
enced airman in the mail service OF
the United States. He is one of the
"Postmen" who 90 from New York
to Washington, and back again in
two hours, and this means 225 miles
at 100 miles an hour. Among the
other men in the mail service, he
is known as Bob Bird" The fol
lowing story is told by him, of one
night when he was returning with
mail to New York and was forced
to fly through a fog:
"One of the worst things an air
man has to tackle is thick fog or
heavy fall or snow" he began,
Electrical storms or cloudbursts
have no terror for us, but, believe
me, it isn't any fun to fly when you
can't see where you're headin' for. !"
"The funny part about fog" he
went on, sis that you can see down
through it, but you can't see ahead
Many a time have been flying in
the sunlight at an altitude of about
1000 feet, with mist bank beneath
me that looked like an impenetra
Bile blanket of cotton batting but.
on going lower, found that could
see the earth by looking straight
down. although few feet ahead of
the plane was literal wall of fog.
"The particular time I'm thinkin'
of was about two months ago |
left the field just outside of Wash
ington, at about l o'clock in the af-
ternoon of a rather murky day.
Shortly after l had started the fog
came down like shroud, totally
blotting out all landmarks. so that
for some time flew by blind guess
in general northerly direction.
This was at an altitude of near
ly 5000 feet, and, as the cold
at that height was so intense
| decided to go down ways
in the hope of coming out from
under the enveloping mist, so as
to fly under it during the rest of
the trip. The altometer registered
5000 feet, 5000, 1000; 900 down and
down and down, and no opening in
the floor of clouds; 500, 300, $50
little chills began to run up and |
down my spine, for the mist still |
held. Now | was down to the 100 |
mark, which is pretty low for a
plane. held my breath as the ma
chine sped on through the gray twi-
light of the fog bank. AT ninety
miles an hour the prospect of crash
ing into a water-tank or smoke
stack did not offer much attraction,
yet | was afraid to rise because of |
my absolute helplessness in regard |
to finding out where l was flying.
However, rose several hundred |
feet, but couldn't see my hand be- !
fore my face, and decided to chance |
it by coming down again. This |
time grew reckless and descended |
TO the height of only rs feet from |
the ground. There, beneath me, was |
a winding river. On either side of |
me were factories, with towering |
stacks huge watertanks on tall |
iron supports, and lofty elevators.
How in the wide world | missed |
striking any of them, heaven alone
knows!
II was now flying underneath the !
mist, and could see my way fairly |
well. Upon following the river for
a while | discovered that had !
flown into Ohio and was directly
over the Ohio River, going north
east toward Pennsylvania. l skim
med over Pittsburgh and finally
reached Philadelphia, carefully
skirting the city, so that in case of
an accident or shortage of gas
would not be forced to alight on
the hOusetops.
at was getting on toward 4 o'clock
and the mist began to get thicker
instead of clearing up. | had been
in the air for four hours and had
only gotten as far as Delaware, ow-
ing to the roundabout way in which
| had travelled. The moan of the
wind through the wing wires rose
to a shrek, and seemed to almost